The Lighter Side Of Winter

Planting containers now can provide instant impact for winter or a second boost in spring with well-chosen bulbs. Monty reveals his methods for perfect displays

- By Monty, photograph by: Jason Ingram, Marsha Arnold

By mid-November, Longmeadow is starting to dissolve into a brown and green blur. Mud makes all grass slippery and treacherous, and rain turns the paths to ice rinks. We long for cold, bright days as much for the dryness they bring as the rare glimpse of sun. But we don’t stop gardening and the garden doesn’t stop offering the occasional delight, albeit in rarer glimpses.

The Grass Borders can still look magnificent as they fade and any green structure comes into its own (albeit much less now that box blight has drastically reduced our evergreen hedges). It all needs a lift, however, to cheer on the spirits in what is, for me at least, the dankest, darkest time of year.

The best way to do this is with some judiciously placed containers planted specifically for winter display. I confess that the options are limited, but it can – and should – be done. Then, as we enter the new year, a much wider range of potted options are on offer as the first bulbs begin to appear and February can be gloriously illuminated by the jewel-like intensity of bulbs that can be planted now, such as irises, daffodils, hyacinths, scillas, muscari and, of course, tulips, which will follow on in April.

But first let’s deal with the calamity that is the six weeks leading to Christmas. Not much can salvage this drear time beyond, as I do, burying yourself in work and walking briskly every day. But one or two winter pots do help brighten the load.