Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: A garden in winter need not be dreary: Plants that will enliven your garden in winter

Published: 12-24-2024 1:09 PM |
It’s not unusual these cold gray days to despair over the appearance of our gardens. It wasn’t so long ago that late-blooming asters and brilliant foliage punctuated the landscape. Now that I’m leaving garden cleanup until spring to help feed and shelter the fauna that overwinter here, my perennial beds are a sorry mess to behold. Masses of shaggy brown skeletons are all that remain of the colorful foxgloves, phlox and rudbeckia that flourished through the summer. A bright red cardinal suddenly pops into focus, a reminder that I need to adjust my expectations of visual excitement in the garden.
And yet, this time of year is a good time to think about adding interest to our winter gardenscapes. There are many shrubs and trees that come into their own in winter, adding interesting textures, lines, colors and shapes to the garden. One of my favorites is winterberry, a deciduous holly whose branches are loaded with bright red berries in winter. These grow wild in wet areas and are easy to grow in gardens, where they do fine in normal soil conditions. There are many varieties in different sizes, so even if you’re gardening on a small scale, you can find one that fits your space. Be aware that a male plant is needed to fertilize the females. The male plant isn’t showy, but it doesn’t need to be planted in close proximity to the females, so you can relegate it to a less noticeable spot in the garden. Birds feast on winterberries in the cold months. Mine are already picked clean! So if you’re concerned about preserving a bold display of berries, choose a variety with larger berries, which are too big for most birds to eat.
Red osier (or red-twig) dogwood is another good choice for winter color. Its garnet-colored stems make a dramatic statement, especially in the snow or against a backdrop of evergreens. It’s a native plant that’s a workhorse in the ecosystem. Its white, umbrella-shaped clusters of flowers in late spring draw pollinators. The flowers give way to white berries in summer, sometimes tinged with blue, that are enjoyed by many species of birds and small mammals. Several varieties of butterflies and moths lay their eggs on the plant, which produce caterpillars that songbirds snatch up to feed their young nestlings. There are also gold-twig osiers that glow in the landscape. Both red- and gold-twig dogwoods provide the most vivid color when grown in full sun. The younger stems have bolder color, so it’s a good idea to prune out the older stems occasionally.
Of course, evergreens take center stage in winter, when they lend color and form to a barren landscape. There are junipers of all shapes and sizes, and I love them because of their soft, blue-green color. Hinoki cypress, originally from Japan, is one of my favorites because of its twisting branches that droop slightly at the tips. Its irregular contours, when highlighted with a dusting of snow, set it apart from its more symmetrical evergreen cousins. Hinoki cypress can grow up to 30 feet tall, perfect for a full, sturdy hedge that provides welcome shelter for birds. But there also are many dwarf varieties that add dynamic notes in a mixed border. They come in various shapes and sizes — rounded, pyramidal, upright — that play nicely with their neighbors. Their deep green foliage contrasts well with the burgundy leaves of a PJM rhododendron. There’s even one with gold-tipped foliage that pops on a sunny winter day.
Broad-leaved evergreens such as mountain laurel and rhododendrons are mainstays of the winter landscape. Japanese pieris has tiny round flowerbuds through the winter that bloom into delicate bell-shaped blossoms in early March. Pieris also comes in many sizes, from the compact 4-by-4-feet varieties to the airier 13-by-9-feet ones.
For late winter interest, consider witch hazel ‘Arnold Promise,’ which blooms in late February or early March. Its bare branches come alive with stringy, yellow-petalled flowers that look like miniature mopheads. My favorite thing about this witch hazel is its divine fragrance. Once your plant has grown large enough, you can cut branches and force them indoors, filling your home with the sweet scent of spring. It grows to 15 or 20 feet and has a loose vase shape, so make sure to plant it where it will have room to spread out. And you’ll want to plant it where it can be seen and smelled close up.
Hellebores also brighten the perennial bed when their neighbors are still asleep. Their buds begin to appear in early winter and gradually open over the next three months, coming into bloom by late February or early March, depending on their location in the garden. They come in many colors — deep red, pink and apricot, chartreuse, some marked with with red confetti dots, stripes or edges.
And don’t forget snowdrops!
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If you plan ahead, you’ll find dozens of plants that will enliven your garden in winter. Now that the cold weather is here and there’s not much work to do outdoors, put your feet up, grab some catalogs and imagine what next winter’s gardenscape might look like. And even though it seems far away, next year is just around the corner.
Mickey Rathbun is an Amherst-based writer whose new book, “The Real Gatsby: George Gordon Moore, A Granddaughter’s Memoir,” has recently been published by White River Press.