Tag Archives: Bourne End Gardener

Bourne End gardener, garden design and services, garden care, hedge cutting in Wooburn Green, Marlow, Taplow, Flackwell Heath

  • Garden planning, redesign and rejuvenation
  • Bed planning for all year interest
  • Timely planting, maintenance and propagation
  • Planned garden maintenance programmes – including hedges, lawns, flower beds and ponds
  • Hedge cutting and rejuvenation
  • Holiday care – greenhouse and garden watering & lawn mowing – we’ll take care of your greenhouse and garden while you relax

We can also….

  • Create and plant ponds, and look after them
  • Plan and install irrigation systems
  • Provide garden coaching and tuition, from propagation to pruning
  • Survey your garden and create bespoke maintenance plans for you to use

Gardener Bourne End
We can show you how to create a garden that does what you want  without it costing the earth. If the time, effort, disruption and cost of creating your garden has put you off, we can show you creative garden designs without those hassles.

The Garden

Preparing the garden for winter

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Preparing the garden for winter

Garden jobs for winter, jobs in the garden for winter, your garden in November, preparing the garden for winter

As the flower garden slows down for the year, the door opens for next year. Now is the time save plants for next year, plant for spring, and let winter help you out with the hard work.

When dahlias blacken with the first frost cut back the foliage, then lift the tubers, clean and trim off the thin long roots. Stand them upside down to make sure they’re dry before storing them away in dry compost, or wrapped in newspaper. Or if frosts don’t touch your garden, mark where they are and leave them in situ.

preparing the garden for winter
Dahlias should be cut back when blackened by frost

There is still time to buy and plant spring flowing bulbs. Choose your supplier carefully and you’ll get quality and a bargain to boot; wholesale suppliers are already reducing prices on remaining stock. My favourite is Gee Tee (gee-tee.co.uk), I’ve used them for nearly 20 years. You can continue to plant bulbs into the first weeks of December.

If your soil is heavier, get it turned before the frosts come. Just dig, lift and leave, and let the frosts break down the clods for you. As the temperatures drop these lumps will form a perfect growing medium, ideal for areas where you’ll be sowing seed – vegetable beds or borders for annuals.

Dormant season is busy for gardeners

The dormant months – from leaf fall through spring budding – are also the perfect time to prune trees and shrubs. Christopher Lloyd maintained that the best time was when you had time and secateurs in your hand. And I agree, but the down side is that you may have to sacrifice the plant’s crop of flowers or fruit.

Timely pruning will encourage flowers and fruit, create better shape and promote strong growth. Trees that will benefit most are those that will “bleed” if pruned when sap is flowing—including apples, pears and figs, acers, most deciduous ornamental trees, and vines including grapes and wisteria.

Many roses can also be pruned when it gets cold, floribunda, hybrid tea and climbers. In fact if it’s not rambler, you can prune it in winter.

Those ornamental deciduous shrubs that have doubled in size this year can be brought back into line while dormant. They’ll look like a skeleton for a few weeks, but will come back with better shape and vigour.

The golden rules of pruning are the three D’s – dead, damaged and diseased – remove them all while creating an open and uncongested shape. For roses that is usually a “goblet”. With fruit trees Monty Don advocates the should be open enough that a pigeon can fly through.

And if you need any extra guidance, the RHS website explains everything very clearly. Enjoy your garden this winter.

Garden task for November, preparing the garden for winter

 

The Garden

Stop bamboo spreading

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Stop bamboo spreading

How to control bamboo. Stop bamboo spreading. Bamboo runners taking over. Clump formers spreading out, bamboo spreading, bamboo gone mad. Control bamboo, bamboo removal. Bamboo eradication.

From the ground up has had several cases through May and June of bamboo plants that were otherwise well behaved clumps spreading wide by sending out runners. This was when it was relatively hot and notably bereft of rain. The symptom and prevailing conditions are not unrelated. The plant is spreading  out in search of moisture, but you can stop bamboo spreading.

