Toughing out the winter
I’m always rather sorry to let the winter go – there are so many things to like about it. It has to be said though, that there have been fewer flowers to enjoy than we are used to, in this harsher than average winter. The reason for this is simple enough. Most of the flowers we rely upon to cheer us through the winter months open during mild periods – and those mild periods just haven’t happened! Witch Hazels have been honourable exceptions, shining out like beacons in the darkness. The little glossy-leaved evergreen, Sarcococca confusa, has been pumping out its unmistakable sweet scent regardless; this modest, undemanding shrub, coping with the sort of dry shade few plants will survive in, is truly one “no garden should be without”. The tiny Cyclamen coum, which you would never believe to be so hardy, have carried on undaunted and undamaged even by hard frosts. Snowdrops too, though they have mostly ventured forth at least a week or two later than usual, have been almost flattened by night frosts, but have stood up proud and pristine by the middle of the day.
I have been much impressed by some new Christmas Rose hybrids, which have been completely without protection and have looked fantastic for months. ‘Candy Love’ is a hybrid between the Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger, and H.x sternii, which gives it handsome foliage, reddish-bronze stems and smoky-pink buds which open white, fading to a deep coppery-pink. (I imagine, though I have not experimented with this, that they would last well in water when cut at this stage.) ‘Snow Love’, though a hybrid between the same parents, is quite different, with flowers opening from pink-veined buds to a lovely fresh greenish-cream, with green centres. These will both make big clumps, flowering with great freedom over an exceptionally long period. They will also prove easier to grow than the true Christmas Rose, (which can be tricky), thriving in humus-rich, well-drained soil, in sun or light shade, with shelter from cold winds.
Meanwhile, some of my all time favourite shrubs, more reticent than usual in response to lower than average temperatures, have at last decided to brave the elements. I have often known Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ to be filling the air with its heavenly scent in the middle of a mild January. Not this year!- but it has been doing it now for a couple of weeks or so, and will carry on well into the spring. There is nothing else quite like it. The winter-flowering shrubby honeysuckles, Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ and L.fragrantissima, have joined the chorus too, with their sweetly scented, dainty cream flowers, always a delight to pick and bring into the house.
