What plants look good in your winter garden?

I have thought that gardening here in Northern Virginia where the winters are cold enough to "kill" back most perennials but not cold enough to provide a constant snow covering presented some interesting challenges. Those sunny 60 degree winter days beckon you to the garden, but a garden full of dead foliage is not the most beautiful thing. What plants do you count on for giving winter interest in your garden?

One evergreen shrub that has continued to impress me is Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyken' (cherry laurel). I have four of these in my foundation plantings. They look green and vibrant 365 days a year. Something occasionally takes some bites out of their leaves, but they have been extremely low maintenance for me.

I have planted a few different ornamental grasses in the past year. They were looking pretty good until the recent heavy snow flattened them. My azaleas tend to be more "everbrown" than evergreen. The 4 Pieris japonica that I planted in 2005 have stayed handsome throughout the winter.

- Brent

Brent, trying to think what impresses me during this time of the year. Our colorful conifers are always nice especially the blues and golds . Yucca 'Color Guard' is great with bright yellow and green foliage. Euphorbia amygdaloides var. purpurea's burgundy foliage is always a plus for the winter landscape - although its color isn't as deep during the winter months, always adds some interest. Daphne odorata 'Aureomarginata' is always a winner with its evergreen foliage and incredibly fragrant blooms in early April. Chimonanthus praecox is blooming right now and looked incredible with the snow last weekend. Of course, all the Corylopsis species will be blooming long before anything else leafs out and are nice as well. Our Euonymus fortunei 'Blondy' looks even better in the winter months than it does during the summer! Red twig Dogwoods are also nice. I'm trying to think of trees and shrubs with interesting bark during the winter and the only one that comes to mind immediately is Acer griseum (Paperbark Maple), a real beauty if it's a mature specimen. A nice combination we have is a Viburnum davidii paired with Elaeagnus x ebbingei 'Gilt Edge' - this photo was taken in the fall, but it pretty much looks the same throughout the winter.

I'm thinking I need to get out and take more pictures :)

Right now the spring Witchhazels are blooming. Some are in full bloom (Hamamelis x intermedia), and against the snow the yellow blooms seem so incongruous. The Corylopsis with their small orange-yellow flowers also break the late winter monotony and continued to bloom under the snow we got. If you don't have spring blooming Hamamelis and you have room, you won't go wrong planting them. There are red ones now too. Don't plant H. X intermedia like I did. The leaves tend to stay on like their American parent's. I pulled every @#$@^$ leaf off last fall so that I could get a good look-see at the flowers this spring.

Cherry Laurels are marginal around here. Some years they look fine, but some years they are as ugly as home made sin by this time of year.

Yes Debbie, you do need to get out and take more pictures. All those evergreens sound wonderful.

- Brent

Brent, ok, ok, I'll get some pictures! In the meantime, I'm still waiting for a picture of the "18 year old college freshmen with flowing blond hair and gorgeous"! LOL

Looking around the yard as I was driving out the driveway yesterday - how could I have forgotten the Viburnums??

Don't forget the Hydrangea anomala petiolaris for peeling bark. And the Blue Star Juniper for obvious reasons. And Euonymous 'Green and 'Gold' for its pink leaves. And Echinacea seedheads as well as Joe Pye seedheads (with snow of course.) And Aronia arbutifolia 'Brilliantissima' for deep red berries, especially beautiful when ice encrusted.

Ice encased Hydrangea!

Silly me! You wanted "good looking" Winter plants!

Here are some pretty Ilex berries!

A few Callicarpa berries.

Nandina berries

Shirley, You're so lucky to have those Callicarpa berries left after the snow. Ice and wind in December and now the snow have mostly decimated mine. I'll be putting in a number of plants this year with my Callicarpas to echo and complement their berries in the fall. Yours are lovely.

Here's my Harry Lauder's Walking Stick last Sunday.

mickgene: Your Harry Lauder's Walking Stick adds so much horticultural interest especially during the winter months!

Thanks, Shirley. I noticed the other day that it's getting very one-sided from being up near the house on the NW corner. Since I doubt I'll move it, I can see it developing a lot more "character" over the next 10 years or so.

Pennpete...tell me about the H. x Intermedia..I am thinking about getting 'Diane' and I have Arnold Promise, but it does not keep its' leaves as you said.

Hi levilyla. As you may know by now, Arnold's Promise is one of the best of the X intermedia hybrids. Diane has some leaf retention, about 1/2 the leaves stay on from what I have read. If you want a red, some of the cultivars of Hamamelis vernalis might suit, or good old reliable Ruby Glow (X intermedia) might be what you want. The problem with vernalis is that a mild winter will cause them to open in Dec. This means that once the cold returns, flowering is slowed and sometimes a spectacle of red fragrant blooms in February turns into a slowly opening parade of bloom lasting intermittantly from Dec to March. Vernalis flowers as a rule smell more and better than the intermedias, Arnold's Promise being a notable exception.

