The late Joan Rivers often started comic riffs with the words, \u201cCan we talk?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s time to follow her lead and talk about getting through the winter.<\/p>\n
Some of us give thanks when hard frosts arrive, because we can take a well-deserved break from garden chores.\u00a0 We tend our houseplants, decorate for the holidays and eventually\u2014usually about January\u2014start dreaming of spring.\u00a0 A few of us even grow desperate enough to attend to household chores that we neglected during the growing season.<\/p>\n
As daylight hours diminish, even sloth-like gardeners yearn to peer into the winter gloom and see something interesting in the landscape.\u00a0 Evergreen lovers have long added such interest by installing all kinds of large and small evergreens.\u00a0 Some even walk on the evergreen wild side and vary the show with variegated varieties like silver variegated holly\u2014Ilex aquifolium \u2018Variegata\u2019–or the cream-splashed gold dust shrub\u2014Aucuba japonica \u2018Crotonifolia\u2019.\u00a0 Berried shrubs, especially flashy ones such as winterberry holly\u2014Ilex verticillata\u2014add points of brilliant color.<\/p>\n
Not everyone thinks about tree and shrub bark, but if you pick the right kinds of woody plants, interesting bark can add a singular dimension to the winter show.\u00a0 One of my favorite winter trees is Japanese stewartia or Stewartia pseudocamillia.\u00a0 The species name says it all.\u00a0 Just like camellias, Stewartia is part of the tea family, producing camellia-like single flowers in late summer.\u00a0 The trees grow from 15 to 40 feet tall and about half as wide, with a neat, pyramidal shape.\u00a0 In fall the foliage turns orange and gold before leaving the scene.\u00a0 After flowers and leaves are gone, the bark continues to shine through the winter.\u00a0 It exfoliates beautifully, with patches of the trunk remaining light gray, while other patches are darker gray or reddish brown.\u00a0 In my town stewartia is a rarity, though we are well within the tree\u2019s hardiness range.\u00a0 Some things are simply unexplainable.<\/p>\n
I am always taken aback by the glorious, shiny, mahogany-colored bark on the ornamental cherry variety known as redbark cherry or Prunus serrula.\u00a0 The bark exfoliates to reveal a color very reminiscent of polished mahogany.\u00a0 The trees are not large, growing to 30 feet, with willow-like leaves.\u00a0 Typical pinkish-white cherry blossoms appear in spring, followed by bright red fruits, which attract birds.\u00a0 Redbark cherry would be perfect in a small grouping, if you had the room.\u00a0 Otherwise it makes a great specimen, street or garden tree.<\/p>\n
Another rarity in my area is the native snakebark maple\u2014Acer pennsylvanicum\u2014also known as whistlewood, goosefoot maple and moosewood.\u00a0 The snakebark name comes from the green and white vertically striped bark on young branches and trunks.\u00a0 It is quite distinctive and unusual.\u00a0 People with small yards can rejoice in this tree, which can also be grown as a large shrub.\u00a0 In tree form it tops out at 15 to 25 feet, with a nearly equal spread.\u00a0 Snakebark bears tiny yellow spring flowers and the distinctive winged \u201csamaras\u201d or maple seed carriers.\u00a0 The leaves have three lobes each, with a shape that inspired someone to think of a goose\u2019s foot, hence the goosey common name.\u00a0 The foliage turns yellow in the fall, lighting up the trees.\u00a0 Older bark turns reddish brown, but there is always the vividly striped new growth to liven things up.\u00a0 Snakebark would pair well with another of my favorite plants, oak leaf hydrangea or Hydrangea quercifolia.<\/p>\n
The chief glory of both full-size and dwarf forms of oak leaf hydrangea is the huge panicles or flowerheads of white florets that age to pink in the early to mid summer.\u00a0 The big, oaky leaves come next in horticultural estimation because of their excellent vermillion fall color.\u00a0 However, anyone who has ever looked closely at an oak leaf hydrangea or pruned one knows that the shrubs also have wonderful cinnamon-colored exfoliating bark.\u00a0 It is worth limbing up your oak leaf hydrangea when pruning just to give yourself a better view of the bark on the shrub\u2019s trunks.\u00a0 Some people leave the dried flower panicles on the hydrangeas all winter for winter interest, while others tidy up by clipping them away.\u00a0 There is no right or wrong way to tend this stalwart of the semi-shaded garden, but if you clip off the dried flowerheads, the fascinating bark becomes more noticeable.<\/p>\n
Of course there are always those who complain of the litter caused by even the most beautiful exfoliating bark.\u00a0 I make a virtue out of a necessity by raking it into tidy piles and using it to mulch the trees and shrubs from which it peeled.\u00a0 This is an easy solution that doesn\u2019t require carrying off the litter and disposing of it.\u00a0 Mulching around trees and shrubs is always a good idea and prevents potentially deadly trunk abrasions from string trimmers and other garden equipment.<\/p>\n
If you want a tree or shrub with interesting bark, you may have to venture off the beaten nursery path.\u00a0 Just about all local nurseries and garden centers carry varieties of oak leaf hydrangea.\u00a0 For Japanese stewartia and redbark cherry, contact ForestFarm, 14643 Watergap Rd., Williams, OR 97544-9599, (541)846-7269, www.forestfarm.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.\u00a0 Sources for native snakebark maple or Acer pennsylvanicum\u2014as opposed to a non-native species that also goes by that nickname\u2014are few and far between.\u00a0 Check with local nurseries that may be able to obtain the tree from wholesale growers.\u00a0 Be sure to give them the Latin name, so you don\u2019t end up with the wrong tree.<\/p>\n Open your eyes to interesting bark.\u00a0 You will discover all kinds of patterns and textures that will make gray winter days a lot more bearable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The late Joan Rivers often started comic riffs with the words, \u201cCan we talk?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s time to follow her lead and talk about getting through the winter. Some of us give thanks when hard frosts arrive, because we can take a well-deserved break from garden chores.\u00a0 We tend our houseplants, decorate for the holidays and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,5],"tags":[984,982,987,625,985,988,624,527,983,986,981,501,976],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-acer-pennsylvanicum","tag-decorative-bark","tag-exfoliating-bark","tag-hydrangea-quercifolia","tag-japanese-stewartia","tag-native-trees","tag-oak-leaf-hydrangea","tag-shrubs","tag-snakebark-maple","tag-stewartia-pseudocamellia","tag-trees","tag-winter-gardening","tag-winter-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}