This happens with otherwise well behaved clump forming plants as well as the more notorious running forms, and can have taken over the garden before you realise how bad it is.

In some forms the runners are strong enough to push through paths and tarmac, and to undermine walls or other structures with shallow footings.

Stop bamboo spreading
Bamboo can be managed to look smart and effective.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. There is no water local to the plant, so it looks for more to sustain itself. At the same time it may drop leaves to reduce transpiration.

The result in your carefully planned border is bamboo shoots where you don’t want them and brown paper leaves adorning everything.

You can take preventative and corrective action to stop bamboo spreading.

Prevent bamboo spreading runners

If the reason for sending out runners is to find water, then pre-empt it by making sure there is adequate supply. That does not mean just leaving a hose pipe on next to it, but also reducing its requirements.

This involves thinning out the main clump, removing up to one third of the stems so that it needs less to survive. This exercise also keeps the clump tidy, as any dead or damaged stems can come out at the same time.

You can also concentrate water at the plant by mulching,. This wil both maintains moisture close to the plant and helps to prevent evaporation.

You can also employ various physical and mechanical barriers, all of which are effective. But they may not be conducive to the easy care regime bamboos propose.

If bamboo has already spread

If the bamboo has already sent out runners you have a choice to make. First is to take a long view and starve out runners. Just like any other weed if you reduce its capacity to absorb energy it will eventually weaken and die. So keep cutting off the stems as they show themselves.

Stop bamboo spreading
The detail of pruning bamboo

Or you can take more radical action. They can be cut out, or even just pulled out. They should come out with the assistance of a fork or lever such as a pick axe. If stems are rising in places that can’t be dug or disturbed, within established borders, through a priced rose bush or such, then this is what to do. Bamboo Botanicals has further useful information.

Let the stem grow until it has a width of 6mm or more. Then cut of the stem leaving a portion behind. To this stump apply a glyphosate weed killer. With larger stems the liquid will sit inside the hollow stems and kill the runner.

The treatment may need repeating. There is always the danger that it will knock back more than just the runner you want rid of. So in some cases dig around the runner to expose it and cut as close to the main plant as possible. Don’t spray weedkiller around  the plant. It takes much more chemical to effect a result than letting it soak through the stem.

Once the stem and runner are dead they become quite tough and can usually be pulled out.

The best choice?

In this case prevention is better than cure, and the argument for a maintenance regime is strong. It takes only a couple of hours per year to keep the plant neat and limit its need to go searching.

From the ground up garden, Bourne End gardener, garden services Marlow, Taplow garden care, local garden service Bourne End

 

The Garden

The weed suppressing membrane myth

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The weed suppressing membrane myth

Using fabric to suppress weeds, low maintenance gardening weed fabric, weed membrane, weed suppressing membrane myth
Clients often ask me to lay a fabric membrane to “suppress weeds”. This is usually as part of a plan to minimise maintenance, or specifically weed growth.

But what the client expects, and what they get, may be very different, even though I might provide exactly what they request.

The concept that a membrane can be used to suppress weeds for long is not real. It’s the weed suppressing membrane myth. Let me qualify that further. If you want to be able to plant in or around it, and have your plants survive or thrive, it does not work.

In fact a fabric or membrane  can often makes things worse.

If you want to lay a path or hard standing of aggregate that will not contain plants then it may work for a while.

Here’s why I don’t believe the weed suppressing membrane myth

If fabric is laid to cover the area between plants, be it mulched or not, the area will eventually become fertile above the membrane. As material decomposes and provides a base for seeds to germinate, the ground below deteriorates as it becomes starved of nutrients.

The weed suppressing membrane myth
Weed control fabric is not suitable for permanent planting

And as a layer of compost like material forms on top of the fabric, the first things to germinate will be those with tough roots – like ash and dandelion – that penetrate and anchor it. Now try digging them out.