Remember too, as a plant gets bigger, many of the upper leaves will blow off in the winter, but the lower leaves are often retained.

Thanks..I think I have vernalis (or something similar) and you are right about that one. It also gets very big.

I love my winterberries. Bright red berries along black branches. Oakleaf hydrangea for peeling bark. I've added a cinnamonbark clethra to continue the peeling bark theme but it's still a baby.

My Arnold Promise..it has gotten too long and leggy..I am going to cut it WAY back after it blooms.

Doesn't look anything but good from here. My winter garden in the snow, miscanthus, spirea and flowering quince (not flowering yet) LoL!

Wow does that Callicarpa have berries right now? I planted two new one's in the fall and they're bald. I hope they will fill out. They had berries when I got them, and stayed for a little.

I have a Wintersweet shrub (Chimonanthuss praecox). It is blooming right now. Not much of a bloom, just these little, yellowish "flowers" up and down the stems. They are somewhat fragrant if you stick your nose close to them. They also make seed pods later on that hold about 3-4 large seeds--almost the size of a sunflower seed. I have a few. Anyone want to try growing some?

It is a rather non-descript shrub. The leaves are coarse and it sends out a lot of side shoots, but generally has a vase-shape. It is in a small, round bed and i can tell that it's roots are going all over the soil. It is getting hard to dig in there.

I keep it because the person who gave it to me has long ago died. He grew it from seed (the only way it wil propagate) and gave it to me. He was a customer at out HD and quite a horticulturist. We became "friends". We traded plant talk and plants often.

One day he found out he had cancer all through his body. He had NO idea! He was gone in 6 months! My Wintersweet will always be known as "Bernie's Bush".

Gita

Here's a look at the flowers.

Here's what it looks like without any leaves on.

Hey...I think that is a pretty unusual shrub you have there...you should post on trees and shrubs. I would love a seed..(however I am terrible with seeds).

Levilyla,

I only have about 4 seeds. Maybe I should just stick them in 4 pots and let them "do their thing". I imagine it would be several years (4-5) before it would be a foot tall or such. It was about that tall when bernie gave it to me.

I had NO idea it made seeds! Late last fall, when I was cleaning up. I noticed the few pods still clinging to the stems and saved them all. I will be more careful this Fall now that I know.

I think it is already in the Plant Files. I have never posted anything there, even though I think I could. I have a couple of unusual things.
Have to look into it!

Here's a picture of the seeds and pods: Gita

levilya,
I have seeds if you'd like. I started just 2 last year and they both germinated and grew well. (And I'm not too hot with seeds, either.) They are C. p. 'Concolor' and came from TomTom last spring.
LMK.
Michele

Thank you but I really am afraid to try them...It would be a waste on me. Maybe I can find the shrub.....

Michelle,

How is yours different from the one I have? What does "Concolor" refer to? I know Allan Summers (our local Garden Guru) was talking about some different version of a Wintersweet. I don't know the name, but I think that one was different in some way.

Do you have a picture of your shrub?

Gita

rcn48, a couple more woody plants with beautiful, peeling bark are:

some crepe myrtles - we grow Lagurstroemia 'Natchez' whose muscle-y trunks rise in cinnamon, peeling fluted columns on either side of a gate and that gives fragrant, white bloom July to September for us that is awesome to see from higher up our hill in summer twilight). Underplanting it with evergreen Christmas ferns and oriental lilies (that's a surprise in so much shade!) completes a vignette.

Lace-bark pine - similarly smooth, muscle-y trunks in gray that also peel (Pinus bungeana). This one is underplanted with cuttings we rooted from an azalea growing near a burned out, abandoned ruin - the leaf nodes are far apart which might be a problem in some spots, but under the pine, the airiness of this shrub with its haze of pale lilac flowers in spring is a nice complement to the heavier architecture of the pine. Christmas roses are blooming now that make a bridge from the pine/azalea combo to the twisted hazel. The narrow holly 'Dragon Lady' grows behind and might have been thicker at the base if not for a solid, light-obstructing fence behind.

Penn_Pete - I only grow one Hamamelis - H. mollis 'Pallida' which has no leaf retention. In all winters up until this one, it has made a fragrant, pale-yellow haze from January into March. There were no flowers this winter - would you know why that might be? A woods is growing up in the abandoned lot next door - do you think that could be it? other?

Shirley - beautiful pics - love the groves of deciduous hollies that grow wild in boggy places here - my eyes see things rather blurry, so the berries, to me, are crimson clouds over skunk cabbages this time of year.

