The Garden in Winter - What do you do?

Chimonanthus are worth persistence @Goldenlily26 . I bought one knowing it would take a while to settle in, but once it did... The fragrance was glorious. You've reminded me, I need one in this garden!

 

Another Beverley Nichols fan here Along with Christopher Lloyd, he was responsible for my garden in UK smelling lovely but looking deadly for a big part of the year

 

Those are both very useful lists @Goldenlily26 and @CostasK, lots of options for more winter interest, including scent, which I’ll be investigating!

 

Down here in Devon winter is generally wetter than summer and a bit cooler, but seriously we don't get many hard frosts.
Camellia sasanqua flower into winter and are scented, winter flowering lonicera have good scent I have L purpusii, L elisae and L fragrantissima. Viburnum bodnantense "Dawn" and similar, V farrerii flower in winter and the flower scent is attractive.
I have a number of Sarococca that flower from winter to Easter between them, S hookeriana, S confusa, orientalis and S wallachii.

 

Absolutely agree with you about Lonicera BG, @CostasK. I use them as stand alone plants and they create such a lovely shape. I prefer them in part shade as then the leaves take on a lime hue, rather than a yellow. I grow one behind a hydrangea. In the summer, it weaves through attractively and in the winter it distracts from the hydrangea's bare stems. Let's face it, hydrangeas do not look their best from Nov to Feb. I am always longing to prune them, but try to hold off till the spring growth starts to show.

 

I've regularly used. L. B's Gold in various gardens. I've grown a new hedge [about 30 feet long] for the front garden, with cuttings from a single plant I had in the back garden, which I took out a few years ago. The new hedge is around 2 to 3 feet just now.
Try the oak leaf hydrangeas instead @ViewAhead - the autumn colour might sway you. The white flowers stay white and last a good length of time. They like a bit of sun too.
I took this yesterday

 

We had the first proper frost of Winter last night. Unless I get my delivery of stepping stones today, I'm quite happy to view the garden from indoors!

 

That is a lovely plum colour, @fairygirl!

 

I had a twisted hazel in my Belgian garden @CostasK and loved it in winter but found it looked heavy and clumpy when covered in its slightly twisted leaves in summer. Good bird refuge next to the feeders tho.

I also had lots of evergreens such as viburnum tinus, "dwarf" conifers and a spotted laurel but they all, to a man, died in a freak -32C on 6/1/09 so I've been wary of relying on evergreens ever since. Coloured stemmed cornus fare much better tho Midwinter Fire suckers with a vengeance when happy but sulks if pruned.

In this garden I have camellias and rhodos as the soil is neutral to acid and frosts are mild. -8C is the worst in 8 years and only lasted 2 nights. I have a sarcocca but it is reluctant to flower so far, coloured stems on Japanese maples and mahonias doing well - Winter beauty, Cabaret and Soft Caress. Cornus alba seems to prefer the alkaline loam I had in Belgium and struggle here.

We get deep blue berries on the mahonia and red hips on an offspring of Kiftsgate I brought with me and there's a chimonathes growing very happily against a west facing wall after taking root thru its pot when I parked it there and didn't get it planted in time.

Plenty of interest too in the shapes of bare trees and shrubs and berries in the hedgerow.

 

@ViewAhead I actually prefer the yellow colour personally (it's one of the main colours I use in my garden) but I like the love for Lonicera BG! I read that it's sometimes referred to as "poor man's boxwood" but I think it is much better than boxwood (colour +disease resistance). Some plants are less showy than others at the garden centre but are such good-doers that you end up loving them. That's definitely one. I would put heucheras and hellobores in the same category.

@Obelix-Vendée that's interesting about the twisted hazel! I think the difference is that the two I have are dwarf ones so in the summer you don't notice them very much next to the plants with flowers etc and in the Winter they shine when most other things take a backseat. I imagine a full sized twisted hazel might be too much of a presence during the summer, when it doesn't look its best.

 

Another idyllic scene @ArmyAirForce. A few weeks to go until Winter though, I hope .

 

Which of your Sarcococca would you say has the best scent @NigelJ? The one I have has a scent which I'd say has more of a burglar deterrent quality than pleasant aroma.

 

I like the shapes of bare trees and shrubs too @Obelix-Vendée. Do your Mahonias have colouration to their young leaves in Autumm/Winter? I recently bought a M. Winter Sun which the chap at the garden centre reckoned was suffering from a nutrient deficiency but I think it's quite natural. (I got a good sized plant for a good price so was happy to take the risk!) I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

 

I think you're right there @CostasK. I always ignored Heucheras in the garden centre until I saw one at our local botanic garden. I've got quite a few now in the ground and in containers, adding a lot of interest at the moment as their leaves are taking on autumn colours.

 

That's a nice oak leaf Hydrangea @fairygirl. Does it hold onto those leaves throughout winter?