Released Oct. 11, 2007
MANHATTAN, Kan. - Homeowners are driving a trend in landscaping that´s changing the face of the horticulture industry. They want an interesting, attractive landscape for most, if not all of the year - including winter.
This has affected plant breeders´ focus. In turn, nursery signs, Web sites and mail-order catalogs now often describe each ornamental plant as having one, two, three or four seasons of visual benefits.
"Fortunately, you don´t have to redo your entire yard to achieve four seasons of interest. The most important parts of the winter landscape are the `picture postcards´ of scenery you see through your windows each day while the weather´s cold," said Ward Upham, horticulturist with Kansas State University Research and Extension.
Because they always retain leaves and color, evergreens can be the foundation of winter scenery.
Some of the more popular evergreens aren´t well-adapted to central U.S. weather, Upham said. For example, showy rhododendrons, blue spruces, firs and pines can need extra care, just to survive.
Still, a cross-section of staples usually flourish in the midlands. They offer a number of the varieties now available for arborvitae, barberry, boxwood, cedar, (evergreen) euonymus, holly, juniper and yew - which can include dwarfs suitable for small-scale yards. Their colors can range from yellow- and blue- and silver-green to an emerald and even a purplish-black green.
"With the evergreens as the exception, however, you have to learn to plan and appreciate the winter landscape in terms of a different kind of beauty," Upham said. "Structure, shape, texture and pattern assume new importance. The color differences can be subtle, yet some contrasts can be striking.
"If they´re reddish, for example, any remaining berries will stand out like so many bird-attracting beacons. A tree´s ragged, peeling bark can be a patterned study in shades of gray and brown. You might have the stiffness of a yucca´s evergreen leaves next to the graceful bare branches of a weeping cherry - or, beside the dried, arching leaves and fluffy seed heads of an ornamental grass."
If well-designed, winter´s window-viewed scenes often have a spare, sometimes stark beauty, he said. They can seem more elemental - somehow stronger - than summer´s lush growth.
Their overall design, however, can range from echoing the simplicity of an Oriental garden to paying homage to Victorian Christmas illustrations.
"For the most part, a good design is a matter of architecture," Upham said. "In general, it has varying heights to see and at least one harmonious grouping that is or includes a center of interest. It also features interesting plant aspects that may be overlooked during the growing season."
After its rather ordinary leaves drop, for example, the shrub known as Harry Lauder´s walking stick (Corylus avellana `Contorta´) exposes twisted, turned and even corkscrew-shaped branches. Modern crabapple varieties offer a variety of "bare bones" growth habits and forms that can foster wintertime appeal. Without leaves, well-established sycamore trees are still noticeable for their wide-stretching white branches, but their thick trunk´s patches of gray-with-white bark become outstanding.
"Seed pods, seed heads, big stones and rocks, and winter-killed vines can add interest. Deeply fissured bark and bark that´s as smooth as a seal´s skin can be fascinating, too," Upham said.
Some homeowners like to add shadow-casting yard lights. Others like the "bling" of draped twinkling light strings.
"Often, however, the good designs just show nature at her stripped- down best, for us to enjoy during some of the year´s worst weather," Upham said.
Provisos he added for those now planning to add more wintertime interest include:
- Window "scenes" must also function well as part of the growing season´s landscape.
- Winter benefits or not, the best plant choices are pest-resistant, disease-resistant and drought-tolerant.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture´s plant zone system only covers half the equation in the central United States. Well-adapted plants are heat-tolerant, too.
- A single plant can be all that´s required to change a beautiful summer scene into one that´s different, but equally beautiful in winter - with or without snow.
- Snow can obscure anything that´s short, leaving the burden of looking good on the taller plants.
"An Autumn Joy sedum is one perennial that can do all that," Upham said. "It´s tough and close to pest-free. It´s attractive as its mound of fleshy leaves grows from sprouts to the size of a small shrub. In late summer and early fall, it becomes a burst of garden color by producing umbrella-like heads, made up of a multitude of tiny rosy-pink flowers. Then, for winter, it leaves behind good- looking and fairly wind-resistant dark-brown seed heads on top of stiff, thick stalks. It´s definitely a four-season winner."
Box/Sidebar:
Ornamental trees and shrubs that can provide a special kind of leafless beauty over central U.S. winters include:
- Redosier dogwood (Cornus sericea) - a shade-tolerant, small tree with young stems that start out bright red and intensify in color as winter progresses.
- Yellow twig dogwood (Cornus sericea "Flaviramea") - much like Redosier, except yellow.
- Winged euonymus/burning bush (Euonymous alatus) - a flaming fall beauty with oddly shaped stems that tend to catch and hold snow during winter.
- Lacebark elm (Ulmus parvifolia) - the durable Chinese elm, which not only survives poor soils and pH extremes but also provides bark in mottled combinations of gray, green, orange and brown.
- River birch (Betula nigra) - a tree often grown in clumps. Once mature, it has flaky bark in varying colors.
- Source: Kansas State University Research and Extension horticulture
Filler:
Many people leave their dried ornamental grass clumps alone until spring. The grasses add structure to the winter landscape and can be very ornamental in the snow, according to Ward Upham, Master Gardener program coordinator for K-State Research and Extension.
"If a dried clump is next to your house, though, cut it down to the ground. It´s a fire hazard," Upham warned.
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http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/2007/winter_landscape101107.htm
Contacts: Ward Upham, (785) 532-1438
Kathleen W. Ward, kward@oznet.ksu.edu
