HOME EDITION ENJOY WINTER FRAGRANCE A way from the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, baking and the general making of lists, escaping into our gardens can Make space in your garden for seasonal flowers and scent, says Anna Taylor
be a welcome respite in December. It’s usually a mild month, great for planting before the winter cold (or wet) fully sets in and one of my busiest times for gardening. Spring blossoms, summer shade and autumn colours give the gardener great reasons to plant trees and shrubs, providing structure and weight to mixed borders, privacy in smaller gardens and much-needed food and shelter for wildlife. It’s easy to forget their roles in winter, but actually they remain some of the most hard-working plants in the garden. Most gardeners remember to plant spring bulbs – snowdrops for late January, netted irises, miniature narcissus and fritillaries for winter colour – but perhaps the best fragrance belongs to a shrub. This is sarcococca, the Christmas box, a lovely evergreen ideal for woodland borders with the most heavenly scent. Every week now, for several months, I have cut off a branch or two for use inside the house. Plant one beside a path and you’ll be thrilled every time you pass by. Another favourite is the semi- evergreen winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima . I love its lime-green foliage as a border backdrop throughout the year, then in winter its diminutive yellow and white flowers are packed with fragrance. Similarly, Viburnum x bodnantense and Bring evergreens indoors to decorate your home this Christmas. The Romans made wreaths of laurel to celebrate saturnalia more than 2,000 years ago – a tradition we still observe today. I love to gather fragrant branches of pine with other conifers and bay. Tie them into sprigs with ribbon as a simple, yet opulent door decoration or adorn picture frames, mantlepieces and shelves with stems of holly, eucalyptus or rosemary: the warmth of indoors will bring out their fragrances. Natural decor
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FIRE AND ICE Some trees and shrubs provide nice smells and pops of colour even in the coldest months
daphnes look pretty dull throughout most of the year, providing a useful backdrop for summer perennials, but with the arrival of the cold, their astonishing fragrance steps into the spotlight. For vibrancy, use dogwoods such as Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’, which has dazzling autumn foliage and stems that
Anna is a garden and cut flowers writer, educator and designer. She works from her studio in Saffron Walden. For more, see her blog Floral Notes on Substack bucket for a few hours, dig a good pit that’s a couple of inches deeper and wider than the longest roots, water the hole and then plant. Add a stake if needed, then firm into position with the heel of your boot. Top dress with compost and keep weed-free for the next couple of years. flush red through orange-salmon to cream- yellow, just like a flame, all winter long. Witch hazels (hamamelis) are good for rich golds and russets. These shrubby plants offer a welcome surprise in the colder months, delivering a spectacular show right when you would least expect it. Winter is an excellent time to buy shrubs – either bare root (wrapped bundles without soil) or rootballed (with a hessian bag or soil around their roots). Sold from October to March, they are cheaper than pot-grown shrubs and usually the quickest to establish and grow away. When planting, soak the roots in a
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