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Writer's pictureFiona Lydon

The art of dying well

Updated: Dec 17, 2020

December is in many ways the start of the gardening year. It's cheering and fun to see the garden this way as you can really appreciate the clarity that winter brings without all the foliage obscuring the structure of the garden.


Over the autumn and winter it's fun to keep an eye out for plants that ‘die well’. Some plants, such as Sedum*, Phlomis russelliana, Verbena bonariensis and teasel keep their flowers or seedheads for months after the colour has gone and can be an absolute asset in the winter garden, providing structure and interest. Some plants like Agapanthus or Alchemilla mollis keep their flowers and seed heads, but the colour fades to an unappealing yellowy brown and they are less of a joy - to my mind anyway.


Having said that, beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. The famous Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf is féted all over the world for his planting designs - and for grasses and prairie flowers in particular. There is a scene in the 2018 film “Five Seasons’ which follows him through his gardens through the year. In it, Piet gazes mournfully at a beautiful border of plants in their full summer glory and mutters gloomily ‘I think they will all look much better once they are dead’. Not sure my clients would agree!


As gardeners it’s up to us which to keep and which to lop. Often plants can have wonderful structure but if it’s lying flopped over on the ground I would tend to cut it back. But in general I think it’s worth leaving them and giving them the ‘Piet Oudolf eye’. Are they in fact quite beautiful? Birds and small mammals will often agree, using them as food and habitat in the winter months.


My golden rule is always to cut it back just as the new growth is starting in the Spring. Partly because there is nothing more guaranteed to ruin the 'new-season-new-start-apple-green growth' vibe than last year's dead heads. But also because you can damage new growth in cutting back the old if you leave it too late.


The general trend in gardening is to be less tidy - do less cutting back and less clearing of leaves in the borders in order to help our struggling wildlife. And it’s amazing how if you see that an untidy garden is a healthy, helpful and busy garden, then it starts to look beautiful at the same time. And its less work! So something to cheer everyone up there I think.


*Sedum are now known as Hylotelephium but it's not as nice as 'sedum' somehow.

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