The Savill Garden in Winter
Bright colors from bark, leaves, and flowers are everywhere at the Savill Garden on a bleak February 1.
My earliest snowdrops, Galanthus bursanus, are blooming, but before I get caught up in that mania, I thought I would devote a post to a gorgeous winter garden we visited in England. On February 1, 2023, Michael and I arrived at Heathrow Airport in London and went directly to the Savill Garden. We were there at the invitation of John Anderson, Keeper of the Gardens for Windsor Great Park, the 5,000 acres of gardens surrounding Windsor Castle. John graciously took the morning off to show us around.
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops within the US. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are interested in snowdrops. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
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Around every corner at the Savill Garden is a beautiful vista featuring plants grown to provide color in winter, here pollarded golden willow stems.
The 35 acre Savill Garden was commissioned in 1932 by George V and created by Eric Savill. Along with several other gardens, Savill is part of Windsor Great Park, which is held by the Crown Estate. This means that, although the king or queen does not personally own the garden, it is theirs as long as they wear the crown. John Anderson reported to Queen Elizabeth II and now to King Charles III, and, as avid gardeners, the queen and king have both been involved with planning at Savill. For more on the Windsor Great Park and the Savill Garden, please read my post about John Anderson’s trip to Winterthur by clicking here.
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As you enjoy the photos below, think about incorporating some of the amazing winter interest plants into your own garden:
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Giant rhubarb, Gunnera sp., is covered with its own large leaves for winter protection.
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The garden features many forms of shrub dogwoods grown for their winter branch color, including bloodtwig dogwood, Cornus sanguinea ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’.
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A close up of the trunk of one of the birches in the first photo, showing the incredibly white bark of ‘Silver Shadow’ Himalayan birch paired with the flowers and winter green foliage of Helleborus x sternii “Blackthorn Strain”.
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Tartarian dogwood, Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’
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‘Magic Flame’ bloodtwig dogwood surrounded by the broad purple leaves of bergenia, flowering heath, and a winter-blooming daffodil.
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On the other side of ‘Magic Flame’ are the ornamental canes of ‘Golden Vale’ white-stemmed bramble.
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‘Phoenix’ snakebark maple, a cross between our native tree and a Chinese relative.
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The garden features many different forms of witchhazel, including ‘Diane’ above.
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Snowdrops are sprinkled around the garden, here with the many bright shades of chartreuse that light up this area.
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A form of Acer tegmentosum, striped maple, called ‘Valley Phantom’.
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Early-blooming hellebores, here Helleborus foetidus, are massed through out the winter garden.
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‘Sauwala White’ Himalayan birch
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A glimpse out towards the rest of the Savill Garden, which would be worth visiting anytime but is spectacular in winter!
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Thanks to John Anderson for spending so much time outside with us on a very cold winter day (photo of Carolyn and John).
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Carolyn
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 
October 29, 2023 at 9:54 am
Fantastic
October 29, 2023 at 10:27 am
What a treat to be able to experience such a beautiful, and mature garden, quite fitting as currently our climate is on the verge of the cold, gray-season.
Thank You for sharing these inspiring images!
Jacques
October 29, 2023 at 10:45 am
Beautiful photos, Carolyn, and thanks for identifying the many excellent plants for a winter garden.
October 29, 2023 at 10:57 am
So nice to hear from you, Stephen! It is always a lot of work to look up every plant name so it is nice to have it appreciated. Happy snowdrop season.
October 29, 2023 at 10:54 am
It was so great to see such beauty in the cold months. Thanks for sharing.
October 29, 2023 at 11:01 am
We are enjoying gorgeous fall colors right now here at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens as I have always chosen plants not just for their flowers but also for the color of their leaves in fall. Similarly, winter is a time when you can have a vibrant display in your garden by selecting plants that peak then or have multiple seasons of interest.
October 29, 2023 at 1:10 pm
I always enjoy the selections of garden-worthy plants in your posts. Thank you.
October 29, 2023 at 1:28 pm
Thanks, Rosemary.
October 29, 2023 at 4:11 pm
If your garden looks good in the winter, you know it will look good in the summer. Gorgeous pix. Thanks for sharing!
October 29, 2023 at 4:38 pm
Never thought of that!
October 29, 2023 at 6:36 pm
Lovely post Carolyn!
October 30, 2023 at 9:06 am
Thanks, Trish.
October 29, 2023 at 6:53 pm
Stunning gardens! Loved seeing all the different varieties of twig dogwoods. I had no clue there were so many!
October 30, 2023 at 9:07 am
Years ago I tried them without much luck. The new colors make me want to give it a go again.
October 29, 2023 at 7:56 pm
Nice views of plants and layouts that can be incorporated in many gardens. I need to be reminded that the garden has winter interest, too, as we’re about to have our first killing frost. Thank you.
October 30, 2023 at 9:10 am
Right now my fall-blooming camellias are taking center stage along with hardy cyclamen, beautyberries, winterberry hollies, hydrangea flowers and much more.
October 30, 2023 at 7:00 am
During 5 decades in the plant biz we plant/garden nerds could mostly only travel in winter during the time between the planting of 500,000 pansies and 15,000 hanging baskets. We are appreciators of winter gardens. This one is lovely; thanks for sharing.
As we dial back our commercial obligations we engineered time to see gardens in season. Wha? Too many flowers!
October 30, 2023 at 9:12 am
Nurseries do demand a lot of work, and we rarely travel in spring even to local gardens. But February in England is a business trip for me and I can add winter gardens to the itinerary.
October 30, 2023 at 8:31 am
What a nice treat to see this garden through your winter glasses.
October 30, 2023 at 9:13 am
I meant to mention in the post that it certainly helps that the grass is green in England in the winter—sets off the colors so nicely.
October 30, 2023 at 10:50 am
I noticed that green grass too.
November 1, 2023 at 3:27 pm
Thank you for sharing! Beautiful colors even in winter!
November 2, 2023 at 8:53 am
Winter gardens are very satisfying. In fact, for me, the most important season of the year!
November 14, 2023 at 10:42 pm
thank you so much for these gorgeous winter garden scenes, and for ideas for winter interest. I am particularly interested in that hellebore, which appears so tall and upright. Do you have that one in your catalog?
November 15, 2023 at 11:04 am
There are two hellebores in the post. I have had H. foetidus in my catalogue for the last two years but can’t always get it. The other hellebore is an old strain that is not sold anymore, but many newer varieties that have Christmas rose as a parent are similar.
November 15, 2023 at 11:08 am
Thanks! It’s the old strain I was interested in. Appears to be very vigorous – sorry its not still available!