How good does your garden look in winter? If it has little beyond a few evergreens and some snowdrops then you’re missing out on what can be a magical season. Choose the right plants and it can be somewhere that will tempt you outside whatever the weather, as Gardening with Winter Plants shows.
Written by Tony Hall, head of Temperate Collections at Kew, it’s a one-stop guide to the best plants to bring a bit of sparkle to your winter garden.
(I was given a copy in return for a fair review.)
Gardening With Winter Plants begins by considering the elements that will add colour and interest in the dark months of the year – colourful stems, berries and other winter fruits, and fragrance – winter flowers are often highly scented so that they can attract any pollinators that are around.
There are tips on plant combinations – teaming coloured stems with bulbs or evergreen ferns – and suggestions for seasonal containers.
The bulk of the book is given over to a more detailed look at individual plants under the headings of bulbs, climbers, ferns, grasses, perennials, shrubs and trees.
Some, such as snowdrops, are examined in detail with a bit of botanical history mixed in with descriptions of different species and cultivars.
Every plant entry has both the Latin and common names, a description of its appearance, notes about cultivation and information on size, preferred aspect and hardiness. Nearly all are illustrated making it a useful reference.
While many of the plants are familiar to experienced gardeners, the suggestion of particularly good cultivars is useful and there were still things that were unfamiliar to me, such as the deciduous hollies, Ilex verticillata, also known as the winterberry. These produce masses of berries on bare stems and are loved by florists. I’m sorely tempted to try one.
Winter plants have to work harder than summer things when the sheer number of things in flower produces a display. But, on a cold, grey, January day, little lifts the spirits like a winter garden star.
Gardening With Winter Plants by Tony Hall is published by Kew Publishing with an RRP of £30. You can buy it here for £25.89. (If you buy via this link, I receive a small commission. The price you pay is not affected.) Alternatively, you may wish to buy from an independent bookseller here. All prices correct at time of publication of this post.
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