Only a handful of evergreens provide particularly good winter flowers. Varieties of Viburnum tinus bloom reliably and make a good backdrop and screening plant, but are perhaps a little stodgy. Sarcococcas are right up there for their delicious seasonal fragrance, but their flowers are insignificant and they aren’t big enough to impose height or to help with privacy in a smaller garden — a quality many of us want in an evergreen.
However, the classy strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, does it all for me. It’s a large evergreen shrub/small tree typically growing to about 4-5m, although it can get up to about 8m.
The fruit (formed from the previous year’s flowers) are often alongside the present year’s flowers throughout the autumn and early winter. They turn from yellow through orange to bright red and resemble the strawberries we eat, from a distance at least, although the tree is a member of the heather family. They are just about edible; pretty bland to start with, but leaving a bitter aftertaste. It’s said that the species name “unedo” comes from Pliny the Elder, who, after tasting the fruit, said “unum tantum edo” (“I only eat one”). I’ve tried just the one myself and this makes perfect sense.
The tree can be left bushy with lots of cover, but if sensitively pruned it will develop nicely into a stately form for the winter garden. The glossy foliage is neatly serrated, making an excellent foil for its creamy-white bell-shaped flowers that are held in downward nodding clusters of up to 30 each. The flowers have been particularly prolific this year, the result of the dry and mild autumn.
The attractive bark peels in long thin strips to reveal lovely warm coppery orange tones beneath, an added interest in winter. If you prune the lower branches up to lift the crown, you will not only turn it from a shrub into a single or multi-stemmed tree shape, but will also expose more of its lovely trunk and make room to plant beneath.
Advertisement
Arbutus unedo is the hardiest and most commonly available, and is native to southern Europe and southwest Ireland — hence one of its common names, Killarney tree. Another one worth growing in milder areas is Arbutus x andrachnoides, right, which develops a fabulous smooth and distinct red bark, although it is not such a prolific or reliable flowerer and fruiter.
Arbutus always look happy in a woodland setting, so think about underplanting with a mass of something simple, such as hellebores, ferns, spring bulbs, wood anemones or the shade-loving grass Hakonechloa macra.
How to grow it
Arbutus grow well almost everywhere. They are fine with strong, but not cold, winds, so do well in coastal gardens. They also cope with pollution, so are good for city gardens. They like a sunny spot and, although they grow particularly well on an acidic well-drained moist soil, are happy on chalk and limey soils.
They can be planted in the winter during mild spells right into spring. Their roots don’t like to be disturbed, so make sure to plant them in their final spot. If the plants are young, keep some fleece handy for very cold spells — although they are fully hardy, they need to be mollycoddled for the first few years until they are well established.
Prune any branches in spring if they rub and to shape it up to expose some of the main stems lower down. Remember, however, that if you prune off any old flowers you’ll lose some fruit next year.
