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Ensure your yard has winter pizzazz. Bring color, texture, structure and movement with the right plants. |
When you look out your kitchen window or pull into the driveway this winter and cringe at the lack of appeal, you need to add some winter interest to your landscape.
Evergreens, fruit, seed heads, and bark will add color and texture to an otherwise monotonous garden bed. Shades of greens, blues and purples will pop against a white canvas with evergreens. There are some great dwarf selections like 'Acrocona Pusch' spruce or 'Minuta' eastern white pine that will fit nicely into front foundation plantings. Also bring a bit of red, orange, or blue/black into the color palette with fruit from shrubs. Look to winterberries, snowberries, viburnums, and many crabapple varieties for their winter fruit display.
Don't forget that several tree varieties maintain intriguing bark. We're aware of the birch species with its exfoliating bark, but also look at amur chokecherry or shagbark hickory.
Incorporate perennials and ornamental grasses for their seed heads. Sedum, coneflower, and black-eyed Susan are always popular, but add blue false indigo or globe thistle for a twist. The fluffy seed heads of clematis had texture too. Switchgrasses, feather reed grasses, Miscanthus spp., and prairie dropseed will bring structure, movement, and texture to winter beds.
Even a plant's branching structure can bring a bit of interest to an otherwise dull landscape. The horizontal branching of pagoda dogwood or honeylocust captures snow. The twisting and curling branches of Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') is quirky. Consider adding weeping forms of trees and evergreens such as 'Louisa' or 'Ruby Tears' crabapples or 'Formanek' spruce or white weeping pine.
And just when you think you can't handle more snow shoveling, you'll notice the early spring bulbs trying to peek out.
For More Information:
Photos of Winter Landscapes
The Winter Landscape from the U of MN Extension Office
