January – Lawns
- If it is mild, mowing the lawn is acceptable to avoid it being overgrown in spring
- After any heavy rain or snow, find areas where water is laying and improve the drainage there
- Continue to spike lawns
- Have the lawnmower and strimmer serviced
January – Container Plants
- Bring forced bulbs inside for flowering. These include crocuses, irises, hyacinths and narcissi.
- Check for aphids and spray first if necessary
- Dead-head winter flowering pansies to keep them flowering freely
- Before the end of the month, prune vines in tubs
- Move containers to sheltered sites to protect roots of susceptible plants
Photo credit: Brian Smithson (Old Geordie) via Visual Hunt / CC BY
January – Trees & Shrubs
- Sharpen the pruners, secateurs and hedging shears
- Continue to prune out broken dead or diseased branches from established trees and shrubs
- Wind sacking around the branches of young conifers to prevent breakages
- Cover azeleas and dwarf rhododendrons with straw if severe weather is forecast
- Firm up soil around plants that have been loosened by frosts
Photo – Oregon Grape (Mahonia x media ‘Charity’) King’)
Add the wow factor to your winter garden with striking plants that look their best right now. Whether you’d like to fill your borders with hardy shrubs covered with fragrant flowers, clad a fence or archway with colour, or plant a small flowering tree to create a focal point, you’ll find a great range of seasonal stunners in garden centres this month.
While a coating of frost or snow creates temporary magical moments, unifying our gardens with its icy frosting, the excitement really starts when it melts away to reveal winter displays full of colour, character and charm.
Top four plants for Winter flowers
Witch Hazel (Hamamelis varieties)
Unusual fragrant flowers in clusters of tiny ribbons develop along the entire length of stems. Popular AGM varieties include ‘Pallida’ (sulphur-yellow), ‘Jelena’ (coppery-orange) and ‘Diane’ (red).
Oregon Grape (Mahonia varieties)
Choose from a range of robust and reliable Mahonias to provide evergreen foliage and golden seasonal flower, followed by black grape-like berries in spring. Good AGM varieties include ‘Winter Sun’, ‘Apollo’ and ‘Charity’ among many others.
Winter Flowering Viburnum (Viburnum x bodnantense)
A majestic shrub producing deliciously fragrant pink/white flowers. Popular AGM varieties include ‘Dawn’, ‘Deben’ and ‘Charles Lamont’.
Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger)
This compact perennial is perfect for a slightly shady position, producing clusters of flowers through winter and into spring. Also look out for the many wonderful Hellebore hybrids now available.
Create striking winter displays by choosing some of the following for your planting combinations:
- Aucuba varieties
- Clematis cirrhosa and its variety ‘Freckles’
- Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas)
- Coronilla ‘Citrina’
- Daphne ‘Jacqueline Postill’.
- Dogwoods (Cornus varieties)
- Elaeagnus varieties
- Garrya elliptica ‘James Roof’
- Rosebud Cherry (Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’)
- Skimmia varieties
- Sweet box (Sarcococca)
- Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum)
- Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox)
- Delightful deciduous shrubs producing scented flowers. Ideal to cut and bring indoors! Popular AGM varieties include ‘Grandiflorus’ and ‘Luteus’.
© Adam Pasco Media
Top tips for extra Winter colour
1. Choose your planting sites carefully. Ensure new plants are positioned in full view from a window or prime position by patio doors so you can enjoy them every time you look outside on dull days.
2. Add winter colour to your front garden to welcome you home and cheer-up your local neighbourhood.
3. Fill patio pots and baskets with hardy winter bedding plants, like pansies and violas with cheerful faces in a kaleidoscope of colours.
4. Cover the ground under trees or shrubs with a carpet of Winter Aconites (Eranthis hyemalis). Although dry tubers are only available for autumn planting they’ll establish better from growing plants, and small pots of flowering aconites are available to buy during winter. Get ready to buy snowdrops too!
5. Plant clumps of winter flowering Iris unguicularis to brighten a dry, sunny spot at the base of a wall or fence, and use blooms as cut flowers to bring indoors.