Dogwood dreaming

Crocuses on a sunny day

After a mostly dry spell, often pleasant by day but sometimes frosty at nights, we’re now having the March winds, accompanied by light but persistent rain.  The wind is not so good for the crocuses, blooming now, and badly timed for the first small daffodils coming into flower, but the garden will welcome a bit of wet.  Although there are jobs to be done in the greenhouse, it’s a good time just to look out of the window and dream.

With the buddleja and apple tree pruned, I’ve been tackling the dogwood.  (For my American readership, I should explain that this is not your beautiful East Coast flowering dogwood – which I’d love to have in the garden, but it doesn’t do well in these parts – but the one grown for its coloured stems in winter.  It’s Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’ to be precise, and though it does have flowers, they’re much less showy than yours.)  You’re supposed to cut it to the ground in late winter to encourage the bright new stems for next winter, though of course that means sacrificing the show of variegated foliage, which is lovely.  But I haven’t been good at pruning it for a few years, it had sent out great long shoots which arch down to the ground and root there, and as a result it had turned into quite an extensive thicket.  So, out with the saw and back down to the ground, mostly, leaving just a few taller shoots to provide foliage interest in summer.

With all the top growth removed, suddenly I have more garden to play with – and a lot more open space.  Rather too open, actually; it’s now looking rather bare, and the patio is feeling rather exposed.  The patio is to be relaid at the end of the month, and a new path put in leading off towards the long hedge, so I’ll leave it for the moment and tackle the area once the new landscaping is in place.  In the meantime – time to dream, and plan.

The first job, after a spot of weeding, will be to decide which bits of the dogwood to leave in place.  At least all the layerings that have been formed allow me to choose which to keep and which to dig out (in theory – some of them are immoveable!).  There are other plants in there to be kept, noticeably a couple of roses which have become really leggy after a few years of being sat on by the dogwood, and I was surprised to find a clematis.  This will be C. viticella ‘Etoile Violette’, which I planted a good many years ago and thought I had lost – but I’m sure I didn’t plant it quite where it’s now growing.  It must have layered itself too.  And now it no longer has a plant to climb over! – so I’ll need to create some sort of interim support for it.

(I could, and probably will, lash up a tripod of long buddleja prunings for it to climb up, at least for this year.  Last year I did something similar in one of the big pots on the patio, as a support for the ipomoeas, but I failed to tie the stems together firmly enough.  It was strong enough for the ipomoea, but I didn't reckon with the sparrows using it as a launch pad from which to bounce onto the fatball container, and it looked in a very sorry state by the end of summer.)

With the unwanted parts of the dogwood removed, I will need to make some careful decisions about planting.  The patio needs a feeling of enclosure but without actually being hedged off; the dogwood provided quite a dense screen in summer, and I want something rather lighter in texture.  Some of its stems will still be fairly tall, but I'd like some ‘see through’ plants in there as well; perhaps some of the Gaura lindheimeri that I grew last year in the bed round the corner.  They were lovely, little white flowers dancing in the breezes, but a bit too white when set against the soft yellows nearby and they looked out of place, so they're due for a move.  (White can be a difficult colour in the garden; it clashes with nothing, but doesn’t go with everything; a pure white alongside an ivory, for example, just makes the ivory look dirty.)  The gaura might do well in there, especially as the bed will now be sunnier than before, provided it tones with the dogwood foliage.  There is also some sweet rocket self-seeded throughout the bed, and also aquilegias – both with good low-growing foliage below taller, but temporary, flower stems.   Add some foxgloves too?  The edge of the patio will be tricky to get right; I’ll need to resist the temptation to go for only low planting there, otherwise it will look like a mini-hedge gone wrong.  Something substantial, but not too bushy, could be in the line-up: I’m thinking of a daphne at the moment.

In the meantime, the sparrows have been deprived of one of their favourite perches; the dogwood was next to the fatball container, and was where the small birds sat while waiting their turn to feed.  I ought to put in something for them to sit in (other than the tripod!).

Self-seeded Cyclamen coum

The landscaping work won’t disturb too many plants, at least not plants that I care about (there are plenty of weeds that will be removed!).  I hope the little Cyclamen coum that have self-set alongside the side path (which is to be relaid) survive; they’re not meant to be there, but they’re very welcome.