Martin Fish picks his favourite shiny stems to use in displays
Make a long-lasting, stunning display with dogwood and hazel
The garden in winter is a very different place to the summer, but that isn’t to say it can’t be enjoyed and still contain a selection of interesting plants. I try to grow as wide a range as possible in mine so that regardless of the time of year, there’ll always be some colour and interest to tempt me down into the patch!
From January onwards trees and shrubs grown for their colourful and twisted bark come into their own and add shape and structure to the borders. One of my favourites is dogwood, which sadly is often underrated by some gardeners and described as boring because it’s planted on roundabouts and in supermarket car parks. But, when grown and pruned properly, dogwoods are brilliant shrubs. When planted in groups they make a stunning display all through the winter with their colourful stems and I wouldn’t be without them in my garden. I grow cornus ‘Sibirica’ which has bright red stems, ‘Elegantissima’, also with red stems and attractive variegated foliage in summer, ‘Flaviramea’ with bright yellowgreen stems, and ‘Winter Beauty’, which has red, orange and yellow stems.
Those shrubs with twisted stems are also interesting and two popular ones are the corkscrew hazel, Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’ and the twisted willow, which has the very long name of Salix babylonica pekinensis ‘Tortuosa’.
Many of these shrubs are firm favourites with flower arrangers and they often use them with foliage and flowers to create stunning displays. Even without flowers a selection of different coloured and shaped stems looks really interesting and is perfect to decorate a porch, a cold conservatory or even outside by a doorway. Cut now and stood in water, the stems will stay fresh until spring and if you’re lucky, some of them may root in the water to form new plants for you.