subject: Winter garden - pleasure and comfort [print this page] Winter garden - pleasure and comfort Winter garden - pleasure and comfort
In the gray days of winter, our gardens lack colour and scent. However, if you have paid attention to the "bones" of your landscaping, now could be the time when silhouettes of bushes and bushes, and dried seed heads or brilliant winter berries come into the fore. Woody vegetation with lovely bark and fascinating architectural construction can form the backbone of your winter garten.
Evergreens with colorful foliage throughout the year come into their very own in winter, when there is no competition from inexperienced deciduous leaves and shiny flowering plants. Golden Hinoki cypress, Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Aurea', reveals golden new growth. A number of varieties of juniper add colors starting from a rose-purple cast to silvery blue foliage. Oregon grape, Mahonia aquifolium, has broad grone-purple to brilliant red leaves that can mild up the winter landscape.
Many gardeners choose evergreens so as to add colour and texture all year long, but in case you deliberately select deciduous plantings to enrich your panorama, the patterns of their branches will enhance your backyard in this barest season. Probably the greatest of these is the corkscrew hazel, Corylus avellana. This Medusa head of contorted branches and coiling stems can develop as much as ten feet. Coming in a close second is the dragon-claw willow, Salix babylonica, with its swish spiralling branches. Another shrub with attractively contorted yellowish brown twigs is Harry Lauder's walking stick, Corylus contorta.
Other trees and shrubs present curiously textured and sometimes colourful bark once the leaves have fallen. The peeling cinnamon skin of the paperbark maple or the brilliant purple shoots of the purple osier dogwood add color and texture to the monochromatic winter landscape. The golden weeping willow, Salix x chrysocoma, adds a vivid golden glow to the winter landscape that is hidden in summer. For a contact of vibrant coloration, plant a birch bark cherry, Prunus serrula, and luxuriate in its bronze-purple bark.
One other manner so as to add coloration to the winter panorama is to plant shrubs and trees that sport winter berries. Not solely do these add colour, they entice winter birds, which further enliven the garden. Cotoneaster brightens up walls and hedges with its bunches of pink or orange berries whereas wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, can cover the bare brown earth with its evergreen leaves and small red berries. Maybe you have species of crabapples, Malus, in your yard. Usually the small purplish fruits will last all through the winter, feeding birds and adding even more drama to the yard.
Don't forget winter flowering perennials, like hardy cyclamen, with vibrant mauve blossoms or hellebores, snowdrops and yellow or purple winter blooming crocus. Many of those bloom in either late fall, with winter foliage, or in late winter, pushing flowers up by brown earth or patches of snow. Some, like heuchera with evergreen bronze foliage or berengia with its leathery inexperienced leaves, can add coloration and texture in the understory of your garden all through the year.
So don't quit on your gardens throughout the winter. There are various vegetation that may colour, appeal and dimension to your backyard, regardless of the season.