And those covered with aggregate that looked so smart for a while. Now there is detritus gathering between the stones, enough for seeds to germinate. And once they penetrate the fabric… it’s a familiar tale.

Meanwhile the soil below is unable to benefit from the nutrients laying above. Worms working the soil cannot reach the materials to drag it into the soil. It will gradually become lifeless.

Weed suppression is for me in the same category as the no or low maintenance garden. It is feasible,  but subject to many caveats and just as much work to make it effective.

Low maintenance is possible, in particular growing conditions or by compromising on the plants you might want, choosing instead from a more limited palette.

So what does work to suppress weeds then?

Several things are better than the weed suppressing membrane myth.

Less stress about weeds helps, just accept that they will grow. Even if you eliminate every one in your garden, the seed will blow in from next door. Or a therapeutic hoeing regime, leaving the cut weeds to cook in the sun.

Mulch works– plenty of it will suppress weeds. Until it starts to break down, at which point it nourishes the soil. So renew it at least twice a year.

Best of all is a  dense planting plan that prevents weed seeds getting to the soil to grow. Include plants who’s presence will kill off the seedlings of anything else around it. This is called allelopathy, and is a fascinating subject for those with time to consider the potential.

Weed fabric, weed control, weed barrier, weed suppressing membrane

 

 

 

The Garden

How to water pots

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How to water pots
watering potted plants, how to water plants, watering plants, watering pots

It may seem like the simplest thing in the world, but a few simple ideas potting up plants for patio or indoors will make watering easy. Here we discuss how to water pots.

We all like to have the bright colours and exotic foliage offered by summer bedding and annuals. But looking after them when there has been no rain, or you’re away for a week or more can cause concern. After all, they are not cheap, and who wants a pot of dead plants on their doorstep?

When planting, consider the shape of the pot. A “standard” or traditional flower pot, be it clay or plastic, has a lip at the top. This usually represents about one tenth of the pot volume. And quite by chance, the volume of water required to soak the pot. It doesn’t matter what size the pot is, the proportions are the same.

How to water pots
A traditional plant pot with space for watering

So when you are potting up the pelargoniums and cannas, plant them below the lip, and pack the soil or compost only to that level. Water it in by filling the pot to the rim with water. That water should have reached the bottom of the pot. A regime that applies water before the compost is bone dry will allow that to be reliably repeated. Mostly.

How to water pots properly

Water won’t be able to easily penetrate the soil if its dried out. Or just run down the side of the pot where the soil has contracted. A simple test is to stick in a pencil or finger to a depth of two inches. If soil sticks to it then it has water enough for now. If nothing sticks then its time to water. It is also possible to break down the dry surface tension by adding washing up liquid, just a drop will do. That will help stop a tension forming and allow the water to soak in.

Watering of pots can be done weekly, if one properly; more frequently in severe heat or the prolonged absence of rain. Frequent shallow watering, in pots or in the ground, will stimulate the roots to grow to where the water is, near the surface, rather than deep into the soil where you want them to be. Water running out through the drainage holes tells you its done thoroughly.

How to water pots
Water pots thoroughly but less frequently

When you water also matters. Water in the morning or later in the evening, preventing the immediate evaporation that could occur in extreme heat. The reason most usually given was that leaves may be scorched in the sun, the water droplets magnifying the sun. This myth was debunked by tests as long ago as 2010.

How to water pots check list

Fill your pots to the correct level with  compost; leave room for water.

Test the soil to establish if water is needed.

Water less frequently but more thoroughly.

If the pot has dried out, apply water in parts gradually soaking the root ball enough for the water have got all the way to the bottom pf the pot.

If need be add washing up liquid to the water.

Bourne End gardener, garden services Bourne End Taplow Marlow, Loudwater Flackwell Heath

 

The Garden

Look after lawns in drought

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Look after lawns in drought
cutting grass in dry weather, drought, top tips for lawns in summer

It’s been a bit dry lately, but grass is growing strongly.  But now is the time you must manage it carefully, by adjusting how and when you cut. This is how to look after lawns in drought.

