Bleak midwinter? Not at all! Even when pared back, your plot can become a dazzling delight
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This weekend marks the winter solstice, the time of year when we in the northern hemisphere are as far away from the sun as we get. Low light levels mean many plants want to hibernate beneath a warm blanket of soil. Trees are bare skeletons, their branches reaching like bony fingers into the gloom.
In the UK, we are resigned to the season being predominantly damp and grey. But every so often we are surprised and delighted by one of those crisp December days when the skies are the brightest of blue and the Sun, when it makes its brief appearance, casts everything in a dazzling light.
On such days it is easy to go outside and see what the midwinter garden has to offer. Even though it lacks the cornucopia of summer, there is still plenty of variety in my own back garden. Just outside our back door we have a Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’, bought from National Trust property Wakehurst Place in Sussex about five years ago. It has grown to about 2m tall, even though I cut it back each spring.
This dogwood is grown for the colour of its stems after the leaves have fallen. They turn flame-like through gold to orange to red. Once it has become established after a year or two, it is easy to take cuttings to generate more plants, so that soon you will have a large clump.
Beside this we have a cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) which can become a bit of a thug, so I trim ours right back every year to keep it in shape and appreciate it for its glossy green structure in winter. Low light levels mean many plants want to hibernate beneath a warm blanket of soil, according to gardening expert Ciar Byrne.
