February -

Snowdrop gardens, something for your valentine and planting trees with optimism.

As a gardener, I see glimmers of hope in the gardens this month. Hellebores in bloom, iris reticulata and bulbs in pots on tables (write a note in your diary for October to pot up bulbs for tables). Winter blossoms are coming to an end but buds are swelling on trees and shrubs. Snowdrop carpets are jewel like on emerald lawns and mossy banks.

A visit to gardens specialising in winter planting can be joyous on a grotty day. Try Angesley Abbey for their winter walk, Cambridge Botanic Garden and further afield but worth the trip, Bennington Lordship for their Snowdrops.

The commercial calendar event of the month is Valentines. I am perennially frustrated that it is down to the consumer to make the right choice, not the manufacturer, but how romantic is a shop bought bunch of imported, chemically ridden and ethically questionable roses, bought on an imposed date anyway? The brilliant ‘Flower Project’ on Mill Road will sort you out with the best seasonal flowers and dried locally grown ones if you must be buying flowers but if the apple of your eye is a gardener, I bet you they’d prefer a bareroot rose for their garden. That, dear reader, is true romance.

In fact, I’d suggest writing out a wish list of bare root shrubs and trees and leaving it out for your lover to notice. Locally, Simpsons Nursery in Fordham grow all their trees in fields and lift in winter months to plant. These are cheaper than container grown and will transfer far more easily. They’ll also post via their ‘Mail Order Trees’ site. For larger ‘instant’ trees via a garden designer or landscaper, Deepdale and Barcham are go to. We are lucky to have these great tree nurseries so close.

Winter shrubs make a great backdrop for summer perennials and bulbs, giving star performance as the garden retreats. Usually they have great fragrance too, plant them where you’ll pass often; the front door or out to the bins. Summer colour is easily achieved; there are few summer shrubs that are real must-haves, no, I’d recommend those for autumn and winter colour giving real dynamism including Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’, Chimonanthus praecox, Hamamelis and viburnums all are fragrant and good solid doers. Cornus or dogwoods are great for a larger garden together with willows too for bright stems. In a garden,  reliability, strong presence all year when the living is easy with good winter performance make for a great valentine.

I am planning on planting some trees this February. I want to create an enclosure of espaliered pears in the walled garden. Around the polytunnel, I need some shade. Making my short list for trees are amelanchier, prunus autumnalis, together with other fruit trees like ‘Cambridge Gage’ and Damson. All these have great blossoms from late autumn all the way through to May and there is the fruit of course. I’ll prepare the holes by lifting the turf or clearing weeds, dig a square pit, just a little larger than the root ball. Square so that the roots are encouraged to break out of the ‘circular’ growth of a pot. Then I plant, add a stake, backfill and heel in (literally firm the soil with the heel of my foot around the base of the plant). Add a thick layer of mulch on top (not around the trunk) of ideally composted bark or leaf mold. Failing that, a barrow of homemade compost or well rotted manure. Keep the tree weed free and water well in the first year. Keep mulching at least once a year for a few years until the tree is established.

Planting a tree is a great task of hope. I’ve planted trees in gardens that I know have sadly, subsequently been removed. Keep planting, keep hoping. And Spring, with it, will come.