Ornamental grasses shine in the wintertime.
Winter is not the most favorite time of year for most folks when it comes to gardening and enjoying your yard. The bright flowers of summer are a faded memory, fall tree colors have dropped to the ground, and the days grow shorter as we approach the winter solstice, bringing chilly, often damp, cloudy and dreary conditions. Yet, the changing seasons also bring about transformations in the yard and landscape that cannot be appreciated at other times of the year.
Now that trees are bare, their interesting branching architecture can be appreciated, along with any glaring defects like dangerously hanging branches. The attractive peeling bark of river birch, crape myrtles, and oakleaf hydrangeas can be better appreciated without the competition of the foliage. Other interesting bark patterns pop out at this time of year after the clothing of leaves has been shed to unveil what lay behind.
As Oakleaf hydrangeas age, the peeling bark becomes more pronounced.
River birch bark comes off in large sheets.
Different crape myrtle varieties have different shades of bark, revealed every other year.
It’s only in winter one can appreciate Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’). During the summer, one is underwhelmed with this plant – definitely not the star of the spring or summer landscape. But once the leaves are gone, the mass of dramatically twisted, curling branches jumps out at you visually and becomes the center of attention.
Japanese maple ‘Arakawa’ shows its unusual rough bark and attractive orange fall colors.
The other day I was taking a photo of a Japanese maple with bright red-orange leaves, when I noticed its very unusual warty bark on the trunk – something I had missed all these years of regularly passing by this tree. The variety is called ‘Arakawa’, and I discovered that is actually a Japanese word for “rough bark”. An already great tree for the landscape just went up another notch on my appreciation meter.
American beautyberry may not be as beautiful to us this late in the season, but is a feast to birds.
Trees and shrubs with berries take center stage now as they mature to their final colors. The colorful purple berries of American beautyberry won’t last much longer with mockingbirds, cardinals and others also enjoying them.
Snailseed is an attractive native vine
I was visiting a garden shop the other day and was asked to identify a vine with cheery bright red berries. It is called Carolina snailseed (Cocculus carolinus), so called because of the shape of the seeds inside the berries. You won’t find this native vine for sale, but if you come across one, grab a few berries for their seeds to sow and grow on a fence or other support.
Of course, hollies are synonymous with berries, and are one of the more popular groups of plants used in landscaping. Not all hollies have berries, because a plant can be either a male, which only bears pollen-bearing flowers, or one with female-only flowers, which when pollinated turn into the berries. This fact is important mainly if you are in the woods looking at young holly plants you might desire to use in your yard.
The good news is that hollies sold in garden centers are clonally propagated. If a named variety is known for bearing fruit, it will have fruit in your yard, and bees take care of the pollination issue. American holly, yaupon holly and possumhaw (or deciduous holly) are 3 of the more common plants that are native to east Texas. Note that the common dwarf yaupon holly variety is a male clone, so it will never bear fruit.
Mockingbird guarding and enjoying “her” possumhaw holly.
Possumhaw holly (Ilex decidua) loses its leaves in the winter, revealing a bounty of red to orangey-red berries cherished by a wide variety of birds, especially mockingbirds and cedar waxwings.
Speaking of birds, county agents across a wide area of Texas have been getting questions over the last several weeks about where are all the birds. The folks at Texas Parks and Wildlife have gotten the same inquiries, and Ornithologist Cliff Shackelford’s answer is that there is an abundance of food available in the wild due to the timely rains of late summer and fall. This means birds at this time are not so dependent on our feeders while nature’s bounty lasts.
Orange berries of Virginia Dare yaupon holly
Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) is a small, evergreen tree that makes an outstanding landscape specimen. The small, dark green leaves make a perfect foil for bright red berries covering the tree. A few varieties bear other colors, such as ‘Virginia Dare’ with orange berries, seen in the IDEA Garden. And the weeping yaupon holly provides drama with its strongly descending pendulous branches loaded with red berries.
Our beloved dogwoods not only have pretty spring flowers, but after the colorful fall foliage falls, the attractive red berries are on full display until consumed by birds. The blocky patterned bark of dogwoods is also attractive.
Winter flowers are not all that common, but they do exist. Of course, pansies, snapdragons and stock are some annuals we can plant and enjoy well into next spring. But there are other sources of flowers besides annuals. Starting in December, paperwhite narcissus begin the winter parade of sweet-smelling flowers that faithfully return every year to cheer up the winter blahs, followed by other narcissus varieties in the coming months.
An abundance of blooms on H. ‘HGC Cinnamon Snow’ make this a great plant for early season bloom in the shade.
Hellebores, also called Lenten rose, are wonderful evergreen perennials that laugh at the cold, and begin blooming in the winter. An easy plant to grow, perfect for shady spots in the yard such as under trees.
The dark green foliage makes a perfect setting for this pure white camellia (name unknown).
Camellias are favorite evergreen shrubs in east Texas, with sasanqua camellias beginning the show in the fall, continued by Camellia japonica on into the early spring season. Every garden should have at least one of these wonderful shrubs to enjoy during the winter.
Wintertime treat of witch hazel blooms.
I echo Master Gardener Dee Bishop’s recommendation a few weeks ago in her column “In Our Garden” in the Tyler Morning Telegraph about growing witch hazel which is blooming right now. This is a wonderful and underutilized large shrub or small tree.
Backlit pink muhly grass is a real eyecatcher!
Ornamental grasses also stand out in the winter, their dried foliage overtopped with attractive flower plumes. When planted where they can be viewed backlit by the sun, they can create a memorable view.
