evergreen plants in a winter garden
When strolling around a garden in winter one of the most visible features are the evergreen shrubs and trees.
Dan Pearson writes in ‘Natural Selection. A Year in the Garden’:
“Depth and proportion have changed again now that the leaves are down, and your eye is drawn to the straight run of a well clipped-hedge, standing alone or in contrast to the perennial skeletons that you choose to leave for the weeks ahead.”
When the landscape of a winter garden becomes stripped back and derived of colour, evergreens become the major focal point in a winter garden. Evergreens also add volume, mass and structure into the overall design of a garden. Moreover, the evergreens are a source of continuity throughout a year.
However, this doesn’t mean that they remain the same and boring all year.
Many evergreen plants have beautiful blooms and depending on the variety, evergreen shrubs can flower in summer or in winter.
If we want to enhance our garden design, it is also worth considering evergreen shrubs with different shades of greenery and textures of foliage.
An evergreen garden often reminds me of Henri Rousseau’s paintings, where we can clearly see the layers of different foliage shapes, volumes and tones of greenery.
To avoid our garden becoming a mass of undistinguished greenery, we can combine different and contrasting shapes of leaves and tints of green colour, making the evergreen element of our garden more alive.
When selecting evergreen shrubs for our garden design it is worth remembering that plants with tiny, small foliage will recede from view, whereas those with bigger foliage will jump forward, thereby attracting your attention.
Evergreen plants can also add a bit of drama into our garden design through their architectural features like for example the unusual shaped foliage of Mahonias or of many Rhododendrons.
Many evergreen shrubs will also provide a much-needed dark, green backdrop for a variety of flowering perennials and other shrubs throughout the year.
There are also many evergreen shrubs that add a sense of celebration, especially around the festive time. Think variegated Holly, with glossy foliage and round red fruits or beautiful clusters of white flowers, that many winter flowering Viburnums produce.
As winter approaches, the garden unveils its underlying structure, often becoming bare and lifeless. To bring more interest into the winter garden we can introduce more evergreen plants.
Many varieties of evergreen plants, which flower during winter months, will add charm and the feeling of celebration that will allow you to appreciate and enjoy your winter garden to the full.