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Get set for Christmas planting
Britain’s currently in the midst of the hottest weather it’s had all summer, so mentioning Christmas might bring horror to your ears. However, as honeysuckles scramble upwards, lavender bustles with bees and heleniums throw up bud after bud to the brazen sun, us gardeners need to start thinking about the looming seasons and what’s to come. Gardening, after all, is all about forethought and planning what delicate foliage, flowers and berries will catch our eyes as the month’s progress.
At this time of year, whilst taking every care to keep plants watered and deadheaded, it’s time to consider making your winter garden as colourful as possible. There are many ideal plants for the colder times of year, and I like to utilise pots to make the best show. My garden is largely herbaceous, so come the winter months my plants have, for the most part, receded underground to protect themselves until warmer climes arrive again. Planting into the border on top of existing perennials isn’t always the best idea, so I like to utilise a variety of planters and containers around the garden, drawing the eye from one spot of colour to the next.
Topiary is great in gardens all year round, but I really feel that it comes into its own during the winter, especially on those frosty and misty mornings when tendrils of ice cling to spheres, cones or decadently created topiary peacocks. Whilst everything around them is dull, dead or hidden underground, topiary can shine during the winter, bringing a much needed vitality to the garden. Rattan or wooden planters (as shown to the left) are great for keeping topiary, and it means that you can move these living sculptures around the garden throughout the year, ensuring that they’re in the best place to catch your glance. This is particularly important during the winter months when strategically placed pots and containers will draw the eye from one burst of colour to the next.
Though you can have topiary planted on its own, I like to under-plant with a swath of winter flowering pansies to add a clash of colour. Even when wilted on freezing mornings, these plants show their true hardiness as the day progresses and the sun comes up, shedding the ice crystals and bursting into colourful life to add a little flair to any wintery spot. You can buy plug plants now and start growing them on, but it’s not too late to grow your winter flowering stock from seed, ensuring that you have great mounds of colour throughout the drabbest months of the year.
If you’ve had windowsill overflowing with geraniums or lavender this summer (right), then you should also start to think about upcoming planting schemes for winter. Vine weevils have plagued me inEast London, and attempting to grow cyclamen in flowerbeds only serves to feed these pests even more. However, fresh compost and a planter do wonders for keeping these plants thriving. I like to interplant miniature cyclamen with heucheras to provide a welcome mix of hues. Heucheras are one of the my favourite plants for foliage, and they come in a great range of colours, so whether you’re planting out cyclamen of blood red, snowy white or soft pink, there’s always an ideal heuchera to set it off against.
With the summer sun still high, it can be a bit depressing to already be thinking of winter and what’s to come. But, by taking advantage of the warmer season to grow some winter plants and prepare some seasonal planters, you’ll be able to bring some cheering colour to the crisp white days ahead. Garden Trading has a fantastic variety of planters on offer, with something for everyone’s price range, so there’s no need for your winter garden to look drab and dreary this year.
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