The Late Winter Garden

Winters in Pennsylvania are cold and gray, and this year has been no exception. Incorporating early flowers, structural conifers and trees and shrubs with interesting bark, unexpected color and branching silhouettes ensures that your garden can still have “LIFE” when most everything else is dormant(including the gardener).

Non flowering plants, like Conifers are often overlooked, due to their wide misrepresentation as just property delineators, wind breaks or Christmas trees. Conifers and broadleaf evergreens provide structure or “bones” to the garden in every season. With so many varieties, you can find something suitable for your garden or landscape, large or small, in a myriad of different shapes, forms, textures and colors. As a collector, I haven’t met too many conifers I didn’t like. I have my preferences, but for me to write a list would be exhaustive.

Broadleaf evergreens like Rhododendron, Inkberry, Mahonia and Boxwood, to name a few, add a unique, leaflike texture to the Winter garden. A bonus - a lot of these flower in late Winter, like Winter Sun Mahonia and PJM Rhododendron.

Deciduous trees and shrubs can also bring color and fragrance into the Winter garden. Hybrid Witch Hazels or Hamamelis X intermedia are a welcome pop of color and refreshing burst of fragrance in the cool Winter air. Depending on cultivar, expect to see flowers as early as late January. Edgeworthia chrysantha or Paperbush, Corylopsis pauciflora, commonly known as Buttercup Winter Hazel, Jasmine nudiflorum or Winter Jasmine are a few more uncommon shrub choices to add to the garden. Trees such as Parrotia persica, Prunus mume, Cornus mas, Prunus ‘Okame’, and certain Magnolia cultivars are suitable tree choices for early color and beautiful branching habits.

Early flowering bulbs and perennials are the bridge between the dormant season and the explosion of Spring. Snowdrops, Winter Aconite, reticulated Iris, early Crocus, Hellebores, Lungworts & Epimediums are all vital sources of nectar and pollen for honeybees, queen bumblebees and other pollinators who emerge from hibernation when we have little bursts of warm weather during Winter. These plants are also durable in cool weather, usings proteins and specialized sugars that allow their tissues to freeze and thaw without becoming soft.

Trees and shrubs with interesting and colorful bark, like Red-Osier Dogwood, Paperbark Maple, Snakebark Maple, Japanese Stewartia, Fantail and Flame Willow can also add visual interest in the bleak, gray landscape with their vibrant colors and interesting silhouettes.

If you are limited by space or don’t have a large garden, some of these plants are suitable for container culture, like bulbs and perennials, even some of the smaller conifers, trees and shrubs, to give you that mental boost we desperately need this time of year and remind you that Spring is on its way.

The key to establishing “LIFE’ to the Winter garden is by using a diverse palette of plants. It’s also helpful to just embrace the cycle of the Seasons and appreciate the little nuances of Nature that are present every day.

Talk Soon!