Amazing Winter Colour & Sprouting Plants

Winter colour is at it’s best in the garden this time of year. Choosing interesting shaped shrubs and trees, or those with colourful stems can all contribute to great Winter colour in your garden. It is now the middle of February and I had a walk around my garden looking at all the plants. It is the time I make notes of plants that need moving, jobs that need doing, changes I want to implement in the garden. I use a Gardening Journal to document all plans and to do lists. I decide if I need to do some re structuring, re building and even what seeds would look good in amongst the other plants. Sadly it can also be a time to worry about those plants and shrubs which have not done well in the cold weather. Walk with me for a snap shot into my Winter garden.

  

Winter Colour Cyclamen coum is fully hardy, and grows from a small bulb flowering in late winter here in the UK.

Plants giving my garden Winter Colour.

• Bright pink cyclamen dotted around my garden give a vivid splash of bright pink Winter colour throughout my garden. They were planted a few years ago as small bulbs and has come up regularly every year despite the freezing weather. The leave is  colourful as well and although a ground cover plant the flowers stand proud. This flower comes in white as well as pale pink and bright pink. There is an Autumn flowering variety as well. These are outdoor cyclamen and not in dooor ones.
• Snowdrops are a seasonal favourite and always one of the first bulbs to flower in the new year. The ones in my garden are Galanthus. I am always very happy to see them pop up as it marks my new garden season has started. The small bell like white flowers are beautiful and against the green of their stems bring Winter colour to the garden.

 

Galanthus, or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae.

 

• Sarcococca Confusa, an evergreen shrub with inconspicuous, very sweetly scented, creamy-white flowers, followed by glossy black berries. A real wonder, it’S small flowers look like little stars but smell like a lovely perfume.

Winter Colour and scent, with  branches of evergreen leaves which gets red buds which burst into clusters of white tubular flowers.

• Winter Jasmine, mine has got a lot of buds but not many open flowers yet. It is a Jasminum nudiflorum, and I have grown it from a cutting about 10 years ago. Winter Jasmine is a tough reliable shrub from China . It has yellow flowers and comes into full flower the end of Winter beginning of Spring. It is a no fuss, easy grow plant which has lovely yellow flowers.

There are many more perennials that give you winter colour, Hellebores, Primroses and Pansies are some of the nice Winter colour plants.

Interesting colourful stems, suitable for cutting, propagating or just popping into a vase.

       

Wonderful Dogwood, these plants grow well in wet damp area and drink up all the excess water, they have clusters of white flowers and wonderful stems.

 

     

When to feed your garden plants.

This is the time to give the garden a good feed so that the Spring plants have a good quality soil to start their growth journey. Rock Dust – is what a lot of garden centers use on the plants they have over wintered.

• Rejuvenates old and tired soil
• Encourages better crops
• Improves nutrient levels

Crushed rock containing the full range of MINERALS & TRACE ELEMENTS, replenishing macronutrients, micronutrients and more than 30 trace elements in your potentially exhausted soil Organic Volcanic Rockdust re-mineralises and re-fertilises the soil itself. Just sprinkle a handful when the ground is not frozen. A 10kg bag will cover 20 square metres.

Feed again in the Latter end of Summer.

Sprouting perennials and bulbs in the Winter garden.

I have had a walk around the garden and spotted a whole lot of plants that are already showing there leaves and stems. The rose bushes are shooting, I just hope we do not have another spell of icy cold weather or a late frost. Take a walk around your garden, look at what is showing signs of coming back to life.

  

  

The shrubs and rose bushes as well as the trees are all showing signs of waking up and starting another year. How Amazing nature is, how inspiring plants are at this time of year. It makes one just want to garden and enjoy the rewards.

     

HAPPY GARDENING!!

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