Head Gardener’s blog: December

9 December 2022

December is here and we are preparing to celebrate Christmas and the festive season.  In the natural world, our eyes are drawn to wonderful evergreen plants such as holly, ivy and mistletoe.

These plants are so important for biodiversity, and historically they hold great significance for us.  Both holly and ivy have been part of winter church decoration since the fifteenth century.  Mistletoe, also known as the golden bough, is well known for its connection to Christmas.  At Furzey Gardens, we have plentiful supply of all three and have harvested some holly and ivy plants to decorate our cottage for Christmas.  Holly is an especially good plant to have in the garden as it is native, easy to grow and provides berries to feed the birds through the winter months.  If you have plentiful supply, you can harvest some branches with berries to make your own Christmas garlands and wreaths.

To maintain good structure in your garden over winter, shrubs are a wonderful addition.  It will be too cold to plant new shrubs this month, but it is a great time to make a plan for spring planting.  For winter colour, I recommend evergreen or winter-flowering shrubs such as yew and holly, which both have vivid red autumn-winter berries.  If you prefer to plant for scent, consider witch hazel and Christmas box.  Skimmia is another excellent choice for wildlife.  The flowers are highly scented and attract bees and hoverflies.  Ensure that you have a male and a female plant in close proximity and the female plant will reward you with glossy sealing-wax red berries.  At Furzey, we have a male and female plant together and the female plant is covered in gorgeous berries this month.  I have plans to take cuttings from the female plant which has naturally layered.  This will give me an opportunity to introduce some more female plants in another part of the garden which currently has only male plants.  I look forward to more festive berries appearing.

I recommend planting Cornus for winter interest.  We have several of these by the lake in Furzey Gardens.  Choose varieties which have vividly coloured stems such as cultivars of Cornus alba, Cornus sanguinea and Cornus stolonifera.  You can plant bare root Cornus shrubs or trees from autumn to spring.  The varieties I have mentioned, grown for colourful winter stems, need moist soil (which is why ours are planted by the lake) and full sun.  Full sun is preferred as this leads to brighter winter stems.  Planting native shrubs and trees such as hawthorn, holly, hazel, and silver birch will provide a mix of flowers for pollinators, berries for birds and leaves for caterpillars.  Corylopsis is a member of the hazel family which is already showing leaf buds this month.  It will flower in February.  The flowers are fragrant, pale yellow, bell-shaped flowers in short drooping racemes.

While our gardens are mostly sleeping, we can still fill them with instant colour and seasonal impact, by adding vibrant container displays.  I recommend plants such as Skimmia japonica subsp. reevesiana, winter heather, Ajuga reptans, Heuchera ‘Fire Chief’ and Senecio cineraria ‘Silver Dust’ for a festive and eye-catching display.  Make sure that your pots are winter ready by using frost-proof, sustainable containers such as glazed ceramic or wooden pots.  If you have plastic pots, I recommend reusing them until they are unusable, then recycle them and replace with more sustainable options.  Propping your pots up by standing them on blocks or pit feet over winter will allow excess water to drain away, preventing them from becoming waterlogged.

For a floral display in your borders, there are several December flowering Camellias available.  I recommend Camellia japonica ‘Jupiter’ which has large, light red, single flowers featuring a prominent central cylinder of stamens with yellow anthers and white filaments.  Camellia x vernalis ‘Yuletide’ has similar single flowers, but these are brilliant red in colour.  Perfect for a festive display.  Another reliable plant for your garden is a winter flowering heather.  Here at Furzey gardens we have the award-winning Erica x darleyensis ‘Furzey’, which is recognised worldwide as one of the best winter flowering heathers.  It is a vigorous, bushy shrub with clouds of lilac-pink flowers, which darken as they mature.  It has a low, spreading habit, making it an ideal candidate for using as groundcover beneath shrubs or deciduous trees.  This wonderful heather blooms from December through to May, providing great winter colour.  To grow this plant successfully, you will need full sun in sandy, acidic, medium moisture, well drained soil.

As we approach the winter solstice, daylight is at a minimum.  With wintry weather and fewer hours available to spend outside, December can be a quiet month in the garden.  But despite the cold, dark days, there are plenty of vegetable and flower seeds that can be planted this month.  Consider sowing broad beans, onions, garlic, certain lettuce cultivars such as ‘Winter Gem’, Mustard greens, sweet peas, Laurentia and hardy cyclamens.  Winter-sown broad beans will be ready to harvest from May, while hardy annual flowers sown in December can flower several weeks sooner than those sown in spring.  Indoor seedlings will benefit from a heated propagator and a grow lamp, to help them grow into strong plants.

As the winter weather arrives, it is very important to consider our precious wildlife.  Many animals benefit from the food and shelter that our gardens provide.  Feeding the birds and keeping your bird bath topped up is a quick and easy way to support our bird population.  Leaving piles of leaves will support hibernating species, including hedgehogs, reptiles, amphibians and even bumblebees.  If we are fortunate and get some sunny days this month, it’s a great time to get outside and dig over your borders and prepare your soil for next year’s planting.  Pile well-rotted manure on top and let the worms and frosts break up the clods of soil.

The cosy dark evenings are an excellent time to order your flower and vegetable seeds for next year.  Think about what worked well this year and what didn’t.  Don’t be afraid to try new ideas.  Maybe you could add some seeds or new garden tools to your Christmas list.  If you are thinking of Christmas gift ideas for other people, you may wish to consider buying them a houseplant such as a Poinsettia or Christmas Cactus.  Another popular choice is an Amaryllis.  They are very easy to grow.  Just plant a bulb in good quality potting compost, water sparingly, and provide bright, indirect light.  When you plant the bulb, ensure that the pointed end is upright and pack the soil gently around the bulb so that one-third of the bulb remains above the soil line.  A support stake is handy for keeping the blooms upright.  You should be rewarded with beautiful, exuberant blooms in six to eight weeks.

Another gift idea to consider is an annual membership to Furzey Gardens.  I may be biased, but I can’t think of a more wonderful gift than being able to visit the Gardens for a whole year, experiencing our plethora of plants throughout the seasons.  A membership also gives you 10% off in the tea rooms!  We have extended our open dates this year and will be open until 24 December, children can come and take part in our daytime trail ‘Find the Winter Fairies’. The Tea Rooms will close on 24 December for a short winter break, re-opening on 12 January.

I hope you enjoy the festive season.  I would love to hear about any gardening related Christmas gifts that you receive.

This article originally appeared as the monthly In The Garden column in the Lymington Times, buy the paper on the second Friday of every month to read the next column first.