...more winter flowers

Although the weather is totally rubbish at the moment there are still enough plants in flower to make anyone's garden look jolly and cheerful. It always amuses me how Erica carnea's look so good in the winter months and yet they are a plant, for some strange reason, one ignores in the planning of a garden. They are best planted in big groups so as to let the colour of flowers really sing.

I also like Hellebores ,especially the types with upward facing flowers..it's such a pain in the .a... having to get down to ground level to see the lovely blooms of the varieties with more pendant bloom. I read somewhere recently that Wisley have a fine show of some  fine new cultivars of upward held blooms..

Another plant that has been catching my attention over the last few years is Pulmonaria. It makes a fine groundcover  plant. The blue and pink cultivars are especially pleasing and intermingled with widely spaced Hostas to extend the show in that patch of ground through the year should look pretty good. Perhaps some Tricyrtis generously dotted around as well would give a lovely show in September October when the Hostas are looking a bit jaded

A shrub that for most of the year is a fairly insignificant looker but has useful attributes is Sarcococca, in particular 'humilis' It has fantastic fragrance from fairly discreet flowers in the winter and is also evergreen. I am intrigued to know if it could be treated the same as Buxus and trimmed up into shapes or as edging. Just imagine a bed secretely exuding such a lovely fragrance all around your garden. Gorgeous !!

Finally one cannot forget the effects of big groups of Cyclamen coum in the winter. They seem to be very happy in  gravel, judging by a bungalow in a village near Faringdon, Oxfordshire. They are all over the edge if the drive.....it looks stunning. There is a lovely picture of a thick drift of Cyclamen coum in the current RHS magazine, in a garden in Suffolk. Looks awesome.

Some of the pics were taken at Waterperry Gardens near Oxford. It's well worth a visit. There is always something worth admiring whatever the time of year.