Winter gardens are full of interest and colour. If you want to create a garden with all year round interest and are looking for winter planting ideas here are some of the best, and sweetest scented of our winter shrubs and plants.
Shrubs and plants in bloom and looking good in December
Sarcococca
Sarcococca the aptly named sweet box it flowers from late November through to Jan/Feb. One of the sweetest scents of all flowering shrubs, it is low growing and shade tolerant. Ideal near the front door where all can enjoy its scent. More about Sarcococca
Mahonia
Mahonia brave the snow to flower throughout the worst of our winters. It is easy to grow, tough and many varieties are spiny, with sharp thorns often planted as a deterrent hedge. There are non spiny versions and also many scented varieties.
Christmas Carol
Hellebores flower over a long period. The earliest are the Christmas rose varieties, this is Christmas Carol, and they carry on flowering right though into March if the conditions are right. Hellebores are an easy to grow, woodland perennial.
Ilex
Hollies are a slow growing, evergreen perennial shrub grown for the colourful berries. That said, getting the berries requires planning, as you need to plant the right combination of holly shrubs. More about hollies and how to get the berries.
Viscum album
Its Christmas time and so we are thinking about decorating our houses and Mistletoe is a firm favourite. Easy to say, hard to grow. It is a parasitic shrub which commonly grows on hawthorn, apple, poplar, lime and conifers. It has a proliferation of white berries.
Lonicera
My favourite winter shrub. Looks insignificant and smells delicious. All the heady scent of a honeysuckle in mid winter. I took this image at Styal Mill in Cheshire which I would visit for the delights of Lonicera fragrantissim. An easy to grow woodland shrub.
'Winter Beauty'
Flowering from December onwards, Clematis urophylla ' Winter Beauty' . It has delicate nodding white flowers, with lush evergreen foliage.
It is just one of several winter flowering evergreen clematis.
Winter Jasmine
Winter flowering Jasmine flowers throughout December and January. Although it lacks scent, it produces a succession of bright yellow flowers.
It is easy to grow and you can train it into a hedge.
Skimmia
Around this time of year, female Skimmia should be bearing bright red berries and looking very festive.
Some Winter planting combinations
Grasses look fabulous in winter, especially back lit by sun. In the frost grasses sparkle and take on an ethereal look of sheer beauty. Driving through the countryside in winter I just want to stop and take endless photographs the natural grasses look so beautiful when frosted. We can create this look in our own gardens with a few well place grasses. More about winter grasses.
I took this image of this spectacular winter combination at RHS Harlow Carr. Bright yellow stems of Cornus Flaviramea, the delicate seed heads of Lunaria, common name Honesty under-planted with snowdrop. This was repeat planted along a border and looked just inspiring. All credit, as always, to the RHS planting gurus.
This is an RHS image, and credit is due. Its title is “Path in snow amongst Cornus 'Midwinter fire' in Winter. Winter Walk, RHS Garden Wisley credit Joanna Kossak”. It conjures up a winter wonderland with such strong colour from that favourite of shrubs, Cornus. It really is a Midwinter fire. Just a few Cornus can really light up your garden in winter. Ideal shrubs for areas of damp or boggy soil and they are also tolerant of partial shade.