Grass is tough, and though it may start to turn brown it will come back when the wet stuff finally arrives.  When that is we don’t know. If there has been no rain by Friday 23rd this drought will be as long as the famous hot summer of 1976.

While grass is growing try to change your outlook. Rather than approaching it as a  “shortening, consider it to be an “evening up”,  making it all level. Raise the blade height and consider leaving the clippings behind to help retain moisture and, if its clipped fine enough, actually feed the lawn too.

There is always a tendency to try to cut the lawn short. Like Wimbledon, or Lords.  But they have staff to fuss and care over it, t lavish water and replacements for the food it can’t create by photosynthesis.

The blade of grass is the plant’s leaf,  where the chlorophyll uses the sun to create its food. By removing the blade you reduce its ability to grow, in effect , weakening it.

Three rules to look after lawns in drought

So, Rule 1. Cut your grass long.

And the industry is fairly much agreed on the view that you should only ever cut 1/3rd of the leaf.

But what if you have a “lawn” that has grass growing at different lengths? Then what you are doing is making it level, rather than cutting the whole thing. There are ways to improve the vigour of the rest of the grass, thereby making it grow more evenly.

Rule 2 Only reduce the blade length by 1/3rd.

And more topically, what about the heat, or lack of rain? If you can’t water your lawn then it’s in the hands of the gods. But you can look after lawns in drought by preventing the loss of any water that is present. Leave the collecting box off the back of the mower, even if it is every other cut. That way the trimmings are left to shelter the roots of the grass a little, and they may also be able to return some nitrogen to the soil too,

Rule 3. Don’t collect the clippings when its hot, leave them to mulch the grass.

Look after lawns in drought
Scalping weakens the grass, leaving t vulnerable to weeds and heat. Cut the grass long!

There are views that over cutting the grass can create more problems. Scalping leaves soil open to weed seeds, shorter weaker grass can’t compete with them. And there may even be benefits to some invading insects.

My favourite resource on lawns has to be Lawnsmith, where you get a no-nonsense view on what is right and what’s not. If you care for your lawn you’d be wise to take a look.

 

The Garden

Your garden during a hose pipe ban

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Your garden during a hose pipe ban
how to get around a hose pipe ban,
how to water your garden in hose pipe ban

Although it has not yet happened, a hose pipe ban seems almost inevitable. Prepare yourself now to water more efficiently, and more important, legally. It’s been a big investment, know what you can and can’t do in your garden during a hose pipe ban.

According to the Met Office, April 2017 in the southern region where we are saw less than 20% of the average rainfall for the last 30 years.

That has implications for those trying to undertake the regular scheduled garden jobs that we’d expect to do at this time of the year. Planting and dividing perennials, planting large shrubs or trees sowing or repairing lawns – try aerating a lawn with clay underneath right now – are all jobs having to be delayed. Unfortunately we don’t know until when, making planning projects quite difficult.

Your garden during a hose pipe ban
Rainfall in April was at a 35 year low. Source: Met Office

The lack of rain suggests a ban on hose pipes. They use 900 litres an hour, so are an easy way to save water usage. But they don’t consider your garden during a hose pipe ban.

There are ways to get around it, though I don’t advocate using hose pipes willy nilly. If you are a blue badge holder you can register to continue to use your hose pipe. But for everyone else the watering can beckons. You can fill and empty the watering can as many times as you like.

Every cloud has a silver lining

But those with extensive gardens this may be an opportunity. Invest now in an irrigation system, to save water now and still be able to keep your plants alive. And to save you time and water in the future. An irrigation system, especially with automated or timed watering can also be an asset that adds value to your garden and house.

There are several makers to consider, and they start from simple leaky hose pipe laid across flower beds to complex pipes with dropper or spray valves. Only the ones that drip onto soil are exempt, so no no sprays or misters.

