our experience of public gardens in the winter through plant walks

During the recent colder months, I have organised several plant walks in Edinburgh. These casual, morning walks have given me, and a group of friends, the opportunity to explore a number of hidden gardens located in Edinburgh’s old city and a view into what gardens in the winter can look like.

For two of these winter garden walks, we visited Dunbar’s Close Garden on Canongate Street and the Physic Garden on Abbey Strand, near the Holyrood Palace.

The purpose of these walks was to show how and where to look for that understated beauty of gardens in the winter. These walks were also designed to provide insights into how to  fully appreciate the changes taking place in gardens at  this time of the year.

It is much easier to notice plants in late spring and summer, when all their intensity of colours and textures are almost as if they are shouting at us. Therefore, we might think  that there is not much to be seen in gardens in late season.  

Surprisingly, gardens in the winter can offer us lots more than we think. 

Dried seed heads

The structural beauty of a winter garden

In winter, many plants and trees, devoid of their leaves, reveal their fascinating architectural forms.

Taking perennial plants as an example - their skeletal qualities bring a variety of structures and a range of heights, which brings a real perspective to the overall look of the garden. They act as living sculptures, filling borders with their prominent silhouettes.

In the absence of their foliage, plants at this time of the year can really be appreciated, particularly the structures of climbing shrubs and the shapes of trees. We also noticed plants, such as Eryngiums (Sea Holly), Lunaria (Honesty), Phlomis (Turkish sage), that were able to showcase the perennial borders beautifully with their winter seed heads.

Bare stems of a fig tree in Dunbar Close’s Garden

In Dunbar Close’s Garden our attention was captured by the beautifully exposed, intertwined stems of a fig tree (Ficus carica), resting against an old, grey stone wall. We also noticed its small, greenish fruits. 

Another element that brings interest into a winter garden is tree bark and colours of the stems.

In a Physic Garden on Abbey Strand, near the Holyrood Palace, we saw Birch trees with their glowing, white bark. The trees were contrasting beautifully with the evergreen backdrop of Yew shrubs and rusty foliage of Beech hedging.

Beautiful peeling bark of a birch tree

The beautiful subtlety of evergreen

It is hard not to notice the colour green when exploring a winter garden. The great variety of green elements on view are clearly one of the most prominent features during this time. 

Dunbar’s Close Garden’s evergreen structure

Topiary plants have been used to create a very strong evergreen characteristic in Dunbar Close’s Garden.

Here, globe and triangular shapes of Box bushes and Yew hedges supported the structure of this garden. These shapes help in distinguishing different sections of the garden, creating so-called garden rooms. This adds greatly to the viewing experience, as it allows the parts of the garden to be unveiled gradually as the visitor is guided though the various sections of planting. 

It is also important to notice that there are many shades of the colour green present in a winter garden. The variations of green form a rich tapestry, for example Asarum europaeum’s shiny, vivid green foliage juxtaposed with Hellebore’s greyish-green leaves.

Not to mention the striking visual impact of the many types of Ivies, which range from dark-green to sparkling with their variegated foliage. 

The shapes and structures of foliage also become more prominent in winter.  This makes it much easier to appreciate and to distinguish different leaf margins, from smooth and round to spiky, serrated ones. 

Hellebore and Asarum europaeum evergreen foliage

Winter gardens – flora (colours from flowers, berries and rose hips)

Green and dark brown dominated the colour palette in gardens that we visited, but there were plants that brought different colour. 

Amongst these, we noticed the winter flowering jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) with its small bright yellow flowers, as well as a variety of shrubs with berries that added orange and red tones into the colour scheme (Parycantha, Cotoneaster). There was also a Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) with its small, round, pink fruits, as well as a few varieties of rambling roses, with their prominent red hips. 

Hellebores flowering

Winter garden walk thoughts

These winter walks gave the opportunity to see in more detail the changes that are  happening in gardens at this time of the year. 

We saw many beautiful skeletal structures, stems and seed heads of faded perennials. We learn about the dominance of the evergreen elements, like topiary and hedges, acting as building blocks of a winter garden. We also noticed differences between foliage shapes and the variations and intensity of colour green. There were also berries, fruits, rose hips, flowers and scents that add to our experience.

These plant walks were a fantastic opportunity to learn more about plants and gardens in the winter and to tune into the seasonal changes. It was also a good opportunity to highlight what is important when thinking about creating a garden and what features we should consider when selecting plants for winter interest. 

If you would like to join our next plant walk, have questions about our services, or what plants to plant to make your garden more interesting for winter months, feel free to contact us.