Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Garden Answers

“Sowing onions in the greenhouse for some large bulbs to harvest in August.” Geoff Stebbings answers your questions on p74 “Planting patio pots early-flowering bulbs and perennials.” Sue Fisher shares this month’s must-have plants on p28 “Moving roses that I’ve decided are in the wrong place!” Greg Loades looks at growing garlic in containers on p72 “Tidying, sorting and preparing the plot for spring, even in the cold!” Olga Grieves makes the most of her lovely plot, p68 “Soil prepping – adding compost to those beds in the veg garden that need it.” Geoff Hodge on the best cold frames, p86 “Preparing some new bee hotels by drilling logs, ready for spring.” Adrian Thomas shows mosses some love, p42…

Patio project A FRESH SPLASH OF WHITE Regardless of whether or not snow falls, add a crisp white vibe to the patio with a white wicker basket display. You don’t even have to plant up a new pot, just place an existing container inside a new basket and use some jute sacking to cover any gaps in between. Place pots or vases of snowdrops around your display to add extra freshness and celebrate winter’s most resilient blooms. An evergreen fern such as a Polystichum setiferum or Dryopteris erythrosora adds fullness through winter and is effective against a pale fence or shed where its shape will be shown off well. Violet-flowered Cyclamen coum will reliably soldier on this month and give great value in a ‘two for the price one’ show…

Camellia ‘Philippa Forwood’ These beautifully delicate, light pink single flowers will add some elegance to an east-facing spot in slightly acid soil. H&S: up to 5m; £10.50 for a 0.5L pot. burncoose.co.uk Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ Bright variegation, hot pink flower buds, followed by scented pale pink blossom make this a special evergreen for a sheltered, sunny spot. H&S: 1.5m; £20 for a 1L pot. hayloft.co.uk Mahonia ‘Winter Sun’ The rosettes of precisely cut foliage are a work of art on their own but the cheerful buttercup-yellow, scented spires of flower are the winter highlight. H: 4m, S: 2.5m; £27.99 for a 2L pot. crocus.co.uk Skimmia japonica ‘Globe White’ Also known as ‘White Globe’, this compact skimmia has domes of white blossom in spring but the yellowy-green flowerbuds are just as…

Out in the winter garden, magic is happening beneath the ground. Bulbs, corms and tubers, those little self-contained powerhouses of growth, are bursting up, regardless of what the weather might throw at them. Green shoots are nosing up through the soil – or even through snow – and the very first flowers starting to open in the middle of winter. Then gradually, as the weeks pass and winter’s grip eases, growth gathers pace and new blooms open day by day to create clumps, carpets and pots full of flowers – the overture to the grand and glorious spring pageant of bulbs that welcomes in another wonderful growing year in the garden. Most early-blooming bulbs are small in stature, literally keeping their heads low to survive the adverse weather. In most…

Cornus, roses, flowering currants, many woody climbers and fruit bushes can all be propagated from hardwood cuttings. Remember that new growth is slow and it can be six to 12 months before you pot them on, but they require minimal attention. Start by selecting healthy new stems that grew last summer and cut off a long section down to the point of origin with clean, sharp secateurs. Remove the soft and flexible growing tip. Cut the stems. Snip them into 15–30cm sections with a bud at each tip, using a sloping cut across the top to help rainwater run off. This also reminds you which way is ‘up’. Use a straight cut at the base, below a bud. Dipping the bottom in hormone rooting powder encourages roots to form and…

Few garden owners are willing to open to the public in the depths of winter, but those that do are full of ideas for creating interest and excitement in the coldest months – and Dawson’s Garden in Kilmany, Fife, is a fine example of such a space. This cottage garden was planned carefully by the late artist Dawson Murray to give interest through every season with an emphasis on shape and form. In winter its fine structural trees and clipped evergreen hedges, berrying and fruiting plants, textural seedheads and winter-scented flowers create a dazzling spectacle, especially when etched by frost against bright Scottish skies. “The geometric box hedges Dawson planted to divide the space look particularly striking,” says his widow Liz, who now manages the garden. “He extended them by…

