The Winter Garden
When I go through nursery catalogs I am drawn to those plants that promise Three Season Interest. That means that they might have flowers in the spring, interesting foliage in the summer, and foliage or berries with attractive color in the fall. And yet there is no reason to completely ignore the garden in winter.
Winter is a time to appreciate subtlety. Forget the desire for brilliant color. There are other aspects of plants to be considered when planning the winter garden.
One aspect is ornamental bark. The paperbark maple (Acer griseum)immediately comes to mind with bark that peels off in long strips, similar to some of the birches, leaving a rich cinnamon brown interior. This is not a large tree, only about 25 feet tall, with a round open growth habit.
An conifer with exfoliating bark is the lace-bark pine, Pinus bungeana. This is a large multi-trunked tree that likes dry sandy acid soil. When mature it sheds its bark in irregular patches revealing a pale interior bark.
There are several shrubby dogwoods that provide unusual winter color. Cornus sanguineea ‘Winter Flame’ is quite tall, 8-10 feet, with twigs of orange, yellow and red. Then there is the smaller and more familiar red twig dogwood, C. stolonifera with its deep red twig. To maintain the vividness of the color, the branches should be pruned and renewed every two years or so. Another cornus variety ‘Flaviramea’ has bright yellow bark, which also maintains its color with hard spring pruning. All have small flowers in the spring and white berries in late summer.
Every bare limbed tree has its own sculptural beauty in winter. There is a huge old yellow birch in our field that I love to watch over the course of the year. Right now I am aware of its strength and size, unsoftened as it is by foliage. It is a magnificent tree.
But it took a long time to grow into its magnificence. One way to add instant sculptural interest is to plant something like Harry Lauder’s walking stick, Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’, with its twirly contorted branches.
Even seed and flower heads are transformed when they catch the snow and frost. Winter interest alone is a reason to plant a clump of an ornamental grass. The miscanthus species has several varieties that are widely available including M. sinensis, Japanese Silver Grass, which grows up to 8 feet tall with silvery plumes that form in the fall. Miscanthus sinenses zebrinus will reach a similar height and is notable for its horizontal yellow stripes – thus the name zebra grass. They are both hardy to zone 5, twenty degrees below zero. Not much of a risk in the valley.
It is important to remember that ornamental grasses are strong growers and the clump should not be allowed to get too large before dividing it, or the job will be truly formidable.
Many people put out birdfeeders in fall and winter and this is certainly an excellent way to keep the garden interesting in winter. Because I now have four – count them – four cats, I do not set out bird feeders. However, I do have a beautiful highbush cranberry, Viburnam trilobum, which is about 12 feet tall, very vigorous and produces bright red berries that last well into the fall when the last one is eaten by the birds. The birds benefit from my appreciation for the creamy flat, lace-cap flowers in spring.
Now I am trying to think where to plant a deciduous holly, Ilex ‘Sparkleberry, which produces shiny red fruit. It is much desired for holiday decorations as well as for bird food.
A hardy small tree that attracts the birds is the Amur cherry, Prunus maackii. It grows slowly to a height of 15 feet with white flowers in the spring and black berries in the fall. This is a double treat for the winter garden because it is known for the shiny red-brown bark striped with gray and black that peels off like the white birch.
Of course it is not only the plants in the garden that can be attractive in winter. Many of us have some sort of outbuilding, arbor, archway or ornament in the garden that will collect snow in a picturesque way.
One thing to consider is whether you have a favorite window to look out. It might be because you already have a particularly pleasing view out that window, or it could be that the window is in a convenient spot indoors. Either way, you might want to think about how you could make the view out that favorite window into a frame, or focus, or a winter garden, by an artful arrangement of a specially chosen plant or ornament.
Having said all this I have to say that right now we have more than two feet of snow on the ground and great heaps of drifts like dollops of whipped cream.
The snow is so deep that our three foot tall Krishna, salvaged from a NYC sidewalk is neck deep in snow. He cannot bring his magic flute to his lips to charm any milkmaids. The low evergreens in the lawn beds are buried, little more than soft humps in the white expanse. Forget the delicate seed heads. All are buried.
All that is left is a dazzling fantasy landscape, courtesy of the master designer, Mother Nature.
January 5, 2008