You may think winter is a time for hibernation, but far from it; winter is a time for doing. This is the only time of the year when you have a chance of keeping pace with the garden, and every task done now will mean a better garden in summer.
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Winter gardening jobs
Planting bulbs
We aim to get all our spring-flowering bulbs planted by Christmas. Sooner would be better, but our schedule rarely allows this. In the beds and borders we plant bulbs that we expect to be long-lived, this year adding Narcissus ‘Snipe’, a cyclamineus type raised in Wales in the 1940s. In the raised stone troughs we take the opportunity to experiment with new bulbs. This year we are planting Fritillaria pontica and Cyclamen coum, their new growth protected from birds and mice with a ‘cage’ of fern fronds and Cornus twigs.
Marking plants
Before the first frosts of the winter and the cutting down of herbaceous material we place bamboo sticks horizontally, pinned in place with bent wire, and short sticks pushed into the ground, with different-coloured tape on top. Although we usually try to hide the ‘mechanics’ of a garden, this visual reference is invaluable when the plants have retreated underground and you need to know where the crowns of plants are for lifting and dividing and the extent of their maximum spread.
Taking cuttings
Winter is the ideal time to take hardwood cuttings of many shrubs, including lilacs. Although slower to produce independent plants, this method of propagation is straightforward and usually successful. Cut 30cm long stems approximately pencil thickness, with a flat cut at the base and a sloping cut at the top. Push these two thirds of their length into the soil in nursery rows or into a pot and simply wait, for about 18 months, by when they should have rooted and be ready for moving and replanting into their flowering position.
Coppicing hazel
Each year in winter we selectively cut a few of the hazel stems in the Nuttery to the ground to maintain the balance of new and old stems. The Nuttery or nut platt is made up of Kentish cobnuts, a variety of hazel thought to be planted at the turn of the 19th century. Harold records in his diary the moment he and Vita decided to buy Sissinghurst: ‘We suddenly came upon a nut walk, and that settles it.’
Traditionally coppiced and used for timber, as well as nut production, Vita and Harold instead underplanted the nut grove with a carpet of polyanthus. Today, the polyanthus have gone and in their place a palette of woodland plants seductively colonises the pools of dappled half-light.
Bareroot planting
Winter is the time for bareroot planting. By this we mean plants, such as roses, hedging, trees and shrubs that have been grown in the field and lifted once they’ve become dormant, around early November. So long as the ground is not waterlogged or frozen, these bareroot plants can be planted between November and February without any check to their growth.
Pruning roses
We grow many ‘old roses’ at Sissinghurst (‘old’ meaning those bred before 1867 when the first hybrid tea rose, Rosa ‘La France’, was introduced). Vita loved the romance of these old roses and planted them freely at Sissinghurst, with many of these original plantings still thriving today.
To ensure their good health we winter prune and spring feed. Pruning starts in November (weather dependent), usually with the climbers and ramblers, and continues into December and January with our collection of shrub roses. We remove old wood to encourage new, prune back flowered stems and tie down the new long shoots.
Useful information
- Address Sissinghurst Castle, Biddenden Road, nr Cranbrook, Kent TN17 2AB.
- Tel 01580 710700.
- Web nationaltrust.org.uk/sissinghurst
- Open Gardens open daily 11am-5.30pm. Admission £17.
- Follow Troy on Instagram @troyscottsmith1
