Regular Gardening column - January's 2015

In the garden – January 

 It has been an incredibly mild December so at the time of writing this there are still flowers on plants like sages, perennial morning glory and Plumbago capensis which in most years would have been cut back by the frost by now. These flowers will all disappear once some real cold weather arrives. 


However, there are other plants which give colour during the winter months; the Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica or Néflier du Japon) is an evergreen tree with scented white flowers in the winter and rosemary is always a delight too since it tends to start flowering in December and continue until February. Anisodontea malvastroides is a fast growing shrub that can reach about 1m20 in height and spread and flowers for most of the year, it is closely related to Lavatera and tends to be short lived but it is a great filler plant.

We think of January as a quieter time of year in the garden but there are plenty of jobs that can be tackled that will give you a head start for the gardening year.

• Remove piles of wet dead leaves from flower beds as the damp can encourage rot, if possible add the dead leaves to your compost heap or use them to make leafmould
• General weeding of flower beds
• Spread some organic material (compost, rotted manure etc) onto your flower beds
• Ornamental trees can be pruned for shape
• Check on any plants which are staked to make sure that the stakes are firm against the winter winds
• Prune ivies and ornamental climbers, start pruning roses.
• Sprinkle some slow release fertiliser
• Continue to protect tender plants against the cold.
• There is still time to plant trees and shrubs, including hedging, except if the ground is frozen.
• If you haven’t yet done so then it is time to winter prune wisteria, cutting back to two or three buds on this years stems.
• If you have a greenhouse or conservatory you can start to take cuttings of tender plants such as geraniums that you took in for the winter.

The more attractive garden task when the weather is cold and damp is doing some reading and planning for the warmer weather! If anyone is interested I have a list of books relevant to gardening locally and would be happy to email it to you. The website of Mediterranean Gardening France is a useful resource too - http://www.mediterraneangardeningfrance.org/ Although it is not focussed for gardening the the Languedoc the website of the Royal Horticultural Society in Britain remains an invaluable source of general information - http://www.rhs.org.uk/ And if you are thinking of planning some garden visits for the spring and summer the following French sites which are directories of local gardens are very useful for discovering gardens to visit - www.jardinslanguedoc.com   and www.pjmp.eu

Very best wishes for 2015 from La Petite Pépinière!

Pictures: 

Top      Anisodontea malvasrtoides

Middle   Eriobotrya japonica

Bottom  Rosmarinus officinalis

We do circulate information about activities at La Petite Pépinière to our own mailing list, if you would like to kept up to date about events here just drop us an email and ask to included on our circulation list.

For further information and gardening queries contact Gill Pound at La Petite Pépinière de Caunes (shrubs and perennials, unusual plants and plants for dry climates), 21, Avenue de la Montagne Noire, 11160, Caunes-Minervois. Tel: 04 68 78 43 81, email Gill@lapetitepepiniere.com www.lapetitepepiniere.com

We do not have regular opening times for the garden or nursery during the winter but are always by appointment; just email or phone to make an arrangement.