Happy new year! I’ve decided to start a bit of blog here, more like snippets from the garden, with a bit about what has been going on or thoughts I have had. My first post is about one of my favourite plants - Evergreens.
I’m writing this from a very wet and muddy Sussex, but just a few days ago I was lucky enough to be in the South of France and it wasn’t just the weather which was so different: out there the landscape is full of evergreens, trees like Holm Oak (which I found out they call Chêne Vert – literally Green Oak) and lots of Pine, Olive and Myrtle everywhere.
It reminded me how important evergreen planting is in our gardens, livening up the borders while so many other plants sleep and I recommend having a quiet potter in your gardens now, and thinking about where evergreen plants might actually be very welcome.
There is sometimes a bit of garden snobbery around evergreens (too boring no seasonal interest they argue) but there are no excuses to be dull! You can choose shrubs such as Pittosporum which come in black, green or silver variegated leaves, or how about the glossy foliage of Choysia,
Sarcococca and Ceanothus or certain types of Honeysuckle. There are also perennials such as Heuchera and all manner of Euphorbias, and here down South my Penstemons largely keep their leaves over Winter too. Even better, plenty of evergreens actually flower at this time of year including Daphne, one of my all time favourite shrubs, and others like Viburnum tinus.
I adore my grasses and seed heads in the frost, but I wouldn’t be without evergreens.
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