{"id":2575,"date":"2018-11-25T15:25:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T23:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2018-11-25T15:25:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T23:25:11","slug":"persistent-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/persistent-color\/","title":{"rendered":"Persistent Color"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winter can be beautiful, with bright clear mornings when the sun glints off fresh snow and the world looks pristine.\u00a0 Winter can also be ugly, with a succession of gray days interrupted only by the promise of mass transit delays and more snow shoveling.\u00a0 Either way, it helps\u2014if only just a little\u2014to have some color in the garden.\u00a0 Shrubs and trees with berries that persist through the winter do that job nicely.\u00a0 They also act as food plants for overwintering birds, which means that some of that desirable life and color will arrive in the garden on the wings of bright red male cardinals or chatty jays clad in vivid blue.<\/p>\n

\"Stunning<\/a>
Stunning winterberry holly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you are lucky enough to have holly\u2014Ilex—in your garden, you already appreciate its contribution to the winter landscape.\u00a0 The bright red berries are a hit at holiday time and an inspiration through the dark days thereafter.\u00a0 Holly has only a few downsides, one of which is the fact that only female trees can bear fruit and those females need a nearby male holly plant to enable that operation.\u00a0 If your holly does not bloom, either it is a lonely female, a lonely male, or it has been pruned at the wrong time, eliminating the flowers that eventually give way to the berries.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite hollies is winterberry holly, Ilex verticillata. \u00a0Unlike many of its relatives, winterberry is deciduous and loses its leaves when cold weather sets in. \u00a0The denuded stalks are a stark contrast with the abundant scarlet fruits.\u00a0 Many flower arrangers consider the winterberries even more beautiful than their evergreen relatives.<\/p>\n

Rose family members often have beautiful fruits.\u00a0 Some shrivel when frost comes, but others persist through the winter.\u00a0 The red chokeberry or Aronia arbutifolia is a multi-stemmed shrub that tops out at about eight feet tall.\u00a0 Native to eastern North America, chokeberry has a decorative nature that makes it easy to like.\u00a0 In the spring the shrub sports clusters of small pinkish-white flowers.\u00a0 Each one has five petals and if you look closely, you will see the floral resemblance to wild roses.\u00a0 In late spring and summer, finely-toothed, ovoid leaves carry the burden of beautifying the chokeberry.\u00a0 These turn a glorious red shade in the fall, before dropping to reveal the berries in all their glory.\u00a0 Loved by birds and wildlife, the aronia fruits are small and extremely sour, hence the \u201cchoke