Winter wonderland

Landscape designer Franchesca Watson shares her hot, colourful picks for the cooler months

Generally our gardens take a bit of a dive in winter unless it consists mostly of evergreen hedges. Fynbos gardens in the Western Cape are the exception to this – they start to look good when the winter rains begin and show off from mid-winter through to late spring. over the years I have found some stalwart plants that either flower or provide leaf colour during the cold months and that will thrive in most south african garden conditions.

INDIGENOUS IDEAS

My favourite buddleja, Buddleja

auriculata, is a true winter flowerer, generously throwing out many creamy trusses of honey-scented blooms that the bees cherish. It’s also one of the neater, easier buddlejas. Kniphofia rooperi or red-hot poker will make a striking display and is best planted en masse and paired with grasses or sedges. Bulbs such as chasmanthe and winter-flowering watsonias are also great as contrasts that come and go in your grasses or strappy plantings. Proteas and leucadendrons often flower in winter or early spring – try Protea neriifolia and yellow-leafed

Leucadendron laureolum. White arums are a glamorous winter special and white confetti bush or Coleonema album has a lovely fine texture in the garden and makes a great medium-sized hedge if you train it with regular trimming. restios look very good in winter as long as there’s a bit of water and, of course, our national flower, Strelitzia reginae, usually starts its long flowering in winter. Many aloes also flower in the winter months. My favourites are Aloidendron barberae or the tree aloe, formerly known as Aloe

barberae, Aloe maculata, Aloe striata and Aloe arborescens.

COLOURED LEAVES

Variegation and coloured leaves are back in a big way. Try Coprosma ‘Pacific sunrise’ and all its relations. I’m using a lot of phormiums at the moment, favouring bright ones like ‘Yellow Wave’ and ‘Pink stripe’. don’t just dot them around, however. They should be planted in swathes for a big garden, or used as a repeating focal point in smaller ones. They’re great in large pots too, with something tumbly around them. Yellow abelias planted in the shade will turn a wondrous lime green, and Carex ‘evergold’ is one of my standards. I love its colour, and it’s very undemanding apart from needing adequate water.

I’m also using a lot of Sedum rupestre ‘angelina’ and Sedum rupestre ‘Blue spruce’. The sedums have great texture – something between a succulent and a moss. There are wonderful succulents that can be used as colourful ground covers, for instance Sedum nussbaumerianum.

OLD FAVOURITES

early magnolias, camellias and earlyflowering azaleas are the trailblazers and can form the backbone of your winter plantings if you have enough water and a decent drop in temperature. some roses seem to always have blooms if the frost doesn’t defoliate them. My favourites for this are the Crépuscule climber and the wondrous Rosa chinensis ‘Mutabilis’, which I adore for its informality. a useful old plant that is making a big comeback is Chaenomeles speciosa or flowering quince, a deciduous shrub that adds an amazing splash of bloom in very early spring before flushing with new leaves. another favourite of mine for incredible, very early spring bloom is Viburnum opulus or guelder rose.

I love cutting the blooms while they are still lime green before they turn white. Try planting them in front of dark evergreen shrubs such as Viburnum tinus for a great leaf contrast, too.

Franchesca Watson % 082 808 1287 n 8 franchescawatson.com