The right plants can give you a beautiful winter garden

If the garden could be described in musical terms, then what occurs during the fall of the year as leaves change colour before dropping from the trees and becoming humus, would rightly be described as a symphony of autumn colour.

This seasonal display was better this year than ever before, thanks largely to the high temperatures we experienced during the summer months. However, this colourful extravaganza is gone too for another year as we find ourselves heading towards mid-winter.

The beauty that is to be found outdoors now lies in features such as winter stem effect, the barks of the trees and the straw coloured grasses like miscanthus as first the frost finds a home on their now brown stems and later the raindrops catch the light for perhaps just a fleeting moment.

Most of our deciduous trees are now naked and bereft of any foliage but don’t look at this as a drawback for without these specimens showing off their stem structure, the garden in winter would be a far less interesting place.

Betula pendula ‘Youngii’, more commonly known as Weeping Birch offers a mystical, magical effect in the garden now as it stands beneath a grey winters sky, its silver coloured bark, nearly translucent and topped with a hairstyle like something straight out of a witch’s hairdresser. The silhouettes in this winter light are also what adds to the drama at this time of the year.

There are flowers, of course, which will bloom during these winter months, cyclamen, violas and pansies, hellebores and winter heathers will brighten up the dullest of days and should be incorporated. So too, there is plenty of evergeen foliage to provide interest, the Carex grasses, variegated euonymus, heucheras and leucothoe all provide some consistency during each month. But for me, no garden is complete without berries during the winter.

Holly, of course, is probably our most known and loved winter berrying plant but there are plenty of others. Skimmias too are associated with Christmas and the berries are often used along with those of holly to create Christmas wreaths and garlands. Please don’t shed a tear if your plants are bereft of berries by the time the festivities start and you have no material for decorating as it means that the birds in your garden are well fed, surely more important than having some berried holly inside.

Nearly all plants produce seed and some of these seeds are protected inside fleshy berries. Some of these berries are edible to us humans and some aren’t. But they are all attractive to various wildlife who will enjoy a winters feast and in so doing help to spread the seeds and thus continue nature’s fabulous cycle.

Pyracantha is a favourite of mine as the flowers which light up the evergreen foliage during the spring and summer months, are loved by the bees and then these become beautiful berries which create a display during this season every bit as stunning as the floral fanfare earlier in the year. They are loved by the blackbirds who will become quite brave in search of their meal.

There are some lesser known plants which provide beautiful winter colour with their berries. We’re used to the red berried skimmia in all its forms but keep an eye out for the white berried skimmia ‘Fructo Alba’ or ‘Wakehurst White’. This is a low-growing, compact form, similar in leaf to the red berried skimmias but creamy white berries are produced from late autumn to spring before new white, scented flowers are produced once more.

Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii ‘Profusion’ is a bit of a mouthful to pronounce but what a magnificent plant it is at the moment.

Flowers are produced in summer, lilac pink in colour and you would be excused for not noticing them for they are a bit insignificant to look at. During the autumn the callicarpa produces a breathtaking foliage display but in truth, it is for the winter that this plant is grown.

It is awash with clusters of purple coloured berries now on bare stems. If you haven’t seen one before you will think the berries are artificial when you see them.

Pernettyas are one of those plants that are referred to as dioecious, meaning that you need a male plant to pollinate a female for the female to produce berries.

There are several different varieties producing pink, red and white berries and, Christmas decorators be grateful, they are not taken by the birds.

Feed the birds

Berries are part of the magic of winter in the garden and as well as providing aesthetic beauty for us to admire, they also provide food for the birds.

Encourage birds in your garden by providing them with nesting boxes, situated high enough not to be accessible by predators such as cats or vermin and nowhere near their food source.

Also hang some bird feeders, again taking care not to position them where cats might be able to get the birds and where debris left beneath can be cleaned up so as not to draw unwanted wildlife into the garden.

Use a selection of different feeders and food types to attract a wider variety of birds.