Gardening Mary Payne MBE

Colour in the winter garden

SOONChristmas will have come and gone, the lights and decorations will be down and we will have two months of short gloomy days to look out at our gardens before spring’s abundance. For this reason, it is important to furnish our gardens to look good all through these months, with a variety of plants that come into their own in winter. Apart from giving us pleasure, a supply of nectar from plants in flower will please any bees or insects brave enough to face the weather.

Many of our winter flowering plants have the added attraction of a strong fragrance, to attract the pollinating insects. Position scented winter bloomers near the house, or a path, where the fragrance can be enjoyed by humans too.

Every garden should have at least one Christmas Box (Sarcococca confusa), which is studded with powerfully scented minimalist white flowers from December onwards . This small leaved evergreen shrub is ideal for a shady place. Cut a small piece to scent an entire room.

The sweet scent of the aptly named Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) can be appreciated best by cutting and bringing indoors, but too much can be overpowering. Unfortunately, it is a large deciduous shrub that needs patience to settle and flower well in a sunny position.

Trained against a warm wall it can play host to a clematis for the summer months, as it has little to offer except its winter scent. Probably my favourite for scent is the upright Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’. Growing to two metres, even in a lightly shaded site, it will be covered in clusters of intensely fragrant pink flowers for weeks.

Christmas Roses (hellebores) have become something of a garden “must have” and many new forms have come into retail centres. However, the basic Helleborus hybridus planted in groups can be just as effective. Try hard not to be seduced by the dark flowered forms, as they do not show up against dark earth when in flower.

Make sure you have cut off the old foliage in November or December, before the new flower stems emerge to prevent disease contamination. These plants are ideal for areas of your garden with dry shade, perhaps beneath deciduous trees, where little else will grow. Cut some flowers and float them in a bowl of water to enjoy them at close quarters.

A group of coloured dogwood stems always look good, contrasting with the overwintering seed heads of taller ornamental grasses, such as Miscanthus. Cornusalba ‘Westonbirt’ has the brightest red stems but can be hard to find; however ‘Baton Rouge’ is nearly as good.

The best colour comes on the new stems so regular hard pruning once established and feeding in the spring will give the best results. Contrast the red against the yellow/green stems of Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’ or ‘White Gold’. The latter has an interesting, variegated leaf for added summer value.

Not easy to find, but with even more to offer, is Cornus sericea ‘Cardinal’, striking salmon red stems follow on from good autumnal tinted foliage and, above all, it is “good doer”. Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’, a selection of our native hedgerow dogwood, is perhaps the best known and most readily available, but will eventually start to spread by suckering.

Be sure to position your coloured stems such that the sun is on them when viewed from your house. If the sun is behind them the colours will not show up. You may notice that the colours intensify as winter progresses.

Overwintering seed heads are another attraction, especially if we get a hoar frost, but also to attract birds, so don’t be tempted to “clear fell” everything in the autumn. My favourite is Phlomis russelliana.

Evergreen basal leaves form an excellent weed resisting ground cover. In summer, strong stems support whorls of yellow flowers. As the flowers fade the clusters of seed heads fade to brown, standing all winter, contrasting well with coloured

With MARY PAYNE MBE stems or grasses. If you aim to have one third of the plants in your garden as ever-greens, ever-greys, ever-variegated or even ever-blues, then you can be assured of plenty of winter value. Holly is an obvious choice at this time of year and the best of the yellow variegated forms is ‘Golden King’, which is actually a female, bearing excellent berries, as does the white variegated ‘Handsworth New Silver’. Both will require pollinating, so I suggest ‘J.C. van Thol’ a hermaphrodite plain green form with very few prickles. Evergreen euonymus can be used in so many ways. Clip into a low hedge, use as ground cover (ideal for shade) or given the chance they will self-cling to any vertical surface. The golden variegated E. fortunei ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’ or white / green leaved ‘Emerald Gaeity’ can both be relied on. There is a limited selection of winter flowering climbers. Almost too well known to mention is the scrambling winter jasmine. Sadly, it’s not scented like its summer flowering relatives. The yellow flowers appear on the previous season’s stems, so prune these hard back in the spring to prevent it becoming a tangled mess. The golden leaved form J. nudiflorum ‘Aureum’ offers yellow foliage all summer and typical yellow flowers through winter. Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ flowers all winter, but you need to be close to appreciate the creamy, specked red flowers. If you can keep the snails at bay the Algerian iris (Iris unguicularis) will reward you with a succession of flowers all winter, provided you planted it in its preferred site at the base of a sunny wall. Cutting the old leaves off in the autumn helps to reduce hiding places for snails, and also shows off the flowers well. The snowdrops will soon be up and “hey presto” it will soon be spring again.

Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill'

JANUARY GARDEN TIPS

• Apply a general fertiliser to all borders. • Gather up and burn diseased leaves from under roses and fruit. Applying a generous mulch helps to suppress the disease infection too. • Check tree ties and stakes. Adjust those that are too tight and tighten those that are not! • Plant when the weather is mild and when the soil is not wet, sticky or frozen hard. Improve the planting area with wellrotted compost or manure. • Protect from deer and rabbits where damage is likely. Keep plants weed free and mulch well. • Root hardwood cuttings this month. Always choose healthy shoots as cuttings. Easy ones to root include Forsythia, Escallonia, Ribes, Cornus and Salix. • Inspect leylandii hedges closely for aphids. This is a newish pest and leads to dead patches if not controlled with a pesticide now. • Buy pots of snowdrops that are now coming into flower. They establish much easier when transplanted in active growth. Winter aconites too. • Established bulb shoots will be showing above ground now and are very tough so will not need protecting. Daffodils in thin-walled pots outside will suffer if the pot is not protected from wind driven frosts so move them to more shelter.

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Star gazers

YEARsix students at Ubley Primary School welcomed local photographer, Josh Dury, into class. They have been learning about space in their science lessons.

Josh, a local photographer, specialises in photos of the night sky. He shared a selection of photographs with the children and talked about how his hobbies had enabled him to travel the world.

Following his visit, the class have been inspired to keep their own moon diaries and have been spotting planets in the night sky.

Details: https://www.joshduryphoto-media.com/ office@ubley.school

Culture of high expectations

ST VIGORand St John Church School in Chilcompton, near Radstock, is celebrating a glowing Ofsted report which rated the school as good overall with outstanding features.

Pupils were said to be proud to attend a school where “leaders have created a culture of high expectation, respect and tolerance”.

Early years education at the school, which also has an on-site nursery, The Mill, run by school leaders, was judged to be outstanding, as was behaviour and attitudes while the school was rated good for quality of education, leadership and pupils’ personal development.

The two inspectors who visited the 212-pupil school, part of the Bath and Wells Multi Academy Trust, in October said the children contributed keenly to school life, charity and their community, took active leadership roles and were confident and eager to share their learning with visitors.

Ofsted said: “Leaders have high ambitions for all their pupils. Staff say they are ‘believed in’ and this gives them confidence the school will continue to improve.”

The inspectors also highlighted the forest school days, where children learn resilience and how to take risks, and pupils’ work in tending the school garden and feeding the chickens, as well as the school’s support for the local foodbank.

Headteacher Chris Chorley said: “We are delighted with this report, which really captures the community spirit and passion for learning that is central to our school.

“The family atmosphere helps all children feel safe and creates a strong climate for learning. We are determined to continue developing our excellent provision so that all our learners can fulfil their potential.”

BWMAT CEO Nikki Edwards said: “This is a wonderful report about a wonderful school where qualities such as high aspirations and respect are to the forefront in equal measure. Chris and his team work so hard and this mix of Good and Outstanding in the inspection report is a testament to all the staff team’s efforts.”

Chris Chorley, headteacher, Leah Sheppard, deputy head and Sophie Dent, nursery manager, celebrate with pupils