Slow growing.

It is purely subjective how plants make us feel. Some heavy scents that evoke feelings, memories of our childhood. Some help with the everyday pressure of busy lives by their medicinal qualities. Some can even make us feel repugnant as the international coverage of the "corpse flower” “Amorphophallus decus – sylvae” flowering after 25 years. It illustrates just as smells can calm our senses, they can also shock us too. This is how it regenerates itself. As the "corpse flower" starts its growing cycle again after emitting a foul stench in bloom.

So, we can regenerate a plants vigour by cutting them back to encourage new growth but what other plants have their own conditioning resources. These can often be slow growing. True, we may need to maintain in small measure, but the time will be minimal. Some very straightforward trees / shrubs that can be enjoyed in the winter months with limited fuss. The benefit we get from them whether it be foliage, flowers, a scent or character.

“Winter sweet” as the name suggests provides us with sweetness in winter. “Chimonathus praecox” again, a plant that can take some time to flower. Generally, no real maintenance other than to chop it down to the base (certainly older stems) to keep its shape and encourage new shoots. A highly scented tree, no foliage really to speak of in bloom. It will prefer a sunny spot. A versatile plant with its medium but just not thin or poor. It needs goodness / humus rich.

Virburnum, some go until spring with foliage, and berries - some lose their leaves “opulus,”. Some for winter “davidii” and “tinus” retain this. They provide berries, fragrant flowers, and important habitat for woodland animals. Not a neat shrub, irregular and haphazard, well nature is not perfect nor stable in any case. A hardy choice, whether providing foliage, flowers or berries, they can relied upon to give interest all year round.

Hebe’s can normally flower in spring but also retain their leaves (evergreen) some are hardy and some (winter approved) some are not and more (tender.) Speedwell is a flowering shrub but also provides lasting variegated foliage lasting well into Autumn. Some variegated, some not. You might remove damaged stems or dead heads but no maintenance to speak of. A sunny spot, they often keep their shape well. The variety “rakaiensis,” a hardy choice, providing flowers in summer, interesting foliage and adapting to the worst conditions. “Heartbreaker” too, a compact evergreen but its variegated leaves go pink in autumn and its lavender flowers in summer give it all year-round interest.

Plants can often look just as attractive once they are dead too. Miscanthus ?“sinensis” is a great example of this. Even after it is spent. It has a wonderfully wild whistling quality in the wind. A bit more maintenance since you do have to cut to the base in spring but straightforward... Always debris, I’m afraid. But this will give winter interest certainly.

We witness plants that flower and ultimately die too. Often this can take a matter of years. ?Agave “americana” can be seen to flower once and then no more. That much energy is stored over a long period, it is slow growing, that why we probably don’t register its demise. It does reproduce “clones” identical to the parent plant that can move to the next generation but a unique growth pattern. An arid environment as you would expect with this desert specimen. Root rot can occur in waterlogged areas. Heat and dryness but very low maintenance, almost none.

Much the same as annuals “self - seed.” They may not see a future cycle in their lifetime, but neither will their offspring.

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