Haighr - pics that show plants in context and the way they interact with each other design-wise are among my favorites - thank you for posting that one.

Even though Gatagal doesn't have very many seed of Chimonanthus praecox, may I put a bug in everyone's ears to start saving various kinds of seed now for a round robin next fall/winter? Some DGers are already thinking of having one next fall/winter after they've had the summer to grow some interesting plants. The focus right now is on fragrant plants, but I think the field could be expanded to any plant that has ever enchanted some one, other than invasives. Maybe we'll call it the Enchanted RR.

Levilyla - C. praecox grows in quite a bit of shade at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC. - worth pouncing on, to me, for a shady garden, and the fragrance is a major winter treat.

Saw some spectacular winter plants at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC, doing their thing last Sunday, 3/4/06. They were:

Taiwania cryptomerioides (see my note in: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/82731/index.html Note that the given northern limit is z9a, but that it seems to be doing well in zone 7)

In the garden of antique and species roses, which bursts every year with old-fashioned cottage garden flowers and newer ones that fit the spirit, we were wowed by a collection of many kinds of rosemary planted among tea roses. Two were blooming prolifically! -
R. 'Bendenden Blue' (referred to by Wilson & Bell in The Fragrant Year as R. 'Beneden' and as a "superior blue-flowered version" and
R. 'Miss Jessup's Upright'
Both were about 5' tall and just exploding in fragrant, pale, blue flowers. Although I think these two cultivars won't be very hardy on my cold, clay-ey hillside in Maryland, R. ARP has wintered over for me in the past and bloomed - the keys for us, I think, are drainage from the hill in a raised bed, and shelter from wind in the warm, south-facing micro-climate behind our house. So, even if you live in Pennsylvania or Connecticut, check out some of the hardier cultivars. Sandy Mush Herb Nursery lists some particularly hardy varieties, and there is a lot of info in the DG PlantFiles: http://davesgarden.com/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=rosemary&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=both&Search=Search

Puschkinia was blooming through drifts of larkspur seedlings greening the ground under Rosa glauca and other species roses. And the rose garden had large pots of a black-purple viola blooming near the entrance.

There's a large, compartmentalized herb garden that opens off the rose garden, and in the past when I could walk farther, there was always something of interest in there, too, at this time of year.

I used to love walking into the Asian Valley garden along a trail overlooking the Anacostia River from the Dogwood garden. Many camellias used to bloom there this time of year, and I think some probably still are, along with the intensely fragrant Prunus mume.

PS - In case anyone reading this wants to try their hand at germinating Chimonanthus praecox or other plants, a great site is: http://tomclothier.hort.net/index.html - click on Perennial Germination Database for directions on germinating C. praecox.

And, if, like me, you don't know all the botanical jargon used on that site, try: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=pericarp+%2B+definition - very nifty dictionaries and encyclopedias there

thanks, Brent, for starting this thread

sorry Gitagal - we crossed in the DG ether

Gita,
The only difference with 'Concolor' as far as I know is a slightly deeper color of the blossoms. I don't have any pics yet since it's less than a year old and not much more than one branch yet.
How much do you prune yours and how old is it?
Michele

Michelle,

Since I do not know much of this plant, I just prune it as needed, mostly cutting off the lower branches that sprout sideways and would shade out the annuals I plant around the edge of that round bed (see picture earlier).

I don't know how old it was when bernie gave it to me, but it was about a foot tall. I have now had it for about 5-6 years, so..............I would guess it may be about 8 years old. Last summer was the first time it ever bloomed. I believe the Wintersweet has to be about 5 years old before it will bloom.

By the way--the Cicadas did a real number on this shrub! Many of the branches still show the healed scars of their egg-laying. It survived, though!

Gotta go to work! Gita

Y'all left out Sciadopyllus verticillata (Japanese umbrella pine). After about 25 years from a little rootling sent to us by the Brooklynn Botanic Garden, it is now a 15' pyramid of long, silky-green needles arranged in "umbrellas" that wheel about in their space next to the corkscrew hazel and in front of that narrow, pendulous holly 'Dragon Lady'. Mountain laurel progresses in front with a low juniper cascading over stones in front. (To newbies, balancing deciduous, needled evergreens and broadleaf evergreens can make an area more satisfying than just one kind all by itself - be sure to space them apart so that they don't crowd each other too much in too short a time)

This is our view from the kitchen window all winter, and it recedes into the background in warmer seasons when other plants emerge in front of them and do their thing.

I think sharing contexts and associations within which we grow our treasures can be so useful and helpful to each other. I put this combination under the category of what to plant for a boundary screen in a small, narrow space - who hasn't looked for unusual solutions in that arena?

