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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