Leaky pipe systems use the same connectors as your regular hose. Installing now makes sense, while plants are still not too big. They get water down onto the ground where plants need it most. This cuts out the wind drift and evaporation associated with sprinklers.

Mulching over the top with leaf mould will help keep that moisture in, and also help stop weeds. Some of them can grow  regardless of how much water we get.

I personally use leaky pipes in the greenhouse and in the main flower beds, and can’r recommend them enough.  They can really make a difference to your garden during a hose pipe ban. Get them ordered and install now before the garden centres run out.

The RHS still have their advice from April 2012 on their website, describing strategies to cope with drought.

 

The Garden

Perennial plants: Lift, divide, repeat

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Perennial plants: Lift, divide, repeat
Now is the time to divide perennials, spring divide perennials

With many plants just revealing themselves after winter hibernation, it seems that last  thing you’d want to do is dig them up. But for many, it will be doing them, and you , a favour. This is my ethos for perennial plants: lift, divide, repeat.

Some require this radical attention to maintain their vigour. Others to curb it. Or at least reduce the impact of it. That could be to stop a plant dominating an area, or to be able to use some of it to make a bigger display with more impact, or to split it and use the same plant to maintain the repetition.

Repeating the same plant in a border or adjacent borders helps to tie the scheme together. The same thing works with plants that are of similar colour and height. Using the same plants occasionally, or the same few plants in a repeating pattern adds cohesion. Otherwise there would a jumbled flow of individual plants, with nothing to bring it together.

Some plants either can be split, or need to be split, every 3-4 years. Some others can be done every two years, and sometimes more frequently than that. If the conditions are just perfect you can double the stock every year. This has happened in my garden with some crocosmias, and geraniums.

Self-seeding plant factory

In addition there are those that self-seed, providing a random imbalance of repeating that is entirely natural. These don’t actually need to be split, but it is inevitable that some will need to be moved. So, in effect, the same rules apply.

The small area of vacant soil at the front of borders is a favourite setting place for foxgloves, verbascums and verbenas. Sometimes they have found the perfect place to grow. But there is only so many 6ft high flowers you want at the front of the border.

Perennial plants: lift, divide, repeat

Other great self-seeders include eryngium, various poppies, cornflowers, nasturtiums and marigolds.

Don’t be afraid to split your border plants now. They’ll forgive you. Remember, for perennial plants:lift, divide, repeat.

 

The Garden

Spring makes it all worthwhile

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Spring makes it all worthwhile
Spring is coming, plants emerging in spring, first flush of spring

The dark winter days when daylight time was limited are over. The days when the list of jobs to do in rain or frost was never ending. Digging compost heaps, spreading it as mulch, cutting back gently decaying growth at various stages so as to maintain the elements of interest. On each occasion cursing as awkward winter boots and coats were donned. Spring makes it all worthwhile.

Spring makes it all worthwhile
Contrast of shade and texture provide intrigue. The dogwoods make their last stand before cutting back to the stool.

And there is not even much yet in the way of flowers, no extravagance, just the simpler and more subtle presentations of daffodils, snowdrops, primula, crocus, cyclamen and hellebores.

Spring makes it all worthwhile
Hellebores and cyclamen fanfare euphorbia and dogwoods in this shady area

The first flushes of exuberance are just about to start with kaufmannia tulips about to open.

But the real joy is in the myriad shades of green that are contrasting with the soil and with their emerging adjacent neighbours. Add to that the variety of forms and shapes and patterns. Spring makes it all worthwhile.

The simple peach red flowers of the quince, the deep bronze shoots of roses. And the self-sown plants just revealing their implausible choice of location; you can’t move them and undo what might be the most brilliant positioning you never thought of.

Spring makes it all worthwhile
The varying shades of quince flowers in shade or light. Flowers now, and then bronze etched leaves, and already looking forward to quince jelly for xmas.

Fronds of ferns just forming, and the relief that some of these delicate specimens have survived another year. That applies to pretty much every perennial showing itself, you welcome them like old friends, warn them of the monsters lurking nearby waiting to consume their fresh growth, and of the imminent cold snap trying to catch the unwary.

