January in the garden

January means getting up and getting ready by electric light. I don’t go out much in the garden when it’s cold. But on an early winter afternoon like this, when it is clear and sunny, I appear as if emerging from hibernation, inspecting a garden I no longer recognise for signs of spring.

This time, I take the tulip bulbs that have been sitting in the porch, judging me each time I leave the house. Please tell me I am not the only person with spring bulbs they haven’t yet planted. Burying the tulips in an empty pot, I top it off with prickly rose cuttings to deter the squirrels from disinterring them.

Signs of life

A low winter sun trickles light through the ribs of the skeleton of the yellow dogwood (Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’) causing the erect wands to glow gold like Irish butter. Three weeks after the winter solstice and there are already green shoots on the thin, brittle stems of deciduous Clematis ‘Nelly Moser’.

The first swan-white buds of snowdrops are starting to peep, and star-shaped yellow flowers of winter jasmine jolly up the side wall. My final job before going in for lunch is cleaning the birdbath and to top up the feeders. Garden birds will have a tough time riding out winter during the coming weeks. In the kitchen, I realise the bread is spotted with grey mould.

Walking along the railway path to Pret for a sandwich I notice that the evergreen Clematis armandii festooning one of the abutting garden fences has numerous clusters of tiny, tightly-closed pink buds that will produce clouds of almond-scented flowers in March. On my way home I bought some dyed everlasting flowers (Xerochrysum bracteatum) from the vendor outside the station who said, “lovely afternoon, isn’t it?” and I thought, “in less than thirty days it will be Valentine’s Day and you’ll be too busy to chat about the weather”.

I open my New Yorker rye roll and sit down. Later I remember the dried flowers. I go and unwrap them from their brown paper and stick them in Grandma H’s 1960s Denby stoneware vase where they stand dyed and dead. I decide that in 2024 I will bring more cut flowers inside from the garden. I need to add something about choosing flowers to the list of jobs for this week’s blog.

Jobs for January.

Lower temperatures are on the way, with snow a possibility. Before it gets too cold there is time to bring in any remaining plants that are vulnerable to frost. If they are too large to bring undercover, then protect them with horticultural fleece. Remember to remove the fleece when the weather improves.

Chit first early seed potatoes, in old egg boxes. Place in a cool room with good light. The aim of chitting is for the seed potatoes to develop stumpy green shoots. This will give an earlier crop and increases the productivity.

An even more enjoyable job is to decide what seeds and summer flowering bulbs and tubers you want to grow this year. Dahlias are brilliant for providing abundant cut flowers for the late summer into autumn.

Winter is the time for pruning apple and pear trees, preparing them for new growth before the emergence of their buds in March. Winter pruning keeps fruit trees productive and manageable in size and allows maximum sunlight to reach the centre of the tree.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/winter-prune-apples-and-pears/

But stay your secateurs even if the perennials look messy. Plants such as echinaceas, fuchsias, pelargoniums, rudbeckias, sedums, and salvias, will resist the cold much better protected by their old stems and foliage. And as Piet Oudolf, the Dutch garden designer, observed, the dying process can be as interesting as the growing.

Good morning

The following day is much colder. The arctic blast has brought snow to the northern half of the UK. Plummeting temperatures have made the as soil hard as granite. The house feels cold, I bin the dyed bouquet. I will buy seeds and grow my own strawflowers this year, and all the bright colours I bring indoors will be natural.

Further reading:

https://www.capitalgardens.co.uk/blog/january-in-the-garden/

If you’re looking for other plants of interest in January, please visit our online plant finder