This £5.99 easy-care plant will keep your garden green all winter – reveals expert.
IT’S that tricky time in our gardens when all the perennials are disappearing and we’re waiting for the bulbs to come.
But to prevent a bit of bleak empty-bed syndrome – have you considered grasses?
Not only do they look fabulous throughout autumn and winter, they’re easy to care for and can create much needed structure in your outside space.
Neil Lucas is director of Knoll Gardens – the UK’s leading Ornamental Grass specialists, in Wimborne, Dorset.
He told Sun Gardening: “These days we want our gardens to work well, but require less work to do so – and grasses fit that bill in all sorts of different ways.
“There’s such a wide range, and a lot of the wow factor grasses with all the big flowers tend to flower late August, September, October and November.
“So they have a wonderful winter presence. Plus they’re so easy to look after – they just need cutting down in February, March or even early April, so the new shoots can come through.
“And they need very little feeding and a bit of sun and shade.”
NEIL'S TOP SIX GRASSES FOR YOUR GARDENS
- Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ Very popular, it stands so well and makes a nice informal screen and works even in the smallest of gardens.
- Panicum ‘Sea Mist’. A really nice upright form and at this time it’s still looking beautiful. It’s starting to turn some beautiful warm yellow colours, which is quite fabulous.
- Mollinia ‘Overdam‘ Generally upright, they’re about waist high with lots of individual flower stems. Purple to start with, but at this time of year, they are the warmest, almost orange, honey brown colour.
- Miscanthus ‘Cindy‘. Makes nice mounds and soft, delicate pink flowers held about a foot above the foliage later in summer. That’s a beautiful shape and colour.
- Miscanthus ‘Malepartus‘ Very upright, quite a big grass. So not for the smallest of gardens, but it has one of the most dark purple flowers and fabulous autumn foliage.
- Pennisetum ‘Black Arrow’. Any of the Pennisetums make really lovely mounds of rounded foliage and come about in high summertime. They literally explode with all these bottle brush like flowers, which are quite dark. Absolutely beautiful.
You can buy Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ from £5.99 at J.Parker’s right now.
Miscanthus Cindy and Pennisetum ‘Black Arrow’ are both available from Knoll Gardens for £12.99.
But it’s not just grasses that look fabulous when the weather gets cold.
Recommendations from Exbury Gardens’ head gardener Tom Clarke include Nyssa trees.
He told Sun Gardening: “These provide fantastic autumn colour with a whole host of different cultivars ranging from golden orange to dark fiery red
“A decent Winter-interest shrub is Edgeworthia chrysantha – which boasts beautiful ivory, highly-scented flowers in mid-winter
“Rhododendron Christmas Cheer is an early flowering rhododendron with pink/white trusses that will brighten up any winter garden
“And Cotoneaster ‘Rothschildianus’– originally bred at Exbury in the 1920s, is a semi-evergreen shrub with lovely yellow/ivory berries which last well into winter.”
New book ‘Plants for the Winter Garden’ by Warren Leach, details a whole host of perennials, grasses, shrubs and trees to add interest in the cold and snow. Available now from Hachette
ALSO IN VERONICA'S COLUMN THIS WEEK...
Top tips, news and competition
WIN! We’ve got EIGHT pairs of Buckingham Neoprone Gardening Shoes from Town and Country worth £29.99 each to give away. To enter fill in THIS FORM or for more details, visit www.thesun.co.uk/BUCKINGHAM or write to Sun Buckingham Shoes competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Ends 23.59GMT 23.11.24 T&Cs apply.
SAVE! CUT your perennials back with B&Q’s Magnusson Geared straight Hedge Shears for £35 or choose Argos’ £10 McGregor Garden hand shears.
TOP TIP! Instead of unattractive and messy straw, plastic cloches – which are pretty cheap on Amazon – are visually much nicer to look at in your garden for protecting plants like Agapanthus and other hardy but often not quite hardy enough plants. And you can reuse them.
JOB OF THE WEEK Move your houseplants away from cold windowsills – and if you’ve turned the central heating on – make sure you up your watering routine to stop them drying out.
Follow me @Biros_and_bloom