Best in the Gardens – January

At Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, we’re delighted to share the beauty of our plants with you in 2023. If you’ve not already had a chance to visit this season, our Winter Garden offers an unparalleled sensory experience. The four-acre oasis will delight you with an extraordinary display of flowers, leaves, and barks. For more information about the wonderful winter’s plants you can see in the Gardens this January, read on.

Sarcococca orientalis

(sar-koh-KOH-kuha- or-ee-en-TAY-liss)

The first of the ‘Christmas Box’ to flower and bang on cue! These plants are closely related to true Box (Buxus), but as yet are not affected by the caterpillar or blight. Unlike true Box, they have fragrant flowers, one of the strongest scents of winter.

Lonicera x purpusii ‘Spring Romance’

(luh-NIS-er-a pur-PUSS-ee-eye)

This is one of the shrub ‘Honeysuckles’, a small, messy shrub with a semi-evergreen habit. Flowering in winter with small, but highly fragrant, white flowers sometimes with a hint of pink. As a garden shrub it’s best grown as a boundary hedge or mixed with other shrubs. Summer Romance is one of several selections of this hybrid, a cross between two Chinese species, L. fragrantissima (now extinct in the wild) and L. standishii.

Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’

(KOR-nus)

This is perhaps the best of the coloured stemmed ‘Dogwoods’. A good, strong red colour in winter, with a flush of pink at the base in late summer/autumn the white flowers are followed by white berries. Like most of the ‘Dogwoods’ it is easy to grow and maintain, thriving in most soil types. Annual coppicing in spring will yield colourful stems every winter.

Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’

(PY-nus kon-TOR-tuh)

This is a super, compact pine tree for the garden which gives outstanding colour in winter. There are quite a few conifers that can change colour with the seasons, but none does it quite as dramatically as this plant. This is what is described as a compact conifer, not a dwarf. This means that it doesn’t get much bigger than 3 metres (10ft.) after 10 years. The stunning colour in winter does fade to lime green during late spring to autumn, but it’s still an attractive tree.

Rubus biflorus

(ROO-bus by-FLOR-us)

Colourful stems are the theme of the winter garden and mostly that means bright reds, yellows and oranges. However, the bright white stems of the ‘Ghost Bramble’ can be equally striking for a winter display. This is a species of Blackberry native to the mountains of the Himalayas. Allowed to grow naturally this plant would produce white flowers and eventually, orange, edible fruits. However, like the Dogwoods, it is traditionally coppiced to the ground in spring.

Peruse our guide and map for more information about where to find our plants of current interest in the Gardens.