Sunday, October 21

Gardens for the fourth season
Make your winter landscape shine with vivid fruits, branches and foliage

The Daily Journal/Kim Carpenter A shady summertime retreat can remain inviting and visually interesting even when the plants are dormant and the leaves are gone. The strong lines and bright green and tan blotches of the hemlock still embrace and define the “ceiling” of the outdoor room, while the flowing miscanthus grass, spiky yucca and purple coneflower provide a vertical counterpoint to the “carpets” of ajuga and bergenia. The electric red of the ‘Britzensis’ willows is repeated but softened by the paler bergenia, while the purple tones in the ajuga pick up the almost turquoise of the fescue.

When it comes to designing our gardens, the first things that usually come to mind are the vibrant colors of spring and summer. And rightly so. That’s when we use our yards and gardens most. But with just a little more effort you can make the winter landscape unique and interesting in its turn, too.

Diversity is the key. By using a greater variety of forms, colors and textures, and enhancing the shapes of common foundation plantings, you can take a winter landscape from drab to dazzling.

Design for contrast
Start by using plants that don’t all look the same after they lose their leaves. Then find plants that contrast strongly with each other in their winter appearance. You can contrast shapes (round vs. triangular, weeping vs. upright), textures (coarse vs. fine) and colors (intense vs. pale, dark vs. bright, warm vs. cool). Set up a strong contrast between elements, such as red berries against the white snow; or thin, feathery grasses in front of stiff, upright evergreens. The composition will command attention and can become an accent or even a focal point. To balance these strong design elements, include plants with more subtle colors and textures.

Here are some specific elements to consider:

Vivid fruit — Lots of plants ripen fruits in late summer and fall. If hungry critters don’t get them, they’ll hang on for much of the winter as bright punctuation marks on the landscape. Deciduous hollies (Ilex spp.), chokeberry (aronia), coralberry (symphoricarpos), heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica-Zone 6) and hawthorns (Crataegus spp.) all set gorgeous, colorful fruits.

Showy twigs — After trees and shrubs drop their leaves, their inner beauty comes through in brightly colored stems that grow richer in hue as the temperature drops. Dogwoods, Japanese kerria, highbush blueberry and many willows all offer bright greens, yellows and reds to accent the winter garden.

Fabulous foliage — Most all popular evergreens have varieties bursting with color. Try a golden or bluish conifer or a variegated broadleaf like euonymus. There is a perfect size, shape and texture to fit any landscape.

Ice flowers — Winter bloomers like witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana) and Christmas rose (Helleborus spp.) really command attention because flowers are so unexpected at this time of year.

Distinctive structure — The bare bones of trees, shrubs and vines show up in the winter when the foliage is gone. It’s a treat to discover the wings on the stems of a burning bush (Euonymous alatus) or to see the spidery traces of Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) snaking along a wall. Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’) and corkscrew willow (Salix matsudana ‘Tortuosa’) have tremendously twisted branches. They can join imposing Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) and stately weeping willow (Salix babylonica) in providing dominant textures and structural interest. Herbaceous perennials, the ones that “die back” in the winter, also add structure. While I usually advocate removing spent plant material immediately to keep insects and diseases down, some perennials can remain standing. Golden brown and tan grasses look great popping out of the snow, adding a lazy movement that only shows up at this time of year. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida sullivantii) and other stiff-stemmed flowers stand up to winter winds and provide a little food for wild birds. A few perennials even remain evergreen in this season. Bergenia (Bergenia cordifolia) turns orange but keeps its ground-hugging, round form. Yucca (Yucca filamentosa) sends its shoots to the sky like fireworks.

Unique bark — “Tree skin” is just part of the background most of the year. But in winter it becomes a powerful landscape element. Exfoliating bark peels off in sheets or distinctive shapes. Stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia), London plane tree (Platanus x acerifolia) and river birch (Betula nigra ‘Cully’) show some of the best. Chunky, black barked persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), creamy birch (Betula spp.), silver green honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) and smooth, bronze cherry (Prunus spp.) are also in the palette.

Pulling it together
For winter landscapes, select just a few places to highlight in the yard. Good choices include the entry to the house, views from a favorite room, and the most visible front corner of the lot. Then draw a very rough sketch of the design, concentrating on shapes, textures and colors.

Also, be sure to tidy up the garden in the fall so it will start winter looking fit. Prune broken branches and rake up all the trash and debris. During the winter months the ice, snow and winds can leave herbaceous perennials a little ratty looking, so go out every now and again and trim up damaged leaves and flower stalks. Then, before spring comes in, give the garden a thorough cleaning. Insects and their eggs, fungi, bacteria and spores can become active at about 50 degrees. Cut back all old foliage and rake the beds to get rid of these disease-causing organisms while they’re still dormant. Colorful twigs will fade as they mature into branches. Keep them trimmed in a pruning routine that will encourage a fresh crop of striking new growth year after year.

Active in the horticultural industry since 1994, Glen O. Seibert is a former editor for Garden Gate magazine and now works as a writer, landscape designer and self-professed “gardening media mogul.”