Our experts GEOFF STEBBINGS gives expert answers to all your gardening problems. Geoff is an author and gardening writer and was head gardener at Myddelton House, north London. GEOFF HODGE will be answering subscriber questions in our new Live Zoom Q&A events. Geoff is a horticultural author, radio broadcaster and speaker, and former online editor for the RHS. IAN HODGSON casts an expert eye over unruly borders, providing advice on how to revamp them. Ian is the author of Great Gardens, in association with the Society of Garden Designers. Send us your queries! CONTACT US By post: Garden Answers, Bauer Media, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA Email: gardenanswers@bauermedia.co.uk Web: gardenanswersmagazine.co.uk Social media: Find us on Facebook as Garden Answers X@GardenAnswers Instagram as gardenanswers…

If you’re dreaming of owning a full-blown greenhouse to experience the joys of spring seed sowing and growing on, but don’t have the room or budget for one, don’t despair. There are alternatives that you can use to help you raise new plants and overwinter cold-susceptible ones. A cold frame is the most compact option, with a very small footprint, providing covered and protected growing space for even tiny gardens and courtyards. They’re also great for providing extra growing space if your greenhouse is on the small size and is always bursting at the seams with plants, and are an essential hardening off accessory for all greenhouse owners for toughening up seedlings raised within the greenhouse. They’re also perfect for growing on and even growing a smaller number of short…

Save £21 when you buy the collection Breathe life into those shady spots in the garden with this wondrous mix of woodland favourites, including English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) and snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis). Dainty blooms in a spectrum of white, blue and yellow will appear in succession from January through to May, creating a colourful carpet underneath trees and shrubs where not many other plants will grow. Supplied as bulbs ‘in the green’ in February, which is the perfect time for planting. These are easier to establish, giving you much more success than traditional bulbs. • Buy 25 x Eranthis hyemalis bulbs for £17 • Buy 25 x Galanthus nivalis bulbs for £15 • Buy 25 x Hyacinthoides non-scripta bulbs for £17 • Buy the collection (25…

Whether you’re reading this before or after Christmas, chances are that your time in the garden is limited right now. Daylight is at a premium, the weather is generally not on our side and fewer jobs need doing at this time of year. That said, getting outside briefly, even for just a gentle potter in the garden, is so good for us. We feel comfortable in our gardens, which reduces anxiety and stress, while levels of cortisol – the stress hormone – drop, so we tend to sleep better. Just by being in the garden we improve our mental health as we continually plan and tinker. It is the most relaxing place, after all. Circulation and blood pressure are improved, while naturally breathing fresh air helps lung function. Joints keep…

Handstand frog £29 A fun little sculpture made from cast iron. 24cm tall. britishironworkcentre.co.uk Recycled bluebell stake £19.96 Made from recycled metal, this depiction of bluebells in the breeze is 52cm tall. paperhigh.com Rusted seedhead £53.95 Add drama to your borders with this rusted metal sculpture that you can simply push into the ground. worm.co.uk Peacock statue £28.50 Add a serious pop of colour all year round with this metal peacock. 83cm tall. debenhams.com Blackbird fence topper £15 Made from rusted steel and comes with a mounting bracket. 17cm tall. blackcountrymetalworks.co.uk Echinacea plant stalk £10.75 (short) or £12 (tall) The perfect solution if slugs keep eating your real echinaceas! Two sizes: tall (81cm) and short (61cm).  rhsplants.co.uk…

“Leaning into winter means slowing down and appreciating what remains When flowers disappear, and leaves drop or shrink away, structure, light, form and texture take over. Beauty comes from stems and seedheads etched against a blue sky, the outline of a crisply clipped dark green yew hedge, or icicles hanging from the tips of a conifer’s needled branches. The bare bones of the garden emerge, revealing the curve of a weathered path, the curlicued details of a wrought iron gate, the ornate shape of an antique bench and a cleverly placed urn, each one a contrast to soft mounds of collapsing foliage and woody stems surrounding them. Leaning into winter in the garden means slowing down and appreciating what remains, rather than mourning the passing of the growing seasons. Visual…

PERK UP YOUR HOUSEPLANTS Help houseplants through the cold, dark season. • Give them light, but not right by a window where they can get cold at night. Keep the glass clean for best light levels. • Wipe the leaves with a damp sponge to remove dust. • Keep the compost just moist. Push your finger into the compost and if it’s wet all the way down it doesn’t need more water. • Mist the foliage with water a couple of times a week, especially if the room is centrally heated. This prevents leaf browning. • Don’t overwater. Pour out any surplus water in decorative pot holders to prevent the roots rotting. Sow sweet peas Seeds sown now will produce strong plants ready for planting out in late April to…

