TIPS FOR A FESTIVE FORAGE
The best sort of Christmas decoration is one that you have foraged from your garden, or with permission from other outdoor spaces.
Our garden is overrun with ivy, and both the leaves and the flowers can be used in arrangements.
I snip it off with abandon and use it to decorate mantelpieces and hall tables combined with bay, and rosemary for fragrance. You can also use berried stems such as holly, pittosporum and rosehips.
Think outside the box and make use of anything evergreen as well as seedheads.
This year we have a display made from wispy stems of Old Man’s Beard, black berried myrtle, and spiky teasels – making sure to leave plenty outside for the goldfinches.
Create your own wreath by bending flexible twigs such as hazel or willow into a ring secured with twine or thin wire, then weave in clippings from conifers and other evergreen foliage as well as dried hydrangea heads.
I hang card decorations from tall stems of dried bronze fennel and place small branches of shrubs such as Viburnum Bodnantense ‘Dawn’ and Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’ in a vase to enjoy their perfume indoors.
Create your own wreath by bending flexible twigs such as hazel or willow into a ring secured with twine or thin wire, then weave in clippings from conifers and other evergreen foliage as well as dried hydrangea heads
PROTECT PONDS FROM WINTER ICE
If you have fish in your pond, it is vital to prevent the surface from icing over. You need to leave a small hole for oxygen to get in and waste gases to get out.
One way of doing this is to float a tennis ball on the surface of the water, which prevents ice from forming beneath it. But in prolonged freezes this may not work, so use a small floating pond heater.
If your pond does ice over, never break the surface of it as this stresses fish. Instead, place a pan of hot water on top and allow it to melt.
If your pond does ice over, never break the surface of it as this stresses fish
KEEP ORCHIDS LOOKING THEIR BEST
With drying central heating and lower light levels, orchids need a little help through the winter.
Orchids like to be kept moist so place the pot on a shallow tray filled with water and pebbles, or move it into the bathroom, so long as it isn’t too shady.
Make sure your orchid isn’t in a cold draft or too close to a radiator, and has plenty of indirect light.
Make sure your orchid (pictured) isn’t in a cold draft or too close to a radiator
PLANT OF THE WEEK
CHIMONANTHUS PRAECOX ‘LUTEUS’
Also known as yellow wintersweet, this medium-sized deciduous shrub is prized in winter when it bears a profusion of small, but highly perfumed, waxy yellow bowl-shaped flowers.
These look particularly pretty when shown up against the bare branches in the sunlight.
It prefers full sun in a sheltered spot, so is good against a sunny, south-facing wall. Best in moist but well-drained soil. It can grow to 3m high and wide and is hardy down to about -10c.
Cultivated in China for more than a thousand years, it was first grown in Britain at Croome Court in Worcestershire in 1766.
Chimonanthus praecox (pictured) is prized in winter when it bears a profusion of small, but highly perfumed, waxy yellow bowl-shaped flowers
READER’S QUESTION
Can you suggest plants for a winter container?
J. Beedle, Lymington, Hampshire
Dwarf conifers can make an excellent container plant in winter
Dwarf conifers can make an excellent container plant in winter, providing evergreen structure and interest.
Try bushy Pinus mugo, the mountain pine, Chamaecyparis ‘Nana Gracilis’, a slowgrowing cypress with dark green fan-like sprays of leaves, or grey-green Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’.
Combine with pheasant’s tail grass (Anamanthele) or red Carex testacea ‘Prairie Fire’ and pink cyclamen or hellebores.