Oriental bittersweet or Celastus orbiculatus is a vining plant, beloved for fall arrangements. Its sparkle comeS from the fruits, which burst out of papery beige wrappers to reveal bright orange berries. The wrappers look a bit like little hats atop the ripe fruits. The problem with this non-native bittersweet is that its rampant beauty is the result of thuggish habits, including wide-ranging spreading and liberal seeding by way of birds that eat the fruits and excrete the seeds.
Clearly, gardeners need other alternatives, which is why I thought that wintercreeper, also known as Euonymus fortunei, would come in handy. Lately I have been seeing wintercreeper berries regularly, and I have been struck by the berries, which still retain the brightness of fall in late December.
As the name suggests, wintercreeper can be a low grower, rising only 12 to 15 inches off the ground and creeping across the earth like a carpet. Individual plants spread up to two feet. However, it is also versatile and may climb, like ivy, or develop into a multi-stemmed shrub. Planted atop a low wall, it will also happily cascade over the side. The rounded leaves are generally evergreen in my part of the world and may be medium to dark green or variegated. ‘Emerald Gaiety’, one of the variegated varieties, creeps along a patch of ground in my front garden, flaunting showy leaves that boast white edges or variegation. In winter the white edges turn pink, giving the plants even greater distinction. It also makes the branches highly decorative in the post-holiday doldrums season. ‘Blondie’, another variegated variety, features yellow-green leaves edged in darker green.
Euonymus is a fair-sized genus, home to nearly 180 species. It belongs to the Celastraceae family, which is why the berries, with their pale caps, look so much like those of its vining relatives, American and Oriental bittersweet. Wintercreeper is as vigorous as the bittersweets, and I have to discipline mine to keep it from scaling the privet hedge that stands in back of it.
That discipline is why I have never seen berries on my plants. I clip back the stems that threaten to encroach on other plants, which curtails production of the rather insignificant white flowers and the succeeding berry production.
The fortunei species came to America from its native Japan in about 1907. It is named for Scottish plant hunter Robert Fortune—1812-1880—who botanized widely in Asia. He was the first to smuggle tea out of China to British-held India, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of Britain’s long-running habit of tea-drinking.
Wintercreeper has virtues, including four-season ornamental value. It thrives in a wide variety of light conditions and can even work in the dreaded dry shade situations that are the bane of many gardeners’ existence. By and large, it covers the ground thickly enough to form a carpet that outcompetes most weeds. However, you can easily plant spring-flowering bulbs in the middle of that carpet and they will come up right through it. Once the daffodils or tulips are finished, the wintercreeper covers the dying foliage.
Sadly, wintercreeper also comes with significant liabilities. As with the bittersweets, the showy berries are beloved of birds who distribute the seeds over wide areas. If allowed to escape into woodlands, wintercreeper can be invasive. You can stop this by trimming your plants, especially if they are starting to work their way upward, or by buying varieties, like ‘Kewensis’ that produce few or no flowers. This reduces the ornamental value, but increases the chance that your plants will not travel to places where they are not only unwelcome, but poised to outcompete native species.
Deer allegedly like wintercreeper, but in my neighborhood, the four-legged plant predators seem to prefer other species.
I can’t take either credit or blame for my wintercreeper plants. They were here when I arrived. Given what I know now, I might have chosen some other, less invasive ground cover. For the moment though, the edges of my wintercreeper have turned pale pink, and the leaves give the garden a bit of much welcome color.