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Hello,

The winter garden in Australia can be both productive and full of flowers. Even the deciduous trees with their bare branches have their own special beauty. Winter is wonderful!

Our competition winner
Many of our readers had their fingers crossed in the hope of winning a trip to London in our fabulous competition. Sadly, there can be only one winner and our winner's trip for two to London will have a special meaning.

Featured gardener
Would you like to be our next featured gardener? You can win a hamper of Scotts products worth $100. Just tell us about your garden.

Best wishes,
The Garden Team
Scotts® Australia

Rose time
Rose time
Winter is the time to prepare for a glorious rose display in the warmer months.

Read our suggestions for Winter rose tasks.

Potting up

Growing and transporting vegetables hundreds of kilometres from where they are consumed wastes valuable resources and reduces the freshness of the produce.

There are delicious vegetables that can be grown in the vegetable garden in the winter months.

So why not get busy with Winter plantings.

A bare beauty - so often forgotten   Hardwood cuttings   Baskets of colour
Baileyi

Bark, with its texture and colour, can be a feature of great beauty in the Winter garden.

Some bark takes on wonderful vibrant colour. Just look at the brilliant red stems of this field of Cornus stolonifera 'Baileyi'.

Watch for...
the rough silver bark of the silver birches.
the yellow stems of the golden ash with their black velvety tips.
the paperbark maple whose bark peels off in coppery sheets.
the smooth mushroom pink of the lovely crepe myrtle.
 
Helebore
Winter is a great time to take hardwood cuttings from deciduous plants like wisteria, cornus, crepe myrtle, prunus, roses, forsythia, lilac and weigela.

Choose long, healthy wood that has grown over the last season.
Make the top cut just above a leaf bud where the stem begins to cease being rigid, and the bottom cut just below a leaf bud, keeping at least two more buds in between.
Remove the bottom buds and cut a nick across the bottom of the cutting to promote root growth and ensure you do not plant the cutting upside down.
Dip the cut end in rooting gel or powder and plant the cuttings in seed raising mixture.
 
Baskets of colour
Glorious baskets of colour brighten up the winter gardenscape and make use of vertical spaces.
Choose pansies, violas and violets for their trailing habit.
Soften the stiffer form of colourful cinerarias by adding trailing plants such as Virginian stock or lobelia.
Create mounds of colour with primulas, polyanthus and alyssum will form.
Keep basket plants growing strongly with regular applications of Miracle-GroŽ All-Purpose Water Soluble Plant Food and your baskets will be the envy of the street or village.
                  
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