Grasses in winter
Deciduous grasses – the ones which turn parchment-coloured but remain standing – are a significant feature of many gardens in winter. The pampas grasses have been around the longest and still tend to be the most dominant, by virtue of their size alone. Even when they have lost their initial creamy-whiteness, as long as their plumes remain upright they continue to add interest to the scene. The beginning of this winter though, was too much for all but a few of them, leaving them, as soon as the snow and ice retreated, a pile of broken stems, which is exactly as they have remained ever since in gardens all over the country. I find myself longing to say, please everyone, it won’t take a minute to clear away! – the more onerous task of dealing with the leaves can be left until spring.
Molinias, Miscanthus and Panicums are all beautiful in winter, especially when rimed with frost or back lit by the winter sun. Molinias look lovely up to the end of December, when they promptly collapse, as if at a signal. Nothing could be easier than tidying them away. The Miscanthus, elegant and upright, and Panicums, graceful and fountain-like, carry on looking wonderful for much longer. They were not in the least affected by the severity of the early part of the winter, even the flowers of the Miscanthus remaining in tact, though gossamer fine by now. It would seem a pity, in a spirit of tidiness, to cut these down quite yet. This is a job though, which must be done by the end of March, to avoid the new shoots growing up among last year’s old stems.
This may be a trick being played upon us by the weather – never trust our climate! – but the feeling in the air is that there is not going to be a repeat of the drama and extremes of December. We have at least got through January, which was moderate throughout – pretty much what we have been used to in recent years. 
“Beautiful fruit” is the literal translation of Callicarpa (from the Greek kalli-beautiful and karpos, fruit). The common name “Beauty Berry” is sometimes used for this distinctive, medium-sized shrub, which comes into its own in the autumn, with the combination of soft pink and yellow autumn colour and clusters of purple berries, a unique colour among shrubs hardy in the British Isles.
Narcissus cyclamineus is a small, exquisite species, native to North West Spain and Portugal. It is slow to increase and therefore scarce, expensive and rarely seen outside specialist collections. It is however, the parent of many popular varieties, to which it has given its most distinctive and endearing feature, swept back petals, like those of a Cyclamen. 
Every so often, a plant joins my category of “top plants”. This summer it has been the turn of Agapanthus ‘Midnight Star’. 
There are so many different shades of pink. At one extreme there are the subtle, delicate, pale pinks, which blend perfectly into pastel schemes, with soft blues, mauves and silver; at the other are the vibrant, bright, assertive pinks, which create dashing and explosive contrasts with orange, scarlet, purple and golden yellow flowers in “hot” borders. 
I occasionally find myself stopped in my tracks by a plant which I thought I had known for years, but suddenly see in a new light, as if for the first time. This happened to me the other day when I spotted a bryony (a rather uncommon handsome but rampageous native plant) scrambling over a shrub in one of our borders. As I disentangled the bryony, I realised that the shrub I was liberating from its embrace, normally a dull green, had transformed itself into a solid mound of gorgeous, glossy, chocolate-purple. This was Pieris Katsura in full, sumptuous new growth. I have seen this over many Springs, but had somehow failed to register how wonderful it is. It must have been the bryony that did it! 
I didn’t make it to Chelsea this year, but was pleased to hear that one of the stars of the Telegraph’s Best in Show award winning garden was one of my top perennials, Salvia ‘Caradonna’. This plant was a hit with us at Bridgemere as soon as it appeared a few years ago. What sets it apart from the many blue perennial Salvias available nowadays is its almost black, slender, upright stems, clad with deep green leaves, bearing dark purple flowers for weeks on end. The effect is stylish, elegant and classy. 
Bleeding Heart, Dicentra spectabilis, with its brilliant rosy-pink, heart-shaped flowers and handsome foliage is one of the sensations of the spring garden, and one of the best loved of all perennials. It is equalled in beauty by the white-flowered form, ‘Alba’, once a rare plant, now readily available. They are, however, very much spring flowering plants, retiring into the background when the summer comes. Happily, there are smaller Dicentra’s, especially the newer varieties among them, which continue right through the summer. Their flowers, in scale with the size of the plant, are smaller and daintier than those of the true Bleeding Heart, held over neat mounds of lacy, blue-green foliage. ‘King of Hearts’, with rose-pink lockets, the first of this series to appear, has proved to be a top class plant, recognised as such by the Royal Horticultural Society who have bestowed the coveted Award of Garden Merit on it. 
We first had Sinocalycanthus Hartlage Wine at Bridgemere three years ago, when it was very new (and very expensive!). It was an obviously different and exciting plant, with those gorgeous, spherical maroon buds opening to subtle dusky pink flowers, with water lily-like centres of petals tipped white. The leaves too are good – large, glossy and healthy. We potted a plant up to make a display plant for the Tatton Park Show where it caused a sensation. Though its main flowering period is late spring to early summer, it always seems to produce a second “flush” in the middle of July – perfect timing for Tatton!
