Shrubs add color to winter landscape
If your winter garden brings to mind adjectives like stark, bleak and bare, a few woody plants may be needed. Adding evergreens is a quick fix and brings needed color, but massive plantings of evergreens can overwhelm a landscape. Temper them with the appealing forms of deciduous woody plants.
Decide which specimens to plant based on their ornamental qualities beyond flowers and foliage, such as dramatic branching structure, colorful bark and retentive fruit.
Dramatic branching
Large shrubs with horizontal or unusual branching add interest to the winter landscape. Doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum, "Mariesii") features distinctive, horizontally tiered branching when leaves fall from its large, rounded frame.
Doublefile viburnums grow up to 12 feet tall and even wider in full sun to part shade in average, well-drained soil.
There may be no other shrub as unique as Harry Lauder's walking stick (Corylus avellana, "Contorta"). Its spiraling and contorted branches are a theatrical focal point in the winter garden.
Harry Lauder's walking stick reaches 8-10 feet tall and almost as wide. Not fussy about its growing conditions, plant it in full sun to part shade.
Colorful bark
Dogwoods are often planted as utility shrubs in the landscape because they thrive in difficult situations - soggy sites and exposed hillsides - but in snowy landscapes, they become works of art.
Red or yellow branches, depending on the variety, glow as they rise from glistening snow. They are especially lovely planted near the tawny stems of ornamental grasses and backed by evergreens.
Shade gardeners can plant Japanese kerria. After its leaves drop late in fall, emerald green branches are exposed that dazzle the winter shade garden. Once established, Japanese kerria is drought tolerant - another benefit for shade gardeners.
Winter fruit
Modern crabapples are disease-resistant and bear a profusion of beautiful retentive fruit. There are no longer messy crabapples to clean up, and delightful pops of color dot the tree's branches in winter.
Prairiefire is considered one of the best disease-resistant varieties. It grows to 20 feet tall. Red buds open to dark purplish-red flowers in spring; new foliage unfurls maroon and matures to dark green; and maroon fruit persists well into winter. Hungry birds add more color to the winter garden as they feast on its abundant fruit.
Plant crabapples in well-drained soil in full sun.
When most folks think of holly, they picture the glossy evergreen leaves used in Christmas arrangements. But another member of the family, Ilex verticillata, drops its leaves to reveal showy, bright red berries lining the entire length of branches.
Winterberry, as they are commonly called, are dioecious (either male or female) and only female plants produce berries. Be sure to plant a male plant for every five females for best berry production.
They grow in average to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Plants may sucker to form wonderful colonies. There are many varieties, growing from 3 to 12 feet tall and wide, from which to choose.
Plan to add a few carefully chosen woody plants to take your winter landscape from bland and barren to beautiful.
• Diana Stoll is a horticulturist and the garden center manager of The Planter's Palette, 28W571 Roosevelt Road, Winfield, IL 60190. Call (630) 293-1040 or visit online at planterspalette.com. She blogs at gardenwithdiana.com.