Page 27 - Garden News

diary
My gardening

over walls and fences. The
female flowers are borne on
the same shrub so even one
plant will be enough to MONDAY After what has
Alamy perfume the whole garden. been an especially wet winter,
If you’ve got enough a mossy covering has become
room, you can allow the a feature on almost all our
winter-flowering beds and borders. Mosses
honeysuckles, Lonicera love acid conditions and
fragrantissima and damp soil and that’s what
L. standishii free reign. I made they’ve got here. No wonder
the mistake of planting one in they’re thriving. These areas Be aware of honey
Viburnum ‘Dawn’ and its the narrow bed just outside the need to be clear before a fungus, which can prove
pink clusters of blooms final mulch goes on. fatal to woody plants Alamy
with intense perfume cottage where it became too
ungainly but made up for it by
TUESDAY Most of our home-made compost has gone.
until spring. One of its parents, producing masses of pretty little There’s never enough but we’re plundering our big tree
Viburnum farreri, is just as flowers with an all-pervading
pots for some extra. It’s good stuff and at the boom of
fragrant, but even bigger. If you perfume. Eventually, it had to each pot is old manure, ideal to put around perennials.
want to make more of any, the move. We miss that perfume and
top 15cm (6in) of strong young I’m thinking of planting another WEDNESDAY Winter pruning our ‘Discovery’ apple tree.
shoots can be used to make better-behaved scented shrub in Taking about a third off some of its longest stems, cuing
hardwood cuttings. the same place! our old spurs but encouraging new fruiting spurs by
Most winter-flowering shrubs Daphne bholua would be my cuing back vigorous laterals to two or three buds.
have small flowers, as big first choice. I remember Roy THURSDAY The hardneck garlic we grew last year was
sumptuous blooms would be Lancaster, my all-time plantsman
delicious but much too small. It went in too late so we’re
torn to shreds by gale force winds. hero, writing about a plant he has determined to give this year’s crop a fair crack of the whip.
Since they’ve no large petals to by his front door. I fell in love with
Although each clove gets its own compartment in a
wave around as flags to attract his description of it and when I module tray in the greenhouse, as soon as growth starts
pollinating insects, they do it came face to face with the real
the tray will go outside. Garlic needs a spell of cold.
with scent. thing, my feelings were borne
The flowers of skimmia out. In a cold garden, this FRIDAY Gradually daylight length is growing. When
could never be described as semi-evergreen shrub might you’re forced indoors because you can no longer see what
ostentatious but the perfume need the protection of a wall. you’re doing, you realise you’ve had half an hour more
they produce is positively Most daphnes have beautiful than you had a few weeks ago.
exhilarating. For berries, you perfume, often at this most
SATURDAY The central feature in one of the beds just
need to plant both female and inhospitable time of year. before you get to the oak fence that separates the boom
male varieties. One male plant, In my grandfather’s garden
of the garden from the top is a bonny Physocarpus
(Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’ is the there was D. mezereum, its opulifolius ‘Diabolo’. When clearing away leaves from its
most common), will serve several leafless branches crowded with
base, I noticed funghi growing from its wood. From the
females. Plant the little harem a deep pink-purple flowers with colour and shape, I think it’s honey fungus!
few feet apart. The leaves of a glorious scent ( it used to be
several skimmia are aromatic known as ‘paradise plant’), SUNDAY Transplanting woodruff from
too, especially when crushed. unexpectedly potent from such a bed at the side of the track to another
The foliage of one, S. laureola a tiny bush. under an enkianthus where the ground
multinervia, is lavender-scented. Of all winter scented shrubs, is bare apart from a few hellebores. It’s
Skimmia are small, neat witch hazels are probably the not a job that requires much finesse,
shrubs and the Christmas box, most celebrated. So far we only simply lifting shallow spades full and
Sarcococca hookeriana humilis, have one – Hamamelis intermedia literally laying it on the soil and
shares the same demeanour. Its ‘Pallida’ with exquisite perfume. firming it in with your boot.
tiny flowers are almost hidden Forget cold fingers and toes,
among the glossy, dark-green the scents and perfumes of
leaves, but the scent of the male winter will inspire you and Carol Klein
flowers carries for yards, wafting transport you to another place.

What’s looking good now?

Our winter feathered friends

Every so often when you’re working in the Lile groups of goldfinches have been regular
garden, your ears prick up at the sound of an visitors and there might be a greenfinch or two
ever-increasing chaering – the long-tailed tits and a few chaffinches. When we moved here
are coming. They never travel alone, always in 40 years ago, there’d be linnets and bramblings,
Look out for
prey long-tailed each other’s company. too. I can remember the delight at seeing the cock
tits with their In contrast, the lesser-spoed woodpeckers linnets with that lovely raspberry pink with which
pinkish feathers who visit come alone. They’re desperadoes, their breasts and crests were touched.
honing in on the peanuts, whipping across the Whichever birds visit your garden, it’s a
garden to peck forcefully at the fat balls before privilege to watch their antics – we should all do
hi-tailing it into the trees. everything we can to encourage them!
Alamy

Subscribe and get 4 issues for just £1! Go to www.greatmagazines.co.uk/gn January 27 2018 /Garden News27