Attracting more wildlife into your garden doesn’t have to sacrifice its style or purpose. Garden designers have taken rewilding to the next level recently, with smart ideas that upgrade your outside space as well as supporting nature, so you can enjoy the best of both worlds. From rethinking planting and boundary choices through to introducing sculptural shelters, shallow water features and nifty planting pockets, your garden can brim with clever ways to woo all manner of native wildlife, and we’ve picked the very best that are simple to recreate at home. Which of them will suit your garden best? NECTAR RICH PLANTING If the thought of mass planting makes you nervous, restore a soothing sense of order by colour-matching your plants. So, rather than going for a mismatch of bright…

Jewel-bright dahlias, colourful nasturtiums scrambling out of pots, roses twining across stone walls, a small potager filled with climbing beans and strawberries and some generously layered borders mean that every centimetre of space is accounted for in Jane Tomlinson and Tim Walls’ garden in rural Derbyshire. There’s a careful eye and a steady hand behind the abundant planting. Jane has been gardening since she was a child, encouraged by her grandmother, a keen flower grower and arranger, and her mother, who maintained a large garden on the family farm where she grew up. “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t passionate about plants,” Jane declares. “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t passionate about plants For that reason she wasn’t put off by the sparse grounds of the…

January, for all its grey fog and frost, is the month when my imagination is running overtime. The plot lies dormant. There are muddy paths, bare beds and empty greenhouses but in my head, I am dreaming in technicolour. I’m painting my plot, one seed packet at a time, because what else is going to get us through the longest month known to humankind? Flicking through piles of seed catalogues and circling every plant I’d like to have is a dangerous activity, according to my husband! I am confident that I am not alone in my lust to have every plant I like the look of. For some reason, I often forget that I garden on 600sq metres and not 600 acres, but dreaming is part of the process. So…

WRITE TO US AT Garden Answers, Bauer Media, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA EMAIL gardenanswers@bauermedia.co.uk WEBSITE gardenanswersmagazine.co.uk Timely advice I’m writing to give a big thank you to Geoff Stebbings for saving my ‘Laxton’ apple crop, which for the first time in years is completely free from ‘scab’. It had been getting worse year on year and I’d been told no treatment was available. But Geoff explained how spores overwinter in the soil and rise to infect the young blossom and buds in early spring, so I spread clear plastic sheeting beneath the tree and this year’s crop was healthy with no signs of scab. I’ve been gardening about 70 years, and still learning – isn’t that great! Thank you again for your help and wonderful, informative magazine.…

CLUES ACROSS 1 - - - - - - - - matronalis, fragrant biennial called sweet rocket or dame’s violet (8) 6 ‘-- - - Pudding’, heuchera variety with purple leaves dusted with silver (4) 7 St John’s - - - -, common name for the herb Hypericum perforatum (4) 8 Common rue or - - - - graveolens (4) 9 Member of the onion family growing in segmented bulb clusters (7) 12 Chamaenerion angustifolium – spring-flowering - - - - - - - willowherb (7) 15 - - - - Chatto, plantswoman famed for her Elmstead Market gardens (4) 17 Campanula genus widely known as the - - - - flower (4) 18 Heavenly body describing jasmine Trachelospermum jasminoides (4) 19 - - - - - - - -…

1 Winter box (Sarcococca confusa) emits a powerful, sweet, vanilla-like scent from its pure white flowers during the cold months, and grows well in sun or part shade in soil that is slow to dry out. H&S: 1.5m. 2 Helleborus argutifolius (holly-leaved hellebore) is an exquisite plant for a sheltered spot in the shade beneath deciduous trees, with its ethereal green flowers, which appear in midwinter, and toothed leaves. H&S: 1m. 3 Anemanthele lessoniana is a grass with a long season of interest, offering rich autumnal tones before its nodding strands become sculptural fountains in winter. Grow in shelter and very well-drained soil. H: 1m, S: 1.5m.…

I was first introduced to dried flowers by my mother. She gathered the most beautiful posy of echinops and teasel seedheads – too lovely to throw on the compost, so they found their way into a vase in our living room. Weeks later, their colours had softened into dusky blues and silvers, their textures papery and spiky yet still full of life. That’s the magic of dried flowers: a way of keeping a little of summer’s abundance alive through the grey months, a reminder of how beauty lingers even as seasons turn. Drying flowers isn’t the dusty and old-fashioned craft it once was. Today, it’s a sustainable, decorative and deeply personal way to make the most of what we grow. Whether displayed in a jar, a wreath or a vase,…

