Yesterday we looked at what is looking good right now in our tiny front garden, where we found Hellebore, Ornamental Cabbage, Heather, Cyclamen and Red Robin. Today we shall look at what is looking good in the back garden this January.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
The first thing is a new addition to the garden, which I bought as a birthday present in December for my partner. This pink flowered Camelia came from the garden centre with flower buds already on the plant and looks great even though the flowers have not yet opened. The plant is still in the pot in which it came when bought it and we plan to pot it on into something a bit nicer soon. I do not know too much about Camelia and it could be that the plant has been forced into starting to flower a little early by the cultivators, by being kept somewhere warm as I noticed a few of the flower buds dropped off when we had some harsh cold weather recently. It will be interesting to see when it produces its flowers next year.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
The next plant is a bit of a surprise to us and it is our Olive Tree. For It's first winter last year we decided to bring the tree inside the house to protect it from the elements as we assumed it would not withstand the British winter. This turned out to be a mistake as the dramatic temperature changes in the house as the central heating came on and off, along with reduced light caused it to drop all of it's leaves and we assumed we had killed it. We put it back outside in the beginning of March last year and it slowly but surely sprang back to life. This winter, after seeing how tough this plant actually was, we decided to leave it outside, but we protected the pot and roots by wrapping it in bubble wrap to keep out the worst of the cold and keep the roots relatively dry. We also moved it into a corner next to the house where it is more protected and a little warmer. The Olive seems to have enjoyed it much more outside and is looking great and hopefully it will grow strongly this year and maybe even produce fruit.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
Grasses, depending on the type, can look great all winter. Even though this deciduous grass has dried out and will need to be cut back to make space for new growth later in the year, right now it gives a beautiful structured, bronzed display and we have it in prized position on our decking so we can see it through the window from inside the house.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
We have two Dogwood plants in the garden and we love the colour of the stems and the structure of the naked plant during the winter months. They produce great leaves, flowers and berries too so we see it as good all rounder. If we had a bigger garden it would be great to plant these in a regimented pattern and have a mini Dogwood forest with a plethora of spring bulbs emerging below and while i do have around twenty five Dwarf Iris planted around this Dogwood, my plans will have to wait as we enjoy having a wide variety of plants in our garden, but this does not immediately lend itself to creating a more structured or architectural plant display so easily.
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| Copyright Robert Widdowson 2016 |
Our stopping point today is perhaps not so obvious and isn't limited to any one plant variety in particular, but we think emerging buds can look really great in the January garden. not only is it a sign of new life for the approaching growing season, but buds such as the one emerging from one of our Hydrangeas have a small beauty all of their own, with often quite striking contrasts between reds and greens, they may not have the impact of say, a Dahlia in mid summer but they do have a subtle charm all of there own.
We hope we have shown you that there are quite a range of plants that can make the January garden a interesting and beautiful place to be and with a little forward thinking, the garden can look great all year round. Stay tuned for more to come.
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