Full of potential
The home garden has been sitting patiently all winter long. The plants are cleverly trying to notice a change in the season.
Some will remain hidden underground until spring has arrived for certain. Others have had small buds present since last autumn. Every frosty morning I check their soft buds to see if they’ve perished. But no; here they are, full of potential, and ready to grow at the turn of the season.
Plants with buds all winter long
Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ has been in bud since last autumn. Every few weeks I notice that there are more of them, and they’re getting bigger. But slowly.
It’s spread so much since I planted it last autumn. It will definitely need dividing next winter.
Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’ is another brave plant that holds buds through much winter.
This was the first plant that I ever took cuttings of back in college in 2007. Its really easy to propagate and I’ll be taking cuttings in the next few weeks.
Lamium orvala is a cool plant. In the same genus as our native “dead nettles”, but a more impressive plant with big flowers and thick, almost succulent leaves.
I haven’t see this particular plant flower yet. I’m expecting it to have purple/pink flowers, but there’s also a white form available, so who knows.
This next plant is Centaurea bella. I bought it last year after seeing it growing in the Delos Garden in Sissinghurst. It’s been in leaf all winter and has just started to put on a little growth.
I really hope that it starts to spread like the ones in Sissinghurst!
This Caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Blue Balloon’ has been in bud all winter. I kept thinking it was going to be hit by frost, but its really tough.
It can be treated very similarly to Buddleja davidii. Cut it back relatively hard to a strong set of buds in late winter or early spring.
Just emerging
Some plants that have begun emerging over the last few weeks include Potentilla fruticosa ‘Limelight’. A common garden plant, but one of my favourites. It flowers for a long time and is not fussy.
The dwarf lillac, Syringa meyeri looks like it will be in full flower very soon!
Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’, a very popular dwarf ornamental cherry is ready to burst.
Persicaria affinis ‘Superba’ is just starting to show itself above ground. This is one of my favourite ground cover plants. It spreads and tolerates the light shade found beneath tall plants, but is not invasive.
Wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare) is one of our native herbs, but is also a beautful ornamental with a long flowering season.
I recently divided this plant (it forms big clumps quickly) and its ready to get going again.
Another valuable ground cover plant is Calamintha nepeta (the Lesser Catmint). It forms good clumps, perfect for covering the ground beneath taller plants.
Oh yea, and it smells amazing! Very minty.
A few more
Our garden was a bit deficient of nice bulbs, so I planted these Narissus ‘Tete a tete’ last autumn. They’ve all come up.
A friend of ours had some spare primroses (Primula vulgaris) last year. She was kind enough to let us have some. They’ve just started flowering.
Hopefully they’ll grow into big patches over time.
Despite turning a dark purplish bronze colour in response to the cold weather, This Grevillea rosmarinifolia has been flowering steadily all winter.
I hope it picks up in spring.
Verbena bonariensis aren’t the hardiest plants, but set seed readily. This plant however looks like its going to make it through the winter
We planted this Achillea filipendulina ‘Gold Plate’ last year. It’s ready to get things started for the year.
