Garden Centre

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Winter flowers

What’s in bloom in your garden? For some reason, my arum lilies are suddenly having a new spurt of small flowers – although we’ve had a couple of air frosts, they seem not to have got down low enough to attack these arums, because even the smallest touch of frost browns them and they turn to slime the next day. My nerines are glorious, and they have been joined by the pure yellow Winter Jasmine.

It grows in full sun or partial shade and is as hardy as a Sherpa on top of a Himalayan mountain. It can grow to three metres tall and wide, and flowers from December to March.

Unlike many other jasmines, it doesn’t twine, so will need tying in if grown vertically. As you can see, ours is simply woven into a simple trellis, which is all the support it seems to need. The stems are quite flexible and stay green even in winter when the bright yellow star-like blooms appear. The best thing about Winter Jasmine (jasminum nudiflorum for those who like botanical names) is that – unlike the arums – it continues to flower even in the coldest weather.

Labels: flowers, winter colour, winter jasmine

The All Seasons Gardener at 1:18 AM

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