Winter gardens (From The Oxford Times)

Seeing the woood for the trees

10:53am Friday 12th December 2008 in Gardening By Val Bourne

I did not realise how important trees were until I came to Spring Cottage just over three years ago. We didn’t have any — save for a scruffy whitebeam.

At first it did not seem to matter as I slavishly planted the hellebores and snowdrops I had brought from my previous garden. It was a bleak November weekend and when they flowered in the following spring they looked most unimpressive. It was nothing to do with their hasty upheaval from Hook Norton either.

It took me a full year to realise why they looked uninspiring. Then the penny dropped. There weren’t any trees and without them the low-level woodland border lacked scale and perspective.

So, on a whim, I drove over to Nicholson’s Nurseries at North Aston to put it to rights. I chose my favourite tree for winter blossom — the Winter-flowering cherry or Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’.

Despite the autumnal moniker this tree performs in winter, getting going once the days begin to lengthen. It has dark, spidery branches, which show up dramatically against winter skies and from time to time these are sprinkled with refined, pale-pink flowers.

This cherry is not frilly-skirted like a 1950s ballroom dancer, it is graceful ballerina. The flowers are as delicate as snowflakes on the wind and, when they drop, you could be attending a society wedding with sophisticated confetti.

there is nothing quite a like a birch in winter light and the pale-barked birches (from the Himalayas and China) are the best. Some have an almost-white bark with a satin sheen and B. utilis. var. jacquemontii ‘Jermyns’ is fantastic.

P. x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’ is a tree of my London childhood and I can clearly remember chasing the petals over the school playground (in a attempt to beat the winter chill ) whilst planes circled near Heathrow. So clearly pollution is not a problem for this enchanting tree from Japan. It is apparently a natural hybrid between P. incisa and P. pendula.

Do not go for the double, pink or weeping form. Be a purist!

My ‘Autumnalis’ is still small and I got into a terrible panic the first spring because all the flowers came at once, in April, and they hung in long-stemmed clusters. But I think my tree had been in cold store for now it rations out its short-stemmed, slightly double flowers throughout winter. In time it will reach 15ft (5m) and I can hardly wait.

Later my Japanese apricot (Prunus mume) flowers and I grow ‘Beni-chidore’ a form with rose-madder flowers which is really more shrub than tree. Mine has been grafted —none to well either — to form a small tree. But it seems to survive.

Much more ground-hugging is Prunus incisa (the Fuji Cherry) and ‘Kojo-no-mai’ graces every garden centre in winter. Its almond-pink flowers smother every twig. Familiarity bred contempt for many years. But finally I planted it and it buds up and flowers wherever you put it — in early spring. ‘Mikinori’ (named after a famous Japanese plant hunter) is a newish double white. Why did I resist for so long?The equally airy Tibetan Cherry (Prunus serrula) flowers in April or May. But in winter it is the shiny, mahogany bark that makes an impact in winter sun. Then two-tone bands of old and new bark give warmth and comfort to the winter garden. The bumpy, paler lenticels just add to the interest.

This rich-brown trunk needs a simple surround of silver-leaved cyclamen, or a ruff of the silver-leaved dead nettle ‘White Nancy’, or a frosty pulmonaria like ‘Majesté’. All trees need a simple planting scheme if you’re showing off the trunk.

The paperbark maple, Acer griseum, is another rufus-barked tree with ragged bark in need of a pale frame at ground level.

But there is nothing quite a like a birch in winter light and the pale-barked birches (from the Himalayas and China) are the best. Some have an almost-white bark with a satin sheen and B. utilis. var. jacquemontii ‘Jermyns’ is fantastic.

This clone also bears longer catkins than most.

Other good forms include ‘Doorenbos, ‘Silver Shadow’ and ‘Grayswood Ghost’. These shiny stemmed trees can be jet washed with slightly warm water in November so that they gleam and contrast against the black twiggy canopy above — unless you have better things to do!

Less well known is a lovely form of Betula nigra called ‘Heritage’. This birch has textured, ragged bark in warm browns and creams and if you have room, plant a group of three. Two frame the third one which is planted a little further back than the other two-giving depth and perspective.

Multi-stemmed birches can create the same depth where space is limited and the best is a form of Erman’s birch — B. ermanii ‘Grayswood Hill’. The pale bark has pink overtones and this birch also has large leaves with heavily serrated edges. Again, keep the planting simple.

Few things look better than a sweep of spring-flowering, deep-pink Cyclamen coum.

Finally do not dismiss the crab apple, or Malus, whether it’s ‘Red Sentinel’ or the yellow ‘Comtesse de Paris’. Both will hold their fruit through much of winter, adding extra sparkle to your garden. More importantly, choice trees will flatter your other treasures — giving them all-important scale and perspective.