Most flowering shrubs are ideal for containers. Their different seasons of interest light up doorways and patios, and those offering winter flowers can be moved closer to the house to be enjoyed from a window or positioned by a door. Evergreen camellias are perfect for growing in pots and, with a little care, will flower for weeks. Their glossy leaves provide reliable structure and interest all year round with the bonus of startling blooms through winter or into spring, just when you need a bit of colour most. Fragrant daphnes and sarcococca are other good winter-flowering evergreens. For summer flowers, compact roses, hebes, hydrangeas and viburnums work well. Their hips, seedheads and berries add further seasonal interest. Use a loam-based compost and check the pot offers good drainage. Use ericaceous…

Plants, I love them. In fact, some might say I’m obsessed. I know the names of all the trees, shrubs, climbers, and flowers in my garden, and even the wild grasses within my mini-meadows! However, I knew almost nothing about, and gave almost no thought to, a whole group of plants, some of which are found in gardens everywhere – mosses. They seem like the forgotten, unloved plants of the garden world. You can’t buy moss ‘seeds’ and you won’t find them in garden centres (or if you do, it will only be because they’re growing accidentally around the plants you want to buy). Frankly, if there is one thing that people usually do with mosses, it is to try and get rid of them. They get raked out of…

The winter garden at the National Trust’s Mottisfont in Hampshire – a house and gallery among beautiful gardens – provides a place to pause and enjoy the rich diversity of some special plants that are still things of true beauty in the coldest, supposedly bleakest months. “What I like about the winter garden here is that it has atmosphere when other parts of the garden lie dormant. There are wonderful contrasts of light and shade, pops of colour and then darker corners,” says Rob. The winter garden at Mottisfont was developed 15 years ago to add another element to the grounds. It is perhaps most famous for its National Collection of pre-1900 shrub roses in the walled rose garden. “It brings a different element to the garden because it allows…

1 Buy firm garlic bulbs from a specialist or nursery and break bulbs into individual cloves. Hardneck forms of garlic (which have a woody stem in the centre) are hardiest. Check for mould before planting. 2 Fill a container (that has drainage holes) with peat-free multi-purpose compost to just below the rim, making sure it has a depth of 15cm or more. Space cloves 10-15cm apart with the tip 2.5cm below compost level. 3 Water gently using a can with rose after planting rather than pouring on a lot of water at once, which could wash away compost and disturb the bulbs. Allow water to drain then place in a sheltered spot outside, raised off the ground. 4 Depending on the severity of the cold, bulbs will start to produce…

A busy greenhouse used as a hive of production to fill a veg patch, allotment or cutting garden later in the year can involve a lot of pots and trays. There is a wealth of recycled options available today, made from a variety of repurposed materials including 100% recycled plastic, biodegradable bamboo, and pots made from plant fibres that can be planted directly in the ground and will naturally break down. Use your indoor heating to raise cuttings Heating a greenhouse can be an expensive business and you can end up ‘doubling up’ on your heating bills if you already have space on a bright windowsill, or even a room indoors to root cuttings and sow seeds. The key is to use somewhere well-lit with a stable temperature around 20C.…

16 bulbs worth £17.98 for free*! *just pay £5.95 postage Gladioli duo ‘Emmy’ and ‘Kim’ produce an abundance of dazzling blooms on shorter, easy-tomanage spikes measuring up to 80cm tall, each bearing up to 20 full-size flowers. Lush upright stems rise above graceful, sword-like foliage, offering a spectacular display from midsummer through to autumn. ‘Emmy’ features blooms edged in bright pink, melting into white with creamy-yellow centres, while ‘Kim’ is swathed in vibrant purple hues. Stagger planting times for a longer-lasting show. Loved by florists for their sturdy stems and perfect form, these gladioli make exceptional vase displays – if you can bring yourself to cut them! Plant in borders or containers for a burst of colour that will also attract pollinators to your garden. H: 60-80cm, S: 15cm. Despatching from…

“My only flaw? I guess I can be a bit of a perfectionist.” I, along with countless others, have spoken these very words during job interviews. Maybe you have too. There was a time, when I was first entering the workplace, when this exact response was seen as a cute, clever comeback to an interviewer’s probing around one’s character strengths and weaknesses. The perception back then was that by effectively saying “I care too much,” what you were communicating is that the only risk in hiring you was that you might end up being too good at your job. Now, we know better: being a perfectionist actually is a flaw. Unfortunately for me, however, I really am a perfectionist. The problem is not in having a keen eye for detail,…