Naomi Watts beats the January blues with scent and stature
Cornus and sarcococca will lift my plot from the January blues!
As I eye up my new plot, my thoughts are of the verdant lushness that will surely come. Ferns and hostas should thrive in the shadier spots and there are plenty of these – I’ve discovered that in the weeks around the winter solstice, my garden receives no direct sun at all.
The present reality is greyer, however. And any herbaceous frivolity is still some way off. But a garden really shows its mettle in January; building up good bones now will reap dividends in winters to come and provide strength and structure in summer, too.
My containers of clipped box balls and small, soon-to-be-conical yews are parked in prominent positions, awaiting planting out. But plain old evergreens can be boring – and nobody really wants the graveyard look – so I’m busy introducing new levels of interest, colour and scent.
Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ has always served me well, but I’m planting the newer variety ‘Baton Rouge’ (www. thompson-morgan. com), which has a brighter red colour, and I may add an orange dogwood as well – C. sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ is popular but ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’ is said to be better still. While dogwoods are sometimes derided as an obvious choice, this is a little unfair. They’re hardy, relatively compact and will take the shade and rather claggy soil on offer here. Young stems offer the best colour, so I’ll be cutting back pretty hard in spring and feeding liberally for vigorous new growth. Of course, willows will do the same sort of job and are at least as tolerant, but the risk of them getting out of hand in such a small space is not one I’m willing to take!
I also never make a garden without sweet box, sarcococca. In the front I’ve put adaptable S. confusa, and to the back, by the deck, S. hookeriana, which likes partial or deep shade and has pleasing, plummy stems. Both have evergreen leaves and tiny but perfumed flowers, so, whichever door I leave by, I’ll catch an uplifting whiff of scent!