Winter garden alive with color
When I start down the sidewalk with my dog on cold winter days, there’s a little evergreen that always makes me smile. It is Golden Mop false cypress ( Chamaecyparis pisifera), and its bright yellow-gold, fine-textured foliage adds an unusual and welcome splash of color.
My plant is still young and small, just beginning to display its semi-weeping habit. I seldom notice it in summer when it’s surrounded by flamboyant annuals and perennials. But in winter its bright color shines like a beacon.
In another corner of the landscape, the vivid red stems of Baton Rouge dogwood always brighten my spirits. I planted a trio of this compact selection of tartarian dogwood
(Cornus alba) against an evergreen backdrop. Removing about a third of the oldest stems every spring ensures that the remaining stems will dress in brilliant red every winter.
Green, of course, is a welcome color, too. During the growing season, I tend to think of green as just the background. In winter, though, evergreens — both the conifers and the broadleaves — are the main event.
The dwarf boxwoods in my entry garden, for example. Sheltered from the sun and wind that might otherwise cause the color to fade, they’re still bright green. And there’s the Cupressina Norway spruce, quick to shoot up tall but so skinny that it’s planted just a few feet from the corner of the house. The same goes for the North Pole arborvitaes, slender evergreens that make exclamation points in the landscape.
I always enjoy the bright red fruits of the winterberry holly shrubs ( Ilex verticillata) for however long they last. Last winter, birds had eaten all the berries by early December. This winter, plump red berries still cover my two Red Sprite winterberry shrubs. Unlike some hollies, winterberry drops its leaves in fall, all the better to see the berries.
My favorite place from which to enjoy the winter landscape is from indoors looking out. As I survey the scene, there’s still room to do a better job of coloring my winter garden. On my wish list for spring planting:
Winterberry hollies named Berry Heavy Gold, which have bright gold fruit. Like all hollies, they will need one male plant for pollination. Mr. Poppins winterberry should do the trick.
Arctic Sun dogwood, chosen for its bright yellow stems tipped with red. Only about 4 feet tall, this compact variety won’t hog too much space.
Flame willow, which has orange bark in winter. Curling branch tips add to its winter interest. This shrub can be large, up to 20 feet tall and wide, but it doesn’t mind being cut back every spring to fit a smaller space.