A View from the Potting Shed

Happy New Year fellow gardeners, happy 2023 to you all, let’s look forward optimistically to a good gardening year. It may be cold and gloomy out there at the moment, but the winter garden can be lifted with flowering shrubs like Witch-hazel and Winter jasmine. Shrubs and trees with coloured stems also provide bright spots (see topic), and those early bulbs are pushing through with the promise of spring.

Lots of promise too in the Society’s 2023 Programme, which will be arriving on your doorstep this month with full details of social evenings, coach outings and the 2023 Show on 5th August. Lots of bright spots for us all to look forward to.

WH AT TO DO JOBS FOR JANUARY

3 Warm the soil in your veg patch by covering with clear polythene or cloches four to six weeks before sowing. 3 Weed and maintain borders when soil is dry enough. 3 Provide food and water for our feathered friends. 3 Order seed potatoes.

MEMBERS’ NOTICE BOARD

We hope to see you all at the first social evening of 2023, 7pm at St Luke’s, Walmer Road on Tuesday 31st January, when Richard Oakeley will present The Story of Louvain Organic Nursery. The nursery is set on the edge of the Downs in Peacehaven. Don’t forget the fun competition at the January meeting, bring your snowdops in a vase. Want to attend social evenings but have transport problems? Contact the Society to get your name on the lift list.

TOPI C OF THE MONT H CORNUS (Dogwood)

Dogwoods are a delight in winter, when the vivid stem colour of these adaptable and easy to grow deciduous shrubs brightens the garden; those with colourful foliage are also good for the summer border. Dogwoods require moderately fertile, reliably moist soil, and while tolerant of light shade the best colour is achieved in a sunny, open position. The RHS recently conducted a trial of dogwoods at Hyde Hall. Between 2018 and 2020, 62 entries were judged to find best garden selection with nine cultivars earning Award of Garden Merit (AGM). See RHS The Garden Magazine January 2022. Cornus sanguinea Anny’s Winter Orange AGM, has glowing orange/red stems (see photo), while Cornus sericea Bud’s Yellow AGM, with greenish-yellow stems, had the edge on similar old favourite C. sericea Flaviramea AGM. Recommended dogwoods for summer foliage included C. alba Aurea AGM, with excellent yellow foliage, fine autumn colour and red stems in winter. Another AGM went to compact grower C. sericea White Gold, for its variegated summer foliage and green-yellow winter stems. There are numerous selections to choose from, but you must decide if winter stem colour is your main objective. Plants with variegated leaves are prone to reverting to green if annual coppicing is carried out, but this is necessary to produce the most vivid stem colour on one-year-old wood. However, don’t hard prune in the first year, allow plants to establish.