by Sarah Tune
Its nice to have some colour near your front door during the winter and If you have the luxury of buying a few plants, there are many colour-ful types available this time of year, so why not choose something other than the winter flowering pansy on their own. Cineraria maritima with its silver white filigree leaves, when dry have an appearance of snow-flakes. Festuca glauca (blue grass) looks great in the winter frost. Calo-cephalus brownii, a chaotic bundle of small silver branches and stems (Tumble weed) or even (Black grass) Ophi-opogon nigrescens that creeps out of the pot with shiny arching jet black blades.
Calluna heathers come in many natural col-ours white, pink lilac red as well as spray-painted Bright’s!
Evergreen Euonymus in small 9cm pots yel-low and green, white and green cream and green or just green make good centre pieces or back a drop for cyclamens of red, shocking pink, two tone, the list goes on. Placed near the front door, they smell heavenly. (Pic)
Another very Christmassy plant is Gaultheria procumbens the pink and red berries smell like a well-known antiseptic cream when crushed! Small Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’ with its mass of small burgundy buds or the more expensive variety ‘Magic Marlot’ with cream margined variegated leaves is highly colourful for a dwarf evergreen shrub. Buds start forming in September until late winter or early spring when they open to surprise you with their gorgeous fragrance that always makes me smile. (Don’t forget they need a lime free soil so use ericaceous compost to help them thrive.)
If you own any planters, pots or troughs with old summer bedding in or that have been ig-nored for a few years and banished to the back of the garden never to be seen again! (You know the ones!)
Well, this is a good way to bring a little bit of Christ-mas magic to them!
Adding a Christmas ele-ment isn’t as difficult as you think. You could do this by using a real fir or wicker wreath.
Select some interesting evergreen foliage from the garden, clear about 4cm of leaves from the stem as you would a cut flower, bunch together winding thin wire around the stalks twist the wire twice to secure (pic). Use the ends of the wire to connect your foliage posy to the wreath by wrapping the two ends of the wire around the wreath and twist twice at the back, repeat this process until you are satisfied with the look of your creation. You may want to embellish it further with pine-cones, cinnamon, orange slices or ribbons and jingle bells. Adding battery lights to make it stand out at night. Place your wreath over the top of your pot and admire your new jolly planter. You have acquired a new skill! Con-gratulate your self with a glass of mulled wine.