Add colour, structure and scent with Midwinter stars

The weather may not be inviting but your garden can still give you a warm glow if you furnish it with plants that perform during the colder months, says Anne Swithinbank

- Anne Swithinbank

LEAVES have fallen; hats and gloves have been tugged on – winter is here, bringing with it the challenges of celebrating and enjoying the chilly landscape. Writers love words and the best for this season is ‘brumal’, from the Latin brumalis. Dating from the early 1500s, it means ‘belonging to winter’; and at this time of year brumal plants are what’s needed to deliver splashes of colour from flower, leaf and stem.

Wintry blooms can take non-gardening folk by surprise. I’m often asked to explain why a cherry is flowering three months early, only to find that it’s actually the winter cherry Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’. Similarly, daffodils in December are viewed with suspicion, seen as symptoms of global warming, yet they usually turn out to be nothing more alarming than ‘Rijnveldt’s Early Sensation’.

My advice for the winter garden is this: refuse to accept an outlook of greens and browns; there are plenty of plants to colour our winter plots.

Winter wonders

For inspiration, consider visiting gardens famous for winter plantings – just be sure to observe current government restrictions, check for opening times and be prepared to book tickets first. Cambridge University Botanic Garden, the winter garden at RHS Rosemoor in Devon, Dunham Massey in Cheshire, the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Hampshire, and Cambo near St Andrews in Fife will not disappoint. And if you can’t visit in person, look for pictures instead.

To site midwinter stars, work out how you view the garden and place prime performers so they’re framed by windows in the house. Use trees with pleasing bark colours and textures, flowering viburnums, witch hazels or daphnes – either as solo focal points or to inspire groupings of compatible hues and shapes.