In my garden: wintergreens
No, not curly kale or purple sprouting, delicious as they are, but those useful hardy perennials which keep their leaves in the winter. Here’s a few of mine. First up, Epimedium ‘Fröhnleiten’. How fresh and shiny does it look?
A lot of people hate bergenias, or 'Elephant’s Ears’ but they are very useful for awkward, shady corners. This one is Bergenia ‘Harzkristall’.
A new plant for me, which I bought at one of our Plant Heritage sales last year. It’s a species geum, Geum bulgaricum and has very pale yellow flowers. These leaves are a bonus and I’m looking forward to its first flowering in my garden.
This heuchera looks a little sad but I think it counts.
Tiarellas are closely related. Here’s Tiarella ‘Iron Butterfly’.
In spring it will have spikes of tiny fluffy pale pink flowers. Last year, it gave me a repeat performance in autumn, which was very welcome.
What would we do without pulmonarias? Here’s the common variety which we used to call ‘Soldiers and Sailors’ because you get pink and blue flowers on the same plant. Look, buds! Elsewhere in the garden some are already in flower. I used to have a lot of different varieties, some with silvery leaves which look particularly good. But I’m fond of the old spotted ones.
This last one is cheating. It’s Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’, usually grown as an annual. This is one of several self-sown seedlings which are surviving winter so far. If they live, they’ll make much stronger plants next summer than new plants sown in spring.
All these photos were taken in the garden this morning. It’s sunny! For now.
A lot of people hate bergenias, or 'Elephant’s Ears’ but they are very useful for awkward, shady corners. This one is Bergenia ‘Harzkristall’.
A new plant for me, which I bought at one of our Plant Heritage sales last year. It’s a species geum, Geum bulgaricum and has very pale yellow flowers. These leaves are a bonus and I’m looking forward to its first flowering in my garden.
This heuchera looks a little sad but I think it counts.
Tiarellas are closely related. Here’s Tiarella ‘Iron Butterfly’.
In spring it will have spikes of tiny fluffy pale pink flowers. Last year, it gave me a repeat performance in autumn, which was very welcome.
What would we do without pulmonarias? Here’s the common variety which we used to call ‘Soldiers and Sailors’ because you get pink and blue flowers on the same plant. Look, buds! Elsewhere in the garden some are already in flower. I used to have a lot of different varieties, some with silvery leaves which look particularly good. But I’m fond of the old spotted ones.
This last one is cheating. It’s Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’, usually grown as an annual. This is one of several self-sown seedlings which are surviving winter so far. If they live, they’ll make much stronger plants next summer than new plants sown in spring.
All these photos were taken in the garden this morning. It’s sunny! For now.
Punxsutawney Phil has predicted today that there will be 6 more weeks of winter!
Some gardener (can't remember who) once said that lamium maculatum looked like "a herd of elephants behaving badly under a blanket" - which is what my bergenias look like!