Wealden Times | WT260 | January 2024 | Good Living Supplement inside

Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’
Helleborus orientalis
Viburnum tinus
Sarcoccoca confusa
istockphoto.com/ Mykhailo Povoroznyk / Tom Meaker / MichelR45 / Wirestock /
DragonTiger / tamara_kulikova
but it positively enhances the look
of many evergreens; Viburnum tinus
and its shorter, bigger leaved relation
Viburnum davidii, have dark green
glossy leaves; Osmanthus has leaves a
little like box, but is faster growing and
has the added bonus of scented spring
blossom; stalwart Elaeagnus is tough
as old boots and puts up with hard
frost – and hard pruning. All of these
will look good through the winter.
Winter Sun
So it’s not actual sun, but a burst of
cheery yellow from a plant in the
depths of winter is sometimes as close
as we get. Mahonia is a favourite
for this – a striking evergreen with
aggressive looking serrated foliage
and spectacular, highly scented yellow
flowers – like spiky bursts of sunshine.
Acacia dealbata (mimosa) is bigger,
more of a tree, and needs a sheltered
site, but it is a lovely thing to grow
if you can, and will shine out like
a beacon in late winter, covered in
fluffy chick yellow, scented blossom.
There is a smallish early narcissi
that naturalises well and can also
be grown in pots and borders, as it
doesn’t have the enormous leaves of
some daffodils that flop about for
weeks once the flowers are over. It is
called ‘February Gold’, but can often
be seen earlier than that, its cheery
heads nodding in the chilly breeze.
Winter Fragrance
Winter flowering plants rely on scent
to attract pollinators. The few tough
little insects that eke it out through
the winter are drawn in by the scent of
the flowers, rather than the colour, so
the plants often have tiny, insignificant
flowers. In fact you may not notice
them at all, until you get within a few
metres and are hit by their fragrance
– and even then it can be hard to
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