Our resident gardening expert Angie Barker, provides us with some more gardening hints, tips and seasonal selections.
Have a very merry Christmas! There aren’t many jobs to be done around the garden at this time of year and let‘s face it we have enough to worry about in the lead up to Christmas - like what do I buy for the man who has everything! You can still plant trees and shrubs if you wish as long as the ground is not too wet and not frozen. In fact there are some shrubs which come into their own at this time of year and here are some of my favourites: • Garrya elliptica - a large evergreen shrub with unusual looking silver grey catkins. When I say large I’m talking 4 metres (or around 12 feet in old money) • Elaeagnus x ebbingei ‘Gilt Edge’ - a medium sized shrub which will brighten up any winter garden with its evergreen leaves margined with bright yellow • Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Beauty’ - a Dogwood which produces bright red stems with the added bonus of autumn colour And don’t think you can’t have scent in your garden at this time of year. There are two shrubs which have evergreen leaves and which produce highly fragranced flowers in late winter. Sarcococca confusa grows to about 1.5 metres and has white flowers and Daphne odora ‘Aureo-marginata’ (sorry it’s a bit of
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a mouthful!) has pink flowers. The former likes shade with the latter preferring sun and a little bit of winter protection - a covering of fleece should be fine. Finally no winter garden should be without Bergenias (Elephants Ears) with ‘Bressingham Ruby’ providing glowing red winter foliage with dark pink spring flowers to follow. As usual Hubby and myself will be in our garden on Christmas Eve, glass of mulled wine in hand (along with the thermos flask for a top up!) The fairy lights in the trees will sparkle and we’ll look at the stars trying to spot Father Christmas‘ sleigh and reindeer. If you’ve been reading my articles for a while, you’ll know I’m an incurable romantic with a very sentimental feeling about Christmas - and I truly hope all of you have a wonderful time and that all your Christmas dreams come true.
Author: Angie Barker Dip GD (Inst GD) BA (Hons) Garden Design For All Seasons Tel: 01942 522 405 Mob: 07857 008 383 www.angiebarker.co.uk
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