Chris Hibberd Gallery - December 2024
Winter Flowers and Scents
Chris Hibberd has lots of ideas for keeping your garden interesting throughout the colder months.
It might seem that the winter months of December and January is a time when the garden is asleep and the only visual joy comes from the various leaf shapes, shades of green and the forms of evergreen shrubs and trees. However, although there can never be a riot of colour, it is a time when those shrubs which do flower at this time of year, can give particular delight and are definitely worth including in a planting scheme.
The winter jasmine, Jasminium nudiflorum, heralds the season by flowering in November, providing a cheerful splash of colour. Here it is seen against the ubiquitous evergreen Viburnum tinus, also flowering well at the same time.
Mahonias start flowering at the end of November and provide short lived yellow splashes of colour amongst their architectural evergreen leaves during December.
Top of the list for winter cheer, must be Viburnum bodnantense, which seems to start producing flowers in early autumn and continues well into spring.
Its leaves are also an attractive feature, in summer, but the flowers can be best appreciated against bare branches in winter.
Clematis can also be enjoyed in winter months. Clematis ‘Advent Bells’ is pictured here on a south facing wall. Again. It seems to have a long period of flowering, from autumn and through to spring, responding to brighter spells of weather.
However, a favourite garden flower for the dark days around Christmas, has to be the winter honeysuckle, Lonicera x purpusii Winter beauty.
It is pictured here caught in lamplight on our return from carol singing. The flowers are highly scented, so it’s worth finding a sheltered spot near to the house so it can be appreciated fully.
Lonicera fragrantissima flowers a few weeks later but its form makes for a better garden shrub, giving pleasure well into spring.
There are several different varieties of the small evergreen shrub, Christmas box, Sarcococca. S. confusa seems to be a reliable early flowerer which can be a useful addition to a flower vase in winter. The small arching sprays seem to arrange themselves, or they can be used to complement early snowdrops. The Sarcococcas are also worth growing for their scent, especially if planted in a still, shady corner where the aroma can be concentrated.
January is the month when Witch hazels come into their own. They can make a dramatic statement of shaggy yellow fragrant flowers, especially if bathed in the low light of winter sunshine. Eventually they make a relatively large bush, although very slow growing - and expensive to buy! [photo 8]. There are many modern cultivars available with flowers in various shades of yellow, orange, russet.
Last, but not least, early flowering varieties of Daphne are worthy of a place in every garden.
D. bholua "Jacqueline Postill" is a long-standing favourite, with clusters of pink flowers appearing from late January. This cultivar certainly ‘packs a punch’ with a glorious scent which can enfold large areas of even a large garden.
A new cultivar Daphne ‘Perfume princess’, is claimed to be the world’s most fragrant shrub and starts flowering in late January. A hardy evergreen shrub of no more than 1.2 metres high, it must be well worth a try.
Enjoy your winter garden.
[For further information about plants mentioned in this article, and any matters relating to your garden, please have a look at the rhs website or send us a message via the email on the contacts page.]
Chris Hibberd Gallery - November 2020
My Favourite Hydrangeas
We struggle to have any success with the traditional mop-head Hydrangeas, though we keep trying. But other types are a great success and seem to give continuing interest in the garden for months.
The star of our show is Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle pictured here in July:
Now, nearly a fortnight into November, it is still producing new flowerheads!
Even the dried flower-heads survive intact for most of the winter.
The second ‘must have’ would be at least one variety of Hydrangea paniculata. Again, providing flower interest for a number of months but starting later in the year.
Here is ‘Vanilla fraise’ pictured at the end of October.
A third species of Hydrangea which gives me a lot of pleasure is H. quercifolia (oak-leaved hydrangea). With its neat leaves this shrub provides a good border specimen throughout summer but its glory is in autumn when the leaves colour up a dusky red. In spite of high winds and rain, they remain a neat contribution to the increasingly tatty borders at this time of year
A pleasing plant grouping with H. paniculata ‘Unique’ –
Leaves of some mophead varieties can also give pleasing autumn colour. This is one of my ‘failures’, the name long since lost in efforts to rescue it by moving to new locations. This autumn colouring was a pleasant surprise.
Now that this plant seems happier, I am hopeful that it will thrive and even flower next year.
Chris Hibberd Gallery - October 2020
Easy leaf mould – make use of all autumn’s bounty.
So, if it’s not too late and there are leaves which haven’t yet been consigned to the compost heap, why not give it a try?
I have come to rely on a source of leaf mould for mulching Hellebores, Heathers and all ericaceous subjects, and also for mixing into the soil for planting them. It can be good mixed into compost for extra organic matter.
The traditional advice for making leaf mould is to collect the leaves into a cage of wire netting. If less room is available, to use old compost bags liberally forked to pierce them with air holes. Now that I no longer have the space for a dedicated cage, I tried the bag method; it takes years to produce anything remotely like leaf mould!
I came across a highly successful tip, obvious really, and that is to use netting bags such as those for carrots, seen at greengrocers. One year on and – hey presto! Leaf mould ready to use. (Maybe a few more months would be an improvement)
Helpful hint:
We find that brushing raking the leaves together onto a flat surface (path or lawn) then using the lawn mower to gather them up saves a lot of bending and shovelling! The collecting box can be emptied directly into the bags. There is an added benefit in that this preliminary chopping helps start the process of breakdown. not too late and there are leaves which haven’t yet been consigned to the compost heap, why not give it a try?
September Roses
If you've never come across an old rose called 'Dublin Bay', it's worth seeking out.
It is a short climber but can be pruned to be a shrub. Very floriferous, blooms not damaged by rain and long-lived in a vase. A most reliable variety, giving a good show throughout summer and autumn.
An unusual colour with brown tones. This is a newer rose which wowed the public and garden designers when it was released a few years ago. "Hot Chocolate"
'Queen Elizabeth' a clear pink rose is an old variety. Growth is upright and tall. A useful rose which tolerates a shady spot.
'Remember Me ' is a hybrid tea rose and much shorter. Beautifully formed blooms of coppery orange.
