Winter interest

Does anyone purposely or accidentally plant things that leave interesting winter displays? If so, what plants work well? I saw a picture recently of some ornamental grasses with snow on them that was just lovely.

Besides some grasses and ferns, I really like two shrubs that I have....Harry Lauder's Walking Stick and a v. red-twigged dogwood.

Oh yeah, marie, that reminds me that the yellow-twig dogwood also stands out nice against the snow. I usually cut some stems of both the red and yellow for some winter containers too.

My winter interest are fluffy clematis seed on the fences and cone flowers which I do not cut down, (forthe birds) and to trap snow.
Inanda

I'm so jealous of those of you with a Harry Lauder's walking stick! I've been wanting one, but they are expensive and slow to grow. Cone flowers are a good idea, but I'll have to look up dogwood. This is just something I never thought about before, but now I have a new house, have the opportunity to garden more than I used to, and I got to wondering. Keep the ideas coming!

I don't plant that much for winter interest, but it's something I start thinking about toward the end of August. The big sedums, purple coneflowers, dogwoods and arctic willow, help a lot. Some years everything gets covered with snow, except for the real tall stuff. I leave pretty much everything till spring for cleanup, but the lilies, irises peonies and daylilies. I cut those down to prevent any spread of disease.

Most of my "winter interest" plants got there by sheer *mistake*. LOL

But I *was* looking out the window this morning and commented to DH about how pretty things still looked out there. And thinking of it now, somehow certain things got planted where they'll show beautifully when the snow falls.

There a couple of Weeping Pussy Willows up close to the back entrance to the house...a little farther back in the yard is a weeping crab (beautiful color bark and the weeping habit will look pretty), then there's the Japanese Weeping Willow that has fantastic red branches. (Guess my garden is all sad and "weepy". LOL Never thought about it before now.)

For a little while the large yuccas will give some texture to the flat ground beds as will the coneflowers and ninebark and dogwoods. Everything is still SO small that I'll have to really put on magnifying glasses to see it from my window...good thing I have a vivid imagination. :-)

~julie~

I'm pretty sure the two Harry Lauder's walking sticks that I have weren't expensive. We've had them for several years now and when we bought those, we were CHEAP. We weren't into gardening at all, so we didn't spend much.

I have to say the best winter interest thing we have here is our Washington Hawthorn trees. We've got three big ones and a small one. The red berries look just gorgeous with snow on them.

I never clean my flower gardens. The plants make a good snow catch. Lot less work than mulching. Also the seeds there help the birds through the winter. Much nicer to see a flock of birds on the old flower stems than to have to look at a bed of straw all winter. Most of the time I lose very few plants. People always telling me in the spring, how this plant or another didn't make it through. Oh well, makes for better plant sales.
Bernie

Kylee...those red berries you mentioned reminded me. Yesterday, I was out taking in some of the last pretty weather. I noticed that the tiny (at the first of the year, anyway) cotoneaster 'Coral Berry' has spread out in it's location beautfully. In a year or so, it'll look like it's been forever. But at the same time I noticed the growth on it, I also realized that it's covered abundantly with little red berries! And remember thinking to myself "COOL!! This should be gorgeous when the snow flies!"

Bernie...I'm amazed that your plants don't heave right out of the ground. Do you think the plant materials you leave over the winter do that good a job of mulching? I'd be scared silly to do that here.

~julie~

Works! Even snapdragons have overwintered.
Pansies come out of the snowbanks in bloom.
Bernie

Hey Bernie, what kind of soil do you have in your gardens? Mine is sandy and very loose...I'm thinking of all the heuchera plants that heaved their crowns on me last year (nope! I forgot to mulch them! I was more interested in making sure my mums were mulched in deep, and besides that, my hands were frozen and I really care on that day whether anything made it or not. LOL)

~julie~

Wait a minute! Did you say the SNAPDRAGONS made it??? Surely you mean they self-seeded, right?

What is this heuchera-heaving you're talking about? *scared*

I had lots of very young heuchera plants that I put in spring of '04. They did fairly well through that summer so I didn't think much about them needing to be mulched after the ground froze. (Like a lot of other things.)

But when I started inspecting things for new growth in early spring, after the ground started thawing out, I noticed that most of my heuchera were barely hanging on to the ground with their roots. I later found out that the freeze thaw cycle could push the crowns well above the surface of the soil and could kill my plants.

I carefully pushed the crowns back down and made sure I hadn't covered them too deeply with soil (for fear they'd rot). They were all saved from certain death, I'm sure. LOL

It's interesting how many plants I've noticed now that have 'crowns' that need to be more carefully handled in my gardens. It's probably the loose sandy soil that causes my problems. You may not have that kind of trouble at all. That's why I asked Bernie about the soil in his garden.

Another plant with those 'escaping' crowns is my Cranesbill geranium.

~julie~

Hmmmm.....I've seen what you're talking about, but have never worried about it that much. I'll be more aware this winter. Thanks for explaining, Julie!

You're welcome, Kylee. It's probably one of those things that happens to a lot of us...we lose plants and just figure they weren't able to cope. At least with this information we *might* be able to help them out.
:-)

~julie~

julie,

Have had the same problem here and that is in beds with somewhat decent soil,,,,I think, like you said, it's the freeze thaw cycle and it can happen in various soil types. I keep my eyes closely peeled on Everything in Spring,,,I'm like an old mother hen lookin' at Everything Every day. I think I spend more time looking at everything closely in Spring than I do any other time of the year,,,,OIY, what us gardeners won't do for our babies,,,LOL

Kelly...I thought *I* was the only one out there when the snow was melting uncovering all the stuff I mulched...then carefully covering it back up. I think it's a "Mommy" thing, myself. LOL (OH! And I get SO excited when the first barely visible 'green thing' starts to grow! LOL)

~julie~

Oh, I do too, I walk around peeking as to not disturb the fallen leaves too much,,,,Just enough so I can see if theres a little green yet,,,,and OH Happy Day when there is,,,I'm doin' the Happy Garden Dance I get so cited.

