All-yeAr-round foliAge
I appreciate evergreen foliage through these winter days, in shrubs and trees such as box, skimmia, myrtle, arbutus, and not forgetting rosemary, with fitful flowers through the winter months. These plants are not only useful for providing form, but as foils for the precious plants that are in flower during the colder months. I will leave out the obvious acid-loving evergreens, such as rhododendrons and pieris, as I garden on neutral to alkaline soil. I do have a few lollipopped camellias in pots. In a warm winter, the red-splashed white C. japonica ‘Donckelarii’ will start to flower at the end of the month. However, there are many evergreen understorey plants which contribute to the winter garden. Grasses such as carex provide strong shapes. I have allowed some variegation into this palette, with ‘Everlime’, gold-ribbed ‘Evergold’ and white-bordered ‘Ice Dance’. Then there are the ferns, such as hart’s tongue, Dryopteris erythrosora and Polypodium vulgare. Grass-like Liriope muscari, an Asian woodlander, has the added value of autumn flowers. A particularly nice form planted in the wood bed is ‘Superba’, which has strong purple flower heads. ‘Monroe White’ has finer white flowers. There are variegated selections, such as white-striped Liriope spicata ‘Gin-ryu’. Astelia chathamica, a New Zealander, has bold, lightly corrugated silvered blades. It grows in a dry, shady bed. In milder winters, it romps through: last winter, it was somewhat reduced. Disporopsis is a subtle woodlander. I have a few running clumps of different species, labels now gone. A couple are prone to a bit of mollusc nibbling. Ideally, they require a loose, leaf-mouldy soil. Small, white bell flowers appear in late spring and early summer, hanging under the stems like mini versions of its relative, Solomon’s seal.