 

The Garden

Gardening in winter

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After the Gardening in winter
jobs to do in winter, winter tasks in the garden, winter gardening jobs

When I started From the ground up in early 2016 many detractors suggested that I’d have nothing to do across the winter. They could not have been more wrong. Gardening in winter is not only plentiful, but essential.

Many jobs can be done in winter, allowing more time for essentials in the spring. Many more MUST be done while it is cold.

Key winter gardening jobs include breaking soil so that winter weather can affect it, applying winter lawn treatments both mechanical and chemical — conditions permitting,  pruning trees, hedges and shrubs, and planting bulbs.

Bulb tradition

We traditionally think of planting bulbs in September, maybe October. God forbid you forget, you can get away with November. But the cold months are different now to the traditional view; winter does not really kick in until December. And even then, the ground is often warm still, and perfectly OK for planting bulbs.

This coincides with bulbs suppliers reducing their prices, meaning that you can get twice as many bulbs for your money.

There is still that concern that you might not get exactly what you want, so if there is a “must have” selection, order then early and pay the price. Places where any “late red tulip”, or a generic small stemmed daff will do can often be filled cheaply. Just wait for prices to come down. Tulips can be planted out later than Daffodills, which can always be started in pots under cover. These are ready to be planted out in February – or sink the pot – where there is a gap.

if you are planting 10 tulips or crocus then this will matter little. If you are creating a garden for impact, or developing themes year on year then saving time and money really makes a difference.

For a few years I have coveted Allium Globemaster, with 20cm globes on robust 1m stems. But at £3 to £5 each form many suppliers I could not justify the cost of creating an impact. In the sale this year 10 bulbs cost just £11, a reasonable cost for adding this element into my plan.

Gardening in winter
Allium Globemaster make a big impact

Break soil for winter weather

A key task in winter gardening is to turn and break the soil in the borders. The winter weather than acts on it, breaking it down, but with these other benefits.

Turning the soil helps to aerate it, which improves the structure and allows for better root growth in the spring. It also exposes some pests and their eggs to the cold, which can reduce their numbers when the growing season begins.

Similarly, the same principle applies to weeds and their seeds. and any other leaf or tree detritus may become mixed with the soil, adding nutrients for growing plants.

But the real gardening in winter is in tree, shrub and hedge care.

Gardening guides suggest that many shrubs require pruning in early spring. Again this is subjective, depending on where you are in the country. And how you define spring.

But lots of trees need attention while the sap is not rising, including Apples. And many shrubs are also pruned while dormant. Rejuvenation pruning, where hard pruning back is required after a period of overgrowth or neglect, is best done between November and March. That fits with the majority of definitions of “before spring”.

Examples include Berberis, coloured stem Dogwood, Spiraea, Deutzia
Fuchsia, Corylus, Leycesteria, Philadelphus, Cotinus and Salix.

The only plants that cannot be pruned hard are some conifers.  These are mostly unable to regrow from old wood.

Deciduous hedges should also be pared back now. This is the ideal time to cut back those hedges that have become ever wider.  Prune back to a stouter more rigid frame, so the bush can present a softer more manageable face. This will need trimming as new growth gets to two – three buds.  And cut to form an upward slant from a slightly wider base. This slanting or “batter” enables light to reach the bottom, allowing more even growth.

Doing this gardening in winter should leave more time for the spring essentials, like clearing ornamental grasses, and dead heading day lillies; things that cannot be done at any other time.

Renovation care

Undertaking restorative or maintenance pruning in winter is at the expense of future flowering of the shrub, so some of this year’s flowering will be lost.  With large shrubs or hedges do it gradually, allowing the chance for recovery. Reduce shrubs in stages over two years, and hedges one side at a time, and the height at a different time to the sides.

A good feed and mulch will help the plants recover.

