Naked beauties
Enjoy those stunning shrubs that look so much better without leaves
AS I WRITE this, many deciduous trees and shrubs are showing steely resolve by refusing to let their dying leaves fall. I admire their determination t o extend autumn, but wish they would give up delaying the inevitable and shed their foliage to reveal their hidden treasures.
In my opinion, dogwoods, willows, ornamental brambles and several other species are pretty dull during the growing season, but this is their moment to shine. Once they cast off their leafy cloak, they will earn their keep all winter with fabulous textured bark, vibrant stems and colourful buds.
Of course, not all trees and shrubs that supply winter interest are so yawn-inducing at other times of the year. Birches, snake bark maples, Tibetan cherry, corkscrew hazel and many more possess flowers, catkins, fruit, attractive leaves or attributes that provide seasonal interest.
If you don’t have any of these beauties already, not to worry: late autumn is the perfect time for planting trees and shrubs.
Perhaps the most celebrated of all shrubs grown for colourful stems are dogwoods or cornus. Their leaves really aren’t anything to write home about, but once they’re gone, a mass of upright shoots are exposed in shades of red, yellow, green and near-black.
Almost 50 varieties are available in Britain. Cornus alba ‘ Sibirica’ has crimson stems and C. sericea ‘Flaviramea’ boasts greenish-yellow shoots. The pale yellow shoots of C. sericea ‘ Bud’s Yellow’ are flushed pink at the tips, while C. sanguinea ‘Winter Beauty’ has yellow and red stems.
Dogwoods are best at the back of a bed, providing a backdrop for summer perennials before coming into their own. If you have the space, use them to provide structure within a dedicated winter border. They look great underplanted with ophiopogon, variegated ivy and hellebores.
Stems lose their lustre as they mature so it’s important to prune dogwoods to encourage a flush of colourful new shoots.
The time- honoured advice was to cut everything back hard in March to leave a low, stubby framework. This can weaken plants over time so remove only a third of the older branches. Some willows have gorgeous stems and can be pruned in exactly the same way as dogwoods to keep them manageable. Salix alba var. vitellina ‘Britzensis’ is scarlet, and Salix alba ‘Golden Ness’ has bright yellow stems. Salix daphnoides is a cracker with purplish shoots covered with a dusty white bloom.
Mention brambles and most gardeners will shudder at the thought of these invasive plants, but closely related ornamental types are far better behaved and offer something really special when liberated of their foliage – a thicket of striking stems covered with a chalky white bloom.
GHOST bramble or Rubus thibetanus ‘Silver Fern’, produces a mass of 8ft-tall, arching stems covered with tiny thorns, while R. biflorus is a similar size with a more upright habit. Everyone knows the silver birch (Betula pendula), and there are scores of related varieties prized for their sensational ornamental bark, including Betula utilis var. jacquemontii ‘ Doorenbos’, which has a gleaming white trunk and peeling bark.
There are plenty of other trees with great bark, including Acer ‘White Tigress’, a snakebark maple with striking green-and-white striped trunks, and Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. ‘Niphophila’, which has a bark that flakes away to leave cream, green and grey patches.
Probably my favourite tree of all is Prunus serrula. Known as Tibetan cherry, it has bark that peels away in strips to reveal a glossy, mahogany-coloured trunk.