Cold Customers …

Based on the near freezing winter temperatures we have been experiencing in the Western Cape recently, it makes sense to consider adding a few winter stalwarts to your garden. All the plants listed here cope very well with cold temperatures and will soon form the backbone of your winter garden.

• Deciduous trees such as oaks, maples, birches and plane trees all do well in frosty weather. As an added bonus, they offer lush, new spring growth and gloriously rich foliage colours in autumn.
• Conifers cope well in the cold and many varieties turn a wonderfully warm bronze or orange colour during the winter months. They grow best in full sun in an area where there is good air circulation.
• Hardy evergreen shrubs which look good all year round include nandina, viburnum, camellias, hollies and elaeagnus.
• Roses cope very well in cold weather. Remember to prune them this month so that you are rewarded with a wonderful flush of blooms in October.
• Indigenous plants that like the cold include river stars, sagewood, mountain sage, white stinkwood and the euryops species.
• Invest in a blossoming tree now. They love cold weather and in spring you’ll be rewarded with a wonderful display. Try flowering peach, plum, quince, cherry or crab apple.