Campanula carpatica: this plant has been in flower on and off since early summer, it’s in a sheltered spot near my front door…which helps. It grows to 30cm high and a lttle wider if it’s planted in the ground and will grow in sun or part-shade. Campanula is latin for little bell, which describes the shaoe of the flower perfectly.
You’d have thought that after freezing temperatures and all that snow, there wouldn’t be anything in the garden that’s in flower at the moment, or much of any interest to see…..but fortunately many plants are pretty resilient. My theory is that the snow provides some insulation from the cold, though this wouldn’t work for very tender plants.
Generally, at this time of year the interest is more subtle, no bright colours ( though see the photo of the campanula) or large flowers, but it is possible to have lovely things to look at.
This is one of my favourite winter shrubs, and it looks great the rest of the year too.
Nandina domestica: a really useful, elegant evergreen shrub, it has small white flowers followed by red berries in winter, the leaves have a reddish-orange tints in autumn too. It’ll grow in part shade as well as sun and eventually reaches 1.8 metres tall.
If you’d like nice things to look at in your garden next winter, start planning what plants you’d like now and aim to get them in the ground by March.
Jill
images: Jill Anderson
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