There are probably plenty of other things to be getting on with this month which don’t involve gardening and, fortunately, the majority of plants are pretty dormant so neglecting them over the festive season is not a problem. Unlike the times of year when plants are actively growing, flowering and setting seed, during the coldest months they require much less input from the humble gardener.
One task which is facilitated by the lack of leaves, on deciduous trees and shrubs, is the sort of pruning which necessitates the removal of relatively large stems, or branches, where shrubs or trees need to be cut back for shape and to remove dead or diseased limbs. While they are leafless it is easier to see what needs to be cut out and, because they are dormant, removing even relatively large limbs will not cause the plant to ‘bleed’ which is always a danger when cutting them during active growth. Pruning for shape is an important part of gardening as it allows trees and shrubs to be kept at the size most suited for the position they are in and prevents them from getting out of scale or senescent.
Pruning for plant health is another important aspect. Many shrubs tend towards excessive ‘twigginess’ and become congested over time so that they lose any shapeliness that they once had and become overly large ‘blobs’. Thinning, cutting out, the oldest third of the stems on an old flowering shrub, removing them right at the base, will encourage the production of new stems and it is this new, vigorous, growth which has the best flowering potential for future years. The constant removal of the oldest stems, from mature flowering shrubs, keeps the shrub eternally youthful and also prevents it from reaching the stage that it is so large and congested that you need to entirely grub it out.
Shrubs that are allowed to just get bigger and bigger is one of the most common problems that I come across in gardens. Not only does the shrub begin to lose its garden value but it often overshadows, out-competes and eventually kills its neighbouring herbaceous plants, the lawn and other, less vigorous, shrubs. Use this relatively quiet time of the year to assess what’s going on in your garden and either tackle the problem immediately, in the case of winter pruning, or make a plan to do something about it in the gardening year ahead—maybe you need to completely reorganise and replant a section of the garden?
If you have a whole host of new garden plans, now might be a good time to drop a few hints to friends and family because gardening can be an expensive business and the more you can be ‘gifted’, to help you towards your goals, the better! Although deepest winter is not the right time to plant most plants, bare-rooted material being the exception here, you can always think ahead, to the coming spring, and ask for garden centre vouchers on your Christmas present list. To keep your spirits up, in the meantime, it will soon be possible to obtain some of the earliest flowering bulbs, snowdrops and iris being chief amongst these, grown in pots and ready to be planted out even during the dark days of winter.
Last month I made a passing reference to the planting of bare-rooted trees and shrubs because leaf-fall marks the beginning of the time period for this sort of planting. The window of opportunity lasts right up until bud-break, next spring, so there’s still no rush to be getting on with the job although it’s the kind of gardening task that you can be getting on with when nothing else is possible. As ever this is very weather dependent because digging trenches, making planting slits, hammering in tree stakes (all parts of the process for bare-root tree / shrub / hedge planting) are only possible when the ground is not too wet or too frozen. It’s also not the most pleasant task to be doing in the driving rain, or during sub-zero temperatures, which can limit the days available to you.
If you ordered bare-root plants from an online, or mail-order, supplier and they arrive at a time when you cannot plant them immediately then the main thing is that the roots never get a chance to dry out. Any reputable nursery will dispatch your precious plants with their damp, naked, roots modestly sealed in plastic bags, sometimes with a moist substrate added for extra insurance. It is your duty to unpack them immediately upon delivery, soak their roots if necessary, and then ‘heel them in’ to a spare area of garden if you are not able to plant them straight away. Having ‘spare’ areas of ground is something of a luxury so, if you have nowhere to heel them in, temporarily potting them up in pots, or plastic sacks, full of potting compost (which can be reused to improve the soil at planting time) is an acceptable alternative.
Even during the darkest days of winter there are still plenty of plants which can lift the spirits whenever the weather is balmy enough for you to venture out into the garden. I’ve already mentioned snowdrops, the earliest of the ‘spring flowering’ bulbs, but soon they will have taken over from the autumn and winter flowering cyclamen and they will soon be joined by winter aconites, the earliest flowering crocuses, Crocus tommasinianus, early irises such as Iris histrioides and the Narcissus (daffodil) ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’, before the full onslaught of spring flowering bulbs emerge in their wake. All of these flowering bulbs are, obviously, at ground level and can be naturalised in beds and borders where their earliest flowering can be achieved on sites that are well sheltered and, for the earliest displays, south facing.
For flowers and perfume, most noticeable on still, yet sunny, winter days, scented winter flowering shrubs are especially useful. If you are lucky enough to have mature specimens of shrubs like winter sweet (Chimonanthus praecox), Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ or a winter flowering honeysuckle (the RHS recommend Lonicera standishii var. lancifolia ‘Budapest’) then there is nothing better than to be able to prune out a flowering branch and to bring it into the house. Even a single stem, in a vase, inside a centrally heated home, will fill the room with its natural scent which is so much better than any artificial air freshener or winter scented candle—Happy Christmas.