Another one for an impossibly shady, droughty spot where you would like evergreen background in a narrow space, is Euonymous kiautschovikia (syn. E. patens or the Manhattan euonymous). Many people grow this as a hedge shorn like any other hedge of woody plants. We discovered that it will espallier itself up against a fence and make a wall of green on an otherwise boring fence. It gives a more naturalistic effect.

Hoping to hear more ideas - karen

Karen,

I feel so "out of it" with everyone using all these botanical words for their plants! I know only the common names, as I think most of the people do. This does not mean i do not know plants-- I just call a spade a spade...

I think it would help that those of you who define plantsd ONLY by their botanical names also added the common names for them in parentheses or such. Then we--the horticultural terminology--semi-ignorant--would know what you are talking about.

Thanks, Gita

Gita, I don't think ignorance applies to any of us - I know a little about this and you know a little about that, and between us all, hopefully, the synergy of all of our senses of wonder will bring us all to something unexpected and wonderful. To my thinking, the word ignorance is just a word for a mental state where there is a lot to discover.

What if we had just used the word "hazel" in this thread when referring to Chimonanthus praecox, Hamamelis mollis, Corylus avellana? These are all hazels. Other plants are called hazel, too. There are so many different plants that share the same common name, but each plant only has one latin name that is unique to just that one plant, and no other. Each of these hazels have something unique that sets it off from the others, hence the usefulness of the latin name.

There can be great variation within a genus (especially euonymous). For another example, consider the genus Salvia. We think of most sages as being sun lovers. But fortunately for those of us with gardens too shady for a conventional garden of sunloving flowers, the genus Salvia (sage) has a species, Salvia forskaohlii, which tolerates a lot of shade in my garden (among other sages). Knowing the unique name of a plant with special characteristics you may be looking for can be extremely helpful.

Where I did know the common name, I tried to give it in connection with the latin, but I have my areas of ignorance, too - who knows the common name of Taiwania cryptomeriodes? Fortunately, we can always look up things we're interested in, in the DG PlantFiles and www.google.com , so there's no need to feel left out.

Very good point....thanks

Karen,

OH! I DO know how knowing all the botanical names can help sort out the many species and cultivars. I just don't know any--feel a bit "left out" because I don't know what people are talking about when they use the Botanical names. Looking it up in PF's seems a bit time consuming for me. Perhaps I am just lazy.....

Are you a Master Gardener? How, and where, does one learn all these names? What situation exists where you HAVE TO know them all?

If I am really, really interested, I will make the effort to look things up.
I did NOT know that the Wintersweet was a hazel! Is that like in hazelnuts? I can see the resemblance in the seed pods now that you say that.
Do you know if these seeds need to be "cracked" to help them germinate? They are big!

Gita

Gita, hope I don't sound too terse here, not feeling too well right now.

haven't tried to germinate any of the hazels - my link to Tom Clothier in my post of 3/7/06, 8:26 am, second link from the bottom has great germinating information and it does have an entry for Chimonanthus praecox. The next link on google has definitions of pericarp.

Hortus III, by the Staff of the L.H. Bailey Hortorium, Cornell U (1976), has a list of plants by their common name in its appendix. That's where I got the 3 species of hazel - there are other hazels, too.

As to how plants got their names, who can say? The names themselves - either common or latin - tell stories that beg more questions about the people who named them and their beliefs, superstitions and cultures - not to mention questions about the way languages change over the centuries.

No, I'm not a Master Gardener. Back when I was newly married and found myself with a small plot of ground, a memory of my grandmother's garden came back - had only had a couple glimpses of it when I turned 3 and never again. Maybe what I read stuck so well because of wishing so strongly to bring back all the wonderful things I remembered about her by "recreating" her garden in the present.

I used to park my toes by the woodstove on winter evenings after work and read everything I could find on gardening. Back in the 70s, handbooks of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden cost $1.50 each, and they were my horticultural "bible." And then there were the books so strongly imbued with the passion for gardening by their authors that it was like having a conversation with someone: Gertrude Jekyll, Helen van Pelt Wilson, Louise Beebe Wilder, Vita Sackville-West, Graham Stuart Thomas, Henry Mitchell, Rosemary Verey, etc. These people loved beauty and nature for their own sake, and we had unwittingly moved into one of the most crime-ridden parts of the county where everything short of murder was done to us. So, even though vandalism prevented me from making much progress in gardening the first 10 years we were here, these books got me through some rough times.

So, maybe it was fighting all that adversity to make a garden that made the names and knowledge of plants and design to stick to my gray matter.

Sorry to be so windy. I really don't recommend this recipe for learning to anyone else.

Sounds like a wonderful way to learn to me. You are most knowledgeable because of it.