Attending to the hedge sides separately means that it still maintains some integrity. When the side cut in winter recovers, the other side can be reduced. This may be the following autumn. Otherwise wait until the gaps have filled in.

I have an overgrown elaeagnus that has a few leaves on the very outside of a large empty space. I don’t like it as a hedging plant; it not dense enough. So I am going to cut the outside face back hard.

Gardening in Winter
Overgrown Elaeagnus  before cutting back

Hopefully it will become dense enough to work as a hedge for both privacy and security. If not I will replace it completely.

 

Gardening in Winter
And after 30cm has been removed
The Garden

Dogwood for winter colour

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Using Dogwood for winter colour
intense winter colour dogwood coloured stems

Many gardeners “in the know” will now have borders featuring the coloured stems of dogwood. These vary from deep purple to a whiter shade of pale, with reds, oranges, green and yellow. They know the secret of using dogwood for winter colour.

And in the summer these same plants offer strong growth with interesting foliage and  flower.

Established Dogwood plants  are available from garden centres in the spring, but at £12 – £20 each it will be expensive to create the sort of block colour impact that gets them noticed.

The best time to buy is early winter, when rooted stems can be bought for as little as £1 each.  The more popular varieties, such as Midwinter Fire, will cost more. But the price of bare root canes reduces the more you buy.

One of my favourite sources for bareroot and perennials is Buckingham Nurseries.

I have used dogwoods for a few years now, both for the colour and for the winter framework. When they are cut back in the spring, the shorter framework provides support for emerging bulbs and perennials. So they earn their keep more than once.

Where to see dogwood for winter colour

A place that offers an idea of the sort of impact these plants provide is Dorney lake. I go there occasionally to drop my boy off to row or cycle, and always stop to look at the flowing banks of colour. It reminds of opening a large set of coloured pencils for the first time, seeing the colour themes grouped together, transforming from one shade to the next.

Dogwood for winter colour
Dogwood bank from a distance
Dogwood for winter colour
A closer view
Dogwood for winter colour
Willows add the golden hue

I also like the garden at RHS Wisley, where the dogwoods are planted closer to the water, with paths meandering through. From the opposite side of the pond you can see them reflected in the water, amplifying the intensity of the colour.

Dogwood for winter colour
Dogwood beds by the pond
Dogwood for winter colour
Midwinter fire with a Rubus foil

 

Both these places use other plants with similar properties to accentuate the effects. At Dorney a golden stemmed Willow provides intense yellow, while Wisley uses the ghostly Rubus brambles to provide a white foil.

Unless you have a significant garden that is likely to be where the  large colour block concept ends. But you can use dogwood for winter colour in the smallest garden, using just a few plants. But in order to see the intensity of one colour there needs to be another present, rather like a straight man; Laurel and Hardy, Morecambe and Wise or Barker and Corbett.

Using just green or just red won’t do because you can’t see quite how green or red it really is. I use other dogwood colours, or other coloured stems, to provide the contrast, but anything that provides a backdrop will do.

How to get that intense stem colour dogwood for winter colour

The best colour shows on the newest stems. And that implies that you have to cut off the old ones – mostly – every year. Do it while the plant is dormant, normally by the end of February. But delaying pruning until later will maximise the colour show. In established plants, wait until the new leaves start to show, then either coppice to a low stump, or pollard for a mid-height effect.

The best time to prune for most of us is when you have time to do it. But to get the best result of strong coloured stems next winter, prune before leaf growth really gets going. Make your stem reduction before the plants energy moves to the leaves, or re-growth is impaired. That leaves a window from Late February to late March, depending on how warm it is.

Dogwood is a plant group that will enhance any garden, one I can’t contemplate being without.

Using dogwood for winter colour workshop

This spring I will show you how to prune your dogwood for winter colour, and what to do with the cut stems afterwards. I use them to create cuttings for more plants, or as cut stems in a tall vase for the hall way or lounge.

Click here for more on the free Dogwood for winter colour garden workshop.