A touch of hoar frost on the seedheads or a sprinkling of snow on the topiary – some gardens are made for winter. We look at five of the best to visit in and around London – just don’t blame us if you return and start redesigning your own!
Great Fosters is a hotel, but go for afternoon tea and you can have a nose around the 50 acres of gardens (pictured) too. Clipped yew hedges, a knot garden, some fanciful topiary, a grassed amphitheatre and several pieces of well-placed statuary ensure there is always something to look at, even in the depths of winter.
Structure is key in every really successful winter garden, and at Ham House near Richmond, there’s that in spades. The lavender parterres in the cherry garden might not be in flower, but the plants still make attractive little mounds, especially when, as here, they’re contrasted with neatly clipped yew cones and an adjacent hornbeam tunnel. Especially stunning with a dusting of snow.
The National Pinetum at Bedgebury, Kent
With our thoughts turning to Christmas trees, where better to visit than the National Pinetum at Bedgebury (pictured below), established as the National Conifer Collection in 1925. Today it contains over 12,000, mostly evergreen trees, including rare pines, larches, spruces, firs and cedars, set in 350 acres of rolling countryside. You can buy Christmas trees in the visitor centre, and the guided Boxing Day walk has a great local following. For more information, call 01580 879 842.
If you think of colour in a winter garden it’s most likely to be evergreen but not here, where an array of vivid red dogwoods, willows and other trees and shrubs with vibrantly coloured or patterned bark come into their own about now. Look out for the coral, paper and snake bark maples, and the glorious cinnamon-red bark of the strawberry tree (arbutus x andrachnoides).
The sharp, fresh air of the winter months is perfect for appreciating some of the garden’s most fragrant plants and Wisley has a great selection to track down. Follow your nose to the varied sarcococcas – also known a sweet or Christmas box - edging the conifer lawn; the beautiful golden Chinese lavender (Chimonanthus praecox) near the laboratory, and the wonderfully scented witch hazel Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’ dotted about the gardens.
Wrap up and enjoy!
