Great Plants for Winter Gardens
The days are beginning to slowly get longer and we can already see our
gardens starting to come to life with numerous plants now making a spectacular
show.
The photo is of a floral arrangement that my wife Val has created from
plants that are in flower or looking great in our garden at the moment.
CHIMONANTHUS PRAECOX
Commonly called winter sweet. Back 20 years ago this was one of
those plants that every keen gardener found the room for in their garden.
They have the most beautiful fragrance that you could wish for and they
flower at a time of the year when not much else is happening in the garden.
They are tough and get to about 2.5metres. They do respond well to summer
trimming and can be kept at whatever height you like. You can even use
them as a winter flowering hedge at the back of a border. The Winter Sweet has
pale yellow flowers on mass in July/August over a semi deciduous bush.
DAPHNE
Yes, the ever popular sweetly fragrant daphne family is another must for
any gardener wanting to add some beautiful fragrance to their garden. There are
quite a few varieties in this family of plants, pink-D.ODORA LEUCANTHE and the
pure white-D.ODORA ALBA are the most popular. Daphnes like acid loving soils so
make sure you feed with a slow release acid fertiliser every September and
March to keep them in top condition. Daphnes are unfortunately susceptible to
viruses which, over a period of time, can cause your daphne plant to lose
vigour and health. It is not something you can do much about. The fact is
that every 8-10 years you will need to replace your old plant with a new high
health plant. Daphnes like a little shade in the hot afternoon if possible and
good drainage. I have planted some in our garden as a low growing winter
flowering hedge and at the moment they are a real delight to walk past.
The perfume hits you well before you get near the plants.
HELLOBORES
The winter rose - these perennials are so easy to grow and so
dependable. They provide a great array of colours in the depths of
winter. Winter roses do very well under deciduous trees, or even at the
front of the perennial border. Over the summer months they sort of go into a
state of semi dormancy but as soon as the weather starts to get cooler in
autumn they want to come into life. I advise my landscape clients at the
end of February to cut off all the old foliage and feed with a slow release
fertilizer which causes the plants to quickly produce a new set of healthy
clean foliage. Plant breeders around the world are now coming up with some
truly amazing new hybrids in the hellebore family of plants, and this will I am
sure keep a keen interest in these plants in the coming years. Hellebore
flowers are very good for floral arrangements and last a good amount of time in
water.
LEUCADENDRONS
We can see them coming into flower in Waikato gardens at the moment.
They are easy to grow if you follow a few set rules.
- They must have very good drainage -
all leucadendrons detest wet feet and very quickly will get attacked by phytophora
(a soil borne fungous). If this happens then it is certain death to the
plant. You can open the soil up by mixing some pumice, pea metal, organic
compost, etc. - Feed with a slow release fertilizer
which has low phosphate. They do not like your general garden fertilizer
because the nutrient level is not right for them. - They need a site with good air
movement - Each year after the flowers have
finished looking at their best give the plant a reasonable prune taking off
about 25% of its existing foliage. This will cause it to resprout with some new
foliage and keep the plant nice and compact. They are shallow rooting and even
though they don't mind the wind we don't want to put unnecessary strain on the
root system by having a huge amount of top growth. - Protect them from frosts - they
don't like extremely heavy frosts so protect them with a bit of frostcloth if
the weather turns extremely cold.
We have some leucandendrons in our garden at the moment and each plant
has about 150 flowers - a truly great site at this time of year.
ASPIDISTRA SHOOTING STARS
Cast iron plant - if you are into floral art then this is a plant you
should definitely have in your garden. SHOOTING STARS is relatively new to the
market but like others in the aspidistra family it is extremely tough to
drought, low light and the leaves will last a very long time in a floral
arrangement. We have this plant growing very successfully outside in our garden
under a lot of other foliage, and it looks fantastic with its white spotted
markings on dark green foliage. Also a great plant for patios/indoor
plant-especially if you are forgetful about watering, this plant is very
forgiving and won't turn up its toes if you forget about it for a while. A good
plant if you want to just add foliage to the garden without the drama of
flowers.
Happy Gardening
Graeme