Now, If I can keep Bill from tidying up too early in Spring,,,,maybe I won't lose Anything,,,,Old Fool,,,thinks as soon as the snow melts things Have to be cleaned up,,,I don't care what he does in the rest of the yard but LEAVE MY BEDS ALONE,,,,,,last Spring, he tidied up too early and I lost quite a few things,,,,oooo, did we have a Discussion!

I regularly inspect my gardens, too. No matter WHAT time of year it is! I just love to do that!

Snapdragons, annual dianthus, both come from the old plant.
2004-2005 winter we had almost no snow. Ground was froze super deep. Lost almost no perennial plants. We have quite a few Zone 5 things, too. Mums all came back, been blooming now since August, what a site!
Our soil in the yard is sandy loam, very black, very slipprey when wet, if you walk 10 feet in it when wet, your shoes will weigh 20 lbs each. Very seldom gets to dry.
But i don't think soil has much to do with freeze-out.
Bernie

Have winter interest with the miscanthus grass, curly twig willow, barbarry and Christmas ferns.
Have had snapdragons-Rocket mix, make it through the winter. I cover any plants now, that show any new growth at the ground level.
Miss the red twig dogwood that lost years ago-so pretty.

Thanks Bernie...that's *very* interesting! I'll definitely keep an eye out for plants that *might* come back next year instead of just blindly pulling everything that's supposed to be an annual or 'tender' up here.

~julie~

This thread is so interesting to me, I just love about all of the plants named, many are workhorses all summer long, as well as providing eye candy during winter. I would like to have Harry Lauder someday too. Right now, I'm looking for shrubs to fill in a narrow area along the side of my house, partly shady southern exposure clay soil. I was thinking artic willow, v. red-twig dogwood, pussy willow (had no idea there was a weeping form, I love weepers Julie!!), ninebark, or maybe 'Black Beauty' sambucus. I have a single white peony 'Krinkled White'? at one end, and a dwarf pink butterfly bush at the other end, with about 12 feet in between, nothing can get wider than about 3 feet, so dwarfs or compact forms will be considered best. Suggestions?

You can't go wrong with ninebark, but you might try a dwarf fothergilla. Both ninebark and fothergilla give multi-seasonal interest.

thanks, I forgot about dwarf fothergilla. Also on my 'list'. I was thinking dark colored foliage next to the butterfly bush, sambucus 'Black Lace' is the one I was looking for!

Well, I've been working on a collage of plant pictures from the web. I think I will use ninebark 'Diablo' next to the butterfly bush, then switchgrass ( I forgot I want to move this), then itea 'Henry's Garnet' then the peony, I was trying for a balance of color, texture, & form. I have an itea somewhere else, it gets a nice red fall color, the peony is kinda yellowish. This border will be next to the house. Across the flagstone path that runs along the border, next to the cedar fence, I have a red chokeberry 'Brilliantissima', with orange fall color and red berries. I plan to move some purple 'East Friesland' sage next to it for contrast (it's still in bloom), and add a few other low growing perennials at the bases of the rest of the shrubs, mainly as edgers. I need to ask about edging the beds, do you think I should start a new thread for ideas, and in what forum?

k - thanks for the suggestions! I'll post pics in the spring! yipee :-)

This message was edited Nov 9, 2005 10:14 PM

PG...I bought the Weeping Pussy Willow from Spring Hill Nursery this past spring. It was really cool because they messed up my order (LONG Story!) and sent me TWO instead of the one I'd ordered. I told them I wasn't paying for something that expensive especially since the problem was *their* fault. They didn't want the second one sent back...and when they told me to "Stick it anywhere I wanted" (I took that to mean *exactly* what it sounds like...hehehe) I PLANTED it! LOL

So I managed to get a TUFER on the WPW.

I'd love to get a Ninebark 'Diablo' ! The ones I have are the 'native' variety (DS got them from the DNR nursery last year...just little sticks then). But they've grown like gangbusters...and totally thrilled me with their brilliant colors this fall.

Please, don't forget to post pics of your planting for us in the spring. I'd love to see how everything fits together.
~julie~

My grandma has Diablo Ninebark, and they're gorgeous.

o, oo, ooo, oooo, ooooo,,,,,,I want a Ninebark 'Diablo',,,just saw a pic and they are great.

Wonder how hard it is to propagate this? From cuttings, maybe? Has anyone done that? My grandma has three young ones.

Kylee...they couldn't be all that difficult. The ones I got from the DNR last spring were no more than rooted cuttings. (Hmmmmm....Kyyyyleeee...:-D YOU might be next on the hiest list. LOL)

~julie~

LOL!!!

(thot you'd like that idea....LOL)

~j~

AAAHHHH Kylee, Yes,,,,,By all means,,,,Do Start some Cuttings,,,,mwahaha

Ooh Kylee, I really would like that! We went to my turf instructor's house during class today to look at her thatching problem and grub damage, she naturally had excellent landscaping. She has a switchgrass, dwarf mugo pine, and hypericum planted together, looked so nice I'm tempted to copy that, still want ninebark for next to the butterfly bush. Maybe lose the dang peony, it only blooms for two days of the #$*& year! What do you all think?

I still like Peony's,,,,I think every garden should have Peony's,,,they don't flower very long, but they are so pretty.

Well, mine smells like cat pee, so maybe you wouldn't like it so much, LOL.

PG,,

EWE,,,why?