12:19pm Saturday 30th January 2010
By Gina Parkinson
This weekend sees the end of January and there are signs the season is changing. Birds have begun a chorus as dawn breaks, not yet the loud carolling heard in the early hours during spring but a quieter more distant sound.
They are becoming physically noticeable too as they venture from their winter homes out into the garden.
A tribe of sparrows that live in a hawthorn hedge a few steps from central York had massed in a large puddle nearby as I walked by last Friday.
Usually hurrying on my way home, head filled with domesticity, I stopped to watch the splashing and trilling as these small creatures washed and chattered before flocking back to safety.
There are subtle changes in the garden too as slowly, growth begins. Much of this is still hidden beneath the earth but it is a comforting thought that once again favourite plants will soon be making an appearance.
This is still only in the imagination but there are plants that have been steadfastly in view all winter, providing colour and form while the summer bloomers have had their beauty sleep.
Coloured stemmed dogwoods are a good example, their bright branches lighting up a space with yellows and reds for months during the winter.
Red-stemmed varieties are perhaps the most popular with Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ easily available and providing brightly coloured stems for months. The plain green foliage turns to shades of red in autumn before it drops to reveal the bright stems and clusters of small creamy flowers that are carried in early summer.
Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’ is also red stemmed but has more interesting white-edged leaves that look particularly good in a partially shaded spot and highlight the colour of the creamy summer flowers. The foliage turns to shades of yellow in autumn.
For a different variation of leaf colour Cornus alba ‘Spaethii’ is a good choice with very bright foliage edged in yellow. Like its relatives above, this variety also has cream flowers and red stems.
For something different, Cornus alba ‘Kesselringii’ will provide an interesting sight with dark purple and near black stems and branches. Known as the black stemmed dogwood or sometimes poor man’s black bamboo, ‘Kesselringii’ has green leaves and white summer flowers that are followed by bluish white berries.
Its foliage turns to plum in autumn before falling to show the dark stems. This black dogwood can be grown in contrast with a red-stemmed variety or for a more startling combination with a yellow sort, Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’ for example.
Cornus care
The coloured stemmed dogwoods, Cornus alba and Cornus sericea, are easy to grow and require little care apart from annual pruning.
Although preferring a damp or even boggy soil, they will grow in almost all conditions other than dry shade.
Even then, if the soil is improved and annual mulch applied each March, a plant will cope in such a site. The best stem colour occurs on a shrub grown in full sun but good colour will still be produced in partial shade, it will just be a little darker.
Pruning is important for providing good winter colour.
A new plant can be left to establish for one year then after that should be cut back to 8cm/3ins above ground level in mid to late March.
This seems brutal but, before long, new stems begin to grow and, by summer, a shapely leaf-covered shrub will have been produced. By the time the foliage has dropped in autumn there will be plenty of bright new stems filling their space with lovely winter colour.
For a wilder shape, the stems can be pruned to different lengths to give a looser look and more variation in stem form.
Alternatively, take one third of the stems hard back to encourage some new growth and leave the rest for a taller, more imposing, shrub.
This is sometimes recommended for variegated types where attractive summer foliage is as important as winter colour.
Gardening TV and radio
Tomorrow.
8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. Presented by Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.
9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden. Gardening advice, ideas and features from the two horticultural experts.
2pm, BBC Radio 4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Pippa Greenwood, Matt Biggs, Bunny Guinness and chairman Eric Robson are in Newcastle where they are guests of the North East Hardy Plant Society. Eric Robson discusses the discovery of a design by Capability Brown and the gardening weather forecast is at 2.40pm.
Friday.
3pm, BBC Radio 4, Gardeners’ Question Time. This week the programme comes from Cambridgeshire where Bob Flowerdew, Matthew Wilson, Anne Swithinbank and chairman Eric Robson help gardeners in Linton. Plus a new mini series looking for the nation’s favourite flower starting this week with the camellia. The gardening weather forecast is at 3.40pm.
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