Planning garden interest in winter

I find it ironic as I sit down to write this arti­cle I am amazed by the tem­per­a­ture out­side (high of 60 degrees), and frankly the over­all weather in Ohio. The tem­per­a­ture pre­ced­ing this heat wave included freez­ing rain and a severe weather advi­sory for the area. I hope these few days are the excep­tions to this year’s win­ter. Although our win­ters in Ohio are unpre­dictable, it is ben­e­fi­cial to plan for win­ter inter­est in your garden.

With proper plan­ning and the fol­low­ing plant sug­ges­tions your gar­den will give you joy all year long. Most of us think of this time of year as dull or when our gar­dens are sleep­ing and we turn our inter­est to thumb­ing through plant cat­a­logs and con­tem­plat­ing what we can buy for spring. Strate­gi­cally locat­ing plants that you can watch when the ground is frozen is worth the effort.

Win­ter inter­ests is a con­cept held by some gar­den­ers who keep an eye out for points of inter­est in their gar­dens when all other plants go dor­mant and the ground is cov­ered with snow. There are many plants that thrive and bloom well into the freez­ing tem­per­a­tures. Gar­den­ers are seek­ing to find changes in color, shapes, sizes and added fea­tures like berries and seed heads.

There are orna­men­tal plants that bloom in every sea­son of the year. If you start with a good plan and select plants that com­pli­ment what you already have you could end up with a land­scape that can hold your inter­est through the win­ter season.

Many plants and trees fall into this cat­e­gory. A pop­u­lar species are ever­greens. They keep their col­ors and shape all year long, as well as pro­duce berries, cones and pro­vide shel­ter and food to wildlife. A favorite species is the Col­orado blue spruce (Picea pun­gens). This ever­green has a con­i­cal shape and bluish-gray foliage. Pine, spruce, juniper, yews and hem­lock are also fine exam­ples of ever­greens. The selec­tion of ever­greens like arborvi­tae and false cypress can add a vari­ety of gold or yel­low foliage. Worth men­tion­ing, the Mugho pine (Pinus mugo pumillo), grows two to three feet high and has a spread of five feet. It keeps its color and shape all year long and looks great against the snow.

The broad leaf ever­greens include box­woods, hol­lies, and rhodo­den­drons. Some of these ever­greens bear lovely berries and add inter­est for birds and wildlife. Some species change col­ors or add col­ors of pur­ple, red, and yel­lows to the dull win­ter landscaping.

The decid­u­ous shrubs and trees show-off with multi– stems and col­or­ful bark vari­a­tions. A prime exam­ple is the red twig dog­wood (Cor­nus alba). This is a hardy shrub that grows to heights of five to six feet and a com­pa­ra­ble width. This bush sheds its leaves in fall to reveal its red bark. Also, a vari­ety of Japan­ese maple trees have dis­tinc­tive red­dish bark. Many trees are of inter­est due to their shapes, unique barks, vary­ing col­ors and fruit bear­ing prop­er­ties. The orna­men­tal pear has small fruit that keeps the birds busy in autumn and win­ter. Once they shed their leaves in the fall their sil­hou­ette adds dimen­sion to the land­scape. The famil­iar Paper­bark Maple (Acer gri­seum), Birch (Betula sp.), and the River Birch (Betula nigra) all have dis­tinc­tive barks. The River Birch has brown peel­ing bark mixed with spots of rosy– salmon color. This tree looks good stand­ing alone or in clumps of three or more. The Fact Sheet HYG-1143-96l lists many exam­ples that could add to your win­ter garden.

Orna­men­tal grasses are another vari­ety of win­ter inter­est if they are not trimmed back in the fall. After the foliage dies the grass blades and dried seeds add a new focus to the land­scape, espe­cially for the over­win­ter­ing birds. Two more species worth men­tion­ing are the Blue Oat and the Blue fes­cue grasses. They both keep their shape and color through­out the win­ter months.

Peren­ni­als are abun­dant and many keep their orig­i­nal hue or turn dif­fer­ent shades in win­ter as well as adding pods of seeds and berries for great win­ter atten­tion. Sedums, helle­bores, ivy, pachysan­dra, vinca, laven­der and heather are just a few worth nam­ing. The aver­age gar­dener would enjoy any of these plants due to the stay­ing power of their shapes and col­ors dur­ing the win­ter months. One of my favorites is Black Mondo Grass (Ophio­pogon planis­ca­pus). This plant dis­plays pur­ple black leaves that form clumps ten inches high and twelve inches wide. This par­tic­u­lar cul­ti­var looks good next to con­trast­ing plants or in con­tain­ers. Another favorite I have is liri­ope or lily turf. Used by many as a ground cover, these peren­ni­als form clumps and range from dark green leaves to var­ie­gated ones and hold their shape and color all year.

Although all cul­ti­vars are not men­tioned, many are, and should be con­sid­ered. I hope you will look at your win­ter land­scape with a dif­fer­ent eye. Gar­den plan­ning to keep you involved and to take care of the birds and wildlife can be very sat­is­fy­ing. While the rest of your gar­den is slum­ber­ing you can keep active by watch­ing your own win­ter show. The pos­si­bil­i­ties of cre­at­ing inter­est in the win­ter land­scape are end­less; pat­terns and col­ors in tree bark, seed heads, berries, cones strik­ing branches and greens against the snow. With an assort­ment of win­ter inter­est a gar­den can warm the aver­age person’s heart no mat­ter what the tem­per­a­ture may be outside.

Dianne Geli­nas is an OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gar­dener volunteer.

Posted by Master Gardener on Feb 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.