End of Year Garden

lots of healthy growth going on there. some lovely colours too.

Thanks Seaburn.

Au contraire Dawn! :) lots going on there! Beautiful to see those mature shrubs...gives me inspiration. :)

Thanks Karen, I'm still working on winter interest. I'm missing my favourite winter flowering shrubs as i gave it a hard prune, Viburnum Bontnantense Dawn. Cornus midwinter fire is of course another fave.

Dawn, I thin my ‘Dawn’ out rather than cut it back. That way I keep the blooms. In spring I remove all of the new shoots springing up from the base leaving a cluster of mature stems which will bear flowers. It stops it becoming a thicket. It makes the whole shrub much airier and more attractive in my opinion. I learned from hard experience that a lot of shrubs do better with this treatment, but you need to do it every year.

Thanks Karen, I think your technique would apply to Philadelphus too, I will try it. In time, do you gradually remove some of the older stems and let a new one grow up, or don't you think it matters.

You’re forgetting I’ve only had them for four years Dawn! But when I think about it, new shoots will appear firther up the plant in future, so I will probably be able to keep the thick stems and in time develop a sort of small multi-stemmed tree effect. That’s what I’m after. So I will just keep removing everything new from the lower 2/3 of the shrub and let the top 1/3 develop. Good idea to try it on the Philadelphus too. Although it has much slimmer stems.

By the way....love that penultimate photo of the ?midwinter fire.

Karen, they're Salix alba 'Britzensis' scarlet willow and 'Vitellina' golden willow. Actually look better in real life, I have 3, intention is to pollard the one furthest back and coppice the other two, I've coppiced once a couple of years ago.
:-)

Oh....I think I asked you exactly the same thing last year Dawn! Sorry! They are stunning.

They're faster growing than Cornus and so easy.

You have some lovely plants to see in your garden during the winter Dawn :)

Thanks Hywel, I feel they're important to have as the winters are so long. Hywel, did it take your Cotoneaster cornubia many years to give good amount of berries? Mine is a decent size tree now but doesn't have loads of berries like yours, thanks

It took a few years for it to fill out. I cut it back a lot so that it forms a good head on the standard. I hope you get lots of berries soon.

Great advice, thanks Hywel

Such wonderful colours Dawn I am very attracted to the Salix, no room unless I remove something else!! winter colour is so important don't you think?

Yes I feel winter plants are essential