A Lesson in Winter Gardening

Winter is often a neglected time in the gardening year but a tour of John Massey’s garden at Ashwood Nurseries shows just how good it can be.

Gardening books are all very well but you learn so much more when you see the theory put into practice on a garden visit. Add the skill of a master grower to the mix and it can be truly inspirational.

Early bulbs, coloured stems, structure, all are familiar to anyone who reads up on how to keep a garden looking good during winter but seeing them in ‘John’s Garden’ showed how effective they can be.

I was on a Garden Media Guild trip to Ashwood Nurseries, designed primarily to see the hellebores for which this traditional nursery is known. However, an added bonus of the day was a tour by owner John Massey of his private garden, three acres set behind the nursery in South Staffordshire.

Set alongside the Staffordshire-Worcestershire Canal, most of it’s been created over the past 20 years with planting to cover every season. Plants are chosen for their toughness with nothing given winter protection.

“I would rather grow things that are hardy in this area,” John explained.

Naturally, hellebores and cyclamen, two of Ashwoods’ specialities, feature strongly but there were numerous other early bloomers, along with interesting shrubs, evergreens and trees. It really is a densely-planted garden and so I will pick out just some of the things that caught my eye.

The tour started with a severe case of ‘hamamelis envy’. My sandy soil isn’t really suitable for growing witch hazels but, having seen how effective their strangely spiky flowers are on a cold February day, I’m tempted to have a go.

Lemon yellow, golden yellow, burnt orange and rusty red – all colours that add warmth to winter gardening – while their slender limbs still allowed views through the borders.

Other winter-flowering shrubs included the acid yellow of Cornus officinalis and pale pink daphne.

Moss-covered boulders and stems added more structure and texture to this area.

Colour didn’t come just from flowers and stems were also used with great effect. The pale trunks of silver birch were repeated throughout the garden, set against the brown of grasses or teamed with snowdrops.

I’ve often heard other gardeners being a bit ‘sniffy’ about Cornus sanguinea, believing the common dogwood to be too reminiscent of supermarket car parks. But give it the right companions and keep it carefully pollarded to get the best colour, and it can be an important part of winter gardening.

How about this for an interesting mix.

I particularly liked the way the Cornus sanguinea ‘Magic Flame’ contrasted with these window sculptures by Neil Lossock.

His work appears in several places in the garden.

This is known as ‘The New Stump Garden’ and has been created with oak stumps from Ragley Saw Mill. Originally, there were just three of Neil’s rust-coloured fern panels behind the bed. John decided the nearby gate looked wrong so put a panel on it and then, because he likes odd numbers, a fifth panel was added.

“It’s how the garden evolves,” he told us.

There were some good container ideas – either used to bring small plants up to eye-level or as a seasonal display that could be changed as things faded.

One table had a collection of dainty iris carefully placed so they could be seen from the house; colour that can be enjoyed from indoors is an important part of winter gardening.

I rather liked this yellow ‘Katherine’s Gold’.

This was a clever idea for allowing a close-up view of snowdrops.

This floating display of hepatica flowers was one of the most photographed parts of the garden.

Elsewhere, the grass border was looking particularly good.

Even the old flowers on hydrangea added to the display.

You are never far from water in the garden. Either the canal.

Or the pool and its nearby rock garden

There are long views through

And tantalising glimpses

John is always coming up with something new. As he said: “If a garden is not evolving, it’s going backwards.”

• John’s Garden is open to the public from 10am to 4pm on March 17, 2018, and on several other dates until September in aid of this year’s chosen charity, Wombourne Special Needs Support Group. For details, visit the Ashwood Nurseries’ website. Entry is £5. The garden is open for the National Gardens Scheme on Sunday, April 22.

You can read about our guided tour of the hellebores and heptaticas at Ashwood Nurseries here.

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