THE GARDEN IN WINTER

Creating a masterpiece for enjoyment over the year’s longest season

Great Art

Great art pares off the superfluous and captures the essential. The garden in winter, stripped bare by frost, needs to be structured well. If so it can be a masterpiece to be marveled at well into spring. Getting the “bones” right is the secret of composing a garden in winter. The greatest challenge is positioning the plants to create artisitic harmony. Gone is the kaleidoscope of colour and showy fluff of warmer seasons. The winter gardener must look to shape and texture to “colour-in” his canvas.

Growing plants in the non-growing season

Few are aware of just how many plants will put on a “winter-show” and few are aware how much can be done in this traditional long “non-growing” season. But there’s an astonishingly number of winter-interest plants. A good rule for starters is to create a “winter garden” where it will be seen most. Home in on the angles that look out onto it from the house. “Identify and create a focal draw” secrets divulged by garden architect Jason Lock of Notcutt Landscapes, England eight time winners of the coveted Chelsea Gold.

Accent plants

Evergreens like the majestic conifers of classic yew Taxus baccata, together with the broad-leaved evergreens like box Buxus sempervirens make the ideal background fabric. Against this green choice decidous plants can step out of summer obscurity onto centre stage. Devoid of leaf, the weird contorted branches of witchhazel Corylus avellana `Contorta´ are stunning in deepest winter. Viburnum farreri must try harder and attracts attention with white heavenly scented blooms. The flaky fading racemes of Hydrangea quercifolia are spectactular laced with hoar frost or capped with a snow bonnet. Indeed many an autumn flower and seedhead will offer a captivating silhouette if left uncut until spring.

The balance

The “magic formula” of a winter planning scheme lies with the placement of accent plants. They have to be well-mixed and balanced. Formal beds (as loved in England) rely on symmetry and repetition of plant choices. Informal designs (as favoured in America) require the accents be set at the border’s deepest point or at its ends. Walls and paths play their role too, embellished with evergreen ground plants such as ivy Hedera or Euonymous Fortunei ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’ they will create shadows and patterns.

Bark treasure

Bark textures add important dramatic accents. Deciduous trees like the Himalayan birch Betula utilis will unveil an elegant white trunk (even whiter if polished). With hoar frost trimming on ist branches B. utilis is the undisputed “Jewel of the Winter Garden”. Querkier gems are the Chinese paperbark maple Acer griseum with its scabrous peeling trunk, or the exotic striped Acer capillipes. The chiaroscuro of all these specimens is a rich visual offering.

The winter colour palette

Don’t believe that a winter gardener’s palette is bereaved of colour. Consider Cyclamen’s (Cyclamen coum) vivid pink; Pyracantha’s vermillion; Hamamelis "Pallida"’s saturated yellow; Bergenia "Eroica" chaffed Bronze; the fresh lime green of Helleborus foetidus; or the hot orange reds of Dogwood Cornus sanguinea "Midwinter Fire". All provide coloured brushstrokes to the final composition.

The winter garden as a materspiece

Placed mid-border in drifts, the ornamental grasses Calamagrostis and Corteria, bring softer mellow creams and covered in snow in a gentle winter breeze their metrononmic motion is mesmerizing. But the masterpiece is enjoyed best on those rare clear days of winter, when pulled into sharp focus against a clear blue sky, the garden in winter becomes a scene of majestic brillance.

Intralinks:

• LifeArt.net/Kurier: Der Garten im Winter

External links:

• www.kurier.at/freizeit

Copyright © www.lifeart.net January 2006