Winter Beauty - Shrubs and Trees

October 21, 2011

Pictured here is Corylus in a blanket of snow.

Winter Beauty—Shrubs and Trees by Sally Cunningham (Excerpt from The Buffalo News, October 12, 2011)(Read Sally’s column in the News every Friday—section III)

Winter is technically four months long but from a gardener’s point of view it’s at least six. In late October into November we can still plant bulbs, shrubs and trees, and we can make new beds and pull weeds. But otherwise we’re finished from October 10 until pruning time in March, and then we wait until the soil dries out—mid-April? May? That’s too long to look at bland landscapes without an appealing design—the bones of the landscape—that provide structure, focal points and color. When you drive past your front yard, or walk through your garden, you should like the design and see beauty in the shrubs and trees that comprise the winter garden. Those shrubs and trees have a year-round job, unlike most perennials, so consider the winter season when you choose them.

Woody ornamentals (trees and shrubs) 

The stars of the winter garden shine differently from the flowers we love in summer. Winter beauty consists of features that would not be impressive in a riotously colorful summer landscape. During the dark months each plant feature contrasts dramatically with its stark white or gray canvass. The points of interest are not flowers but usually berries, bark, silhouette, twig or needle/leaf color.

Great shrubs and trees for a winter landscape

The plants below are grouped according to their strongest winter features.

 *Green—the strongest color

Evergreens make the strongest impression of all the plants in the winter yard. Place them carefully for a feeling of balance when they are all you’re seeing. Clipped Taxus balls or cubes don’t look great in winter usually; they are often flattened or broken by snow, their imperfections stand out starkly and they’re not graceful. Choose instead naturally shaped conifers such as birds’-nest spruce, dwarf Chamaecyparis or junipers. Depending on where you live, broad-leaved evergreens (rhododendrons, hollies, boxwood) can look attractive in winter, but try for truly hardy and deer-proof choices, since the point is somewhat lost if they are hidden by winter-protection covers, tee pees, or burlap. In extreme cold, rhododendrons turn their leaves downward—to limit moisture loss.

*Colorful needles

Many evergreens come in varying shades of green or other color altogether. Chamaecyparis are not only the most useful evergreen for Western New York landscapes (deer-proof, shade-tolerant, and available in most shapes and sizes), they may be blue-green or gold-flecked, or nearly all gold.

*Colorful leaves

Some shrubs have leaves that persist into winter, and tend to turn wine-colored or bronze, including Leucothoes, Mahonia (Oregon grape holly), Pieris japonica and some rhododendrons. Many viburnums also have long leaf retention, with maroon or wine colors in winter. These aren’t stop-the-car colors, but in a shrub border framed by snow they make a wondrous tapestry. Until they drop their leaves, cutleaf sumac or Rhus aromatic ‘Gro-Low’ are bright red.

*Skeleton or silhouette

Hugely important in trees, shape when naked is enough reason to choose some deciduous shrubs. The low, horizontal branches of Cotoneaster horizontalis, or the arches of cutleaf stephanandra resemble delicate black line drawings on white snow. Doublefile viburnum is the Queen of Shrubs in winter, for her bare silhouette and for the horizontal branches that hold the snow as elegantly as they display the flowers in early summer. Most famously, ‘Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick’ (Corylus avellena ‘Contorta’) is weird and playful—if you can grow it successfully. Silhouette is the most overlooked characteristic in trees, and usually ignored by plant shoppers because it’s a feature of mature trees only. Stewartias are pretty all year, but it’s only in winter that you see the elegant branching structure. The horizontal oval of a Washington hawthorne, the tall oval of a Katsuratree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), the horizontal tiers of a Pagoda dogwood—all are enough reason to own the trees.

*Branches and twigs for color and shape

With tulips still a distant dream, you can still see red and yellow in winter if you plant red- or yellow-twigged dogwoods (Cornus alba, C. stolonifera ‘Flaviramea’) Or try willows for their colorful or corkscrew branches. ? Berries for birds and beauty Crabapples, Chionanthus, (Fringe tree), Aronia (Chokeberry), viburnums, and Ilex verticillata (Winterberry) are berry producers that are usually still showy into the new year.

*Bark

Some trees are memorable for their bark. Acer griseum (Paperbark Maple) is the favorite of many nurserymen specifically for its gleeming, curly, peeling cinnamon colored bark. The bark of a mature stewartia becomes a patchwork of tan, cream and coral; a Katsuratree develops shaggy bark. People buy birches for their bark, from the white birch (often troubled by a borer) to the trouble-free ‘Heritage’ river birch (pinkish tan bark), with many other options including a gray birch whose bark turns white at maturity. In winter one can also admire the smooth gray of a Redbud, or the rough texture of a Scots pine that’s been limbed-up. Most Prunus (cherries and plums) also have appealing red-toned bark.

If winter is your bleakest month, there is still time to plant shrubs or a tree to begin the beautification process. The garden still has many gifts for us, with trees and shrubs that are showing off their finest features. We simply must choose them and then take the time to see them.