A Winter Garden, or How to Plan and Plant Winter Blooming Shrubs to Lighten Up a Drab Winter Landscape

A Montana Winter – No hope for flowers in this landscape!

           I  have not got around to actually planting my winter garden, but have been tossing the idea around in my mind.  I was unsure of what to plant and how, but the following suggestions are taken from the pages of a book published in England in the 1930’s titled “Down the Garden Path” by Beverley Nichols.  It is extremely hard to find (An inter-library loan will sometimes bring it forth), but his writing style alone is well worth the hunt.  The winter garden, according to Beverley, is planted for flowers, “real flowers” that bloom in the depths of winter; and, as best as I have been able to put together, their modern counterparts that are available today in US nurseries. Some of these I have planted like the gorgeous camelias and the snowdrops, and there are so many more I want to try.

          Although I believe I truly love trees best in winter, when their unique forms, attitude, and flowing motion of their branches are breathtaking silhouetted against the dusty rose, muted lavenders and pinkish beige of a frozen winter sunset, there are flowering shrubs and bulbs which can be planted to form the perfect footnote to the stark skeletal outlines of the trees in winter.     

          Beverley had picked some of the lesser known for his winter garden, gauging them for desirability by how easy they are to grow in hard, unforgiving soils, and in the bitterest of winters, and in case you can’t find his book, I will pass his suggestions on to you.  Most anything that you can grow in England, will thrive here in  the Pacific northwestern maritime coastal gardens.

         Winter aconite or Eranthis (brilliant yellow), will push its way through snow and ice to form a counterpane of gold against the frozen snow, and will bloom weeks before crocus.   Slow to become established, seeds very freely and quickly spreads.  Use with crocus, Scilla (Bluebell or Squill) mostly Blue, and some rarer pink or white, or Chionodoxa (Glory of the Snow.  All of these will bring beautiful blues and whites to the winter landscape.  

             Wintersweet (Chimonanthus fragrans), is a creamy yellow flower, striped in red.  Plant against a warm wall or sheltered fence, and it will produce long sprays of pretty highly fragrant flowers, and can be forced for indoor flowers in midwinter.  Common jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum), when brought inside at the budding stage and placed in water, left in a dark place for a week, will burst forth into magnificent blossom and last for weeks. Witchazel (Hamamelis mollis) not only is pretty bare nekid, but come early February, it’s twigs will burst forth to be covered with golden stars.   

            Heaths (Erica carnea) and heathers (Calluna) with flowers ranging from show white to deep crimson, can display blooms throughout every season of the year;  will provide pinks buds in December, and by Christmas will turn a deep rose. Winter heliotrope (Petasites fragrans) has a gorgeous fragrance, and cut and taken indoors will scent a whole room. Iris Stylosa is a 9″ high, sky-blue flower with gold patches on the lower petals, but you must be patient, it can take three years to flower, it is touchy, you may lose a few, and you have to remember they like gravelly coarse soil.  Iris reticulata, “Harmony” 6″ tall intense purple blue flowers blooming in early Spring.  Crocus imperati, which comes up in January and February (much earlier than the normal March variety) and may prove hard to find, is more expensive, but is well worth searching for. 

           The shrub Daphne mesereum is a pinkish purple and to be successful, it’s roots must be in shaded well drained soil, it’s head must be in the sun, or it WILL NEVER FLOWER.   They come out in the middle of January, and are in full flower by February and smell as sweet as Freesias. For pure scent alone, one should put in honeysuckle, but not your everday varieties, but Lonicera fragrantissimia, a winter honeysuckle whose smaller flowers can be spotted as early as January, and will scent a room for a couple of weeks if brought inside when in bud.  Corylopsis spicata is a bush covered with yellow bouquets, which likes sand around its roots.  Sternbergia lutea blooms from the end of October until Christmas, and is commonly called the winter daffodil, but in reality looks like a brilliant crocus and hates to be dripped on.   

           Many saxifrages produce blooms in the dark days of winter, Saxifraga ciliata is like a white cowslip.  Forsythia Intermedia, will bloom in February.  Christmas rose (grown in deep shade to make it taller),the Hellebores Niger (Christmas Rose – white) in zones 8-9 blooms in late December.  Lenten Rose, H orientalis, in cerisee, maroon, pale pink and green, almost like water lilies in form. All these can bloom for up to eight weeks.    Crocuses, snowdrops and primroses.  Helleborus x sternii “Boughton Beauty.”  Beautifuls shades of pink, cream and green on maroon stems.  The snowdrops, the finest being the Galanthus elwesii, (Giant snowdrop) the largest of the snowdrops, nearly a foot tall and does well mixed with the smaller versions, such as nivalis or the common snowdrop.  It’s more expensive but infinitely more outstanding, as its snow white bells pierce the frozen ground six weeks before any other variety. These must be planted six inches deep to be a success. 

           Don’t forget the Camelias, there are hundreds of varieties and each one with a different schedule and rules for growing but their absolutely gorgeous flowers can’t be beat for splendor and color.  I have several varieties and they are easy to grow and are a stunningi addition to any garden.

 Pink camelias in the rain .

Check out How to Force shrubs to bloom indoors here:  http://gomestic.com/gardening/forcing-spring-flowering-shrubs-how-to-bring-color-and-life-into-your-house-in-the-dead-of-winter/

             So, if you are lacking color in your winter garden, get busy and plan to add new light and color to a drab landscape by searching out a few of these flowering shrubs that graced the garden of a wonderful British garden writer in the early years of the 20th Century. 

 Snowdrops on a Winter Day