Green hedgehogs addendum

Lacking inspiration, I thought let’s see what was published in January of previous years; and the Green hedgehogs post from Jan 2022 was just what I needed. It seems we have longer and longer snowless periods in the winter, so all perennials and shrubs that retain their ‘good looks’ all year long are now more precious than ever.
*All pictures shown in these posts are from early spring or late fall/winter.

Those who had the curiosity to open the post, noticed that I was talking mainly about perennials which have more or less a dome shaped growing habit and more or less linear/acicular leaves; usually grown in rockeries. Various Dianthus species, that many people are familiar with, are the best examples for this category.

I already expanded on the term ‘hedgehogs’ by including other types of foliage, akin more to porcupines and various other creatures, the term hedgehog being used in regards with a mounding or dome shape growth habit.

Expanding on the term ‘green’, colorful foliage will be an extra bonus. Quite a few Dianthus species have bluish foliage, in many Androsace, the rosettes will take a ‘winter mood’, in the spring reverting to green. A group of Saxifrages have silvery rosettes, also Vitaliana primuliflora ssp. cinerea (in the feature image); even Veronica incana retains a nice silvery foliage over the winter. And these are just a few examples from my small rockery.

Then, we can talk about individual hedgehogs or herd-like creatures, like in the case of many Androsace species, Draba and Saxifraga, Jovibarba, Sedums and Sempervivums and the recently presented Luetkea pectinata.
Size wise, we can have very tiny hedgehogs, like Kernera saxatilis and Sedum atratum to very large ones if we jump into the shrubs realm with Daphne ‘Lauwrence Crocker’ (note to myself to try again some small size Daphne species/cultivars) and Paxistima canbyi, Canby’s mountain lover (Read about it here: Winter Joys).

Other plants with a winter presence not often talked about are Polygala species.
Polygala chamaebuxus, the shrubby milkwort of European origin, which can be taken for a small Daphne from the distance ;) deserves a mention. I previously shown the beautiful Polygala major; its winter foliage also takes a purple hue (the same goes for our native Polygala paucifolia).

Even more, we can form green mounds in the garden by letting groundcovering species, a thyme in the picture, to trail over larger boulders. It just happened in this case, but we also can plan in the advance for such ‘accidents’.

Plus let’s not forget that rocks covered in moss also make for great green ‘hedgehogs’ (Winter joys III) and in proper conditions you can even establish other species on top of them! (see Saxifraga cuneifolia ssp. robusta).

Again, there is so much to do in the winter time, both plants and garden-wise: learn about new species and how to grow them, make new plans for your garden and, of course, don’t forget to sow more seeds!