It is important that your winter garden looks and smells great throughout the entire year. Whilst few of us are lucky enough to have an entire section of the garden dedicated to winter flowering plants, with some planning it is entirely possible to create a garden that retains its beauty through the winter months.
Cornus with Bergenia
Cambridge Botanical Gardens, Norfolk
There are many wonderful winter flowering shrubs to brighten up those drab winter mornings and provide a wonderful fragrance combined. Some of my personal favourites include Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ (highly scented with lovely pink flowers) mixing perfectly with the dramatic red and orange stems of the dogwoods, Cornus alba and C. sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’. For larger foliage planting, I enjoy Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ interspersed with Sarcococca (sweet box) and the dark reds of the Smoke Bush (Cotinus ‘Grace’).
There are so many wonderful winter flowering plants, it almost easier to bring these into a design than for other seasons! Wonderful examples of winter flowering gardens in the East of England include Anglesey Abbey and The Cambridge Botanical Gardens in Suffolk amongst many others.
Daphne odora
Cambridge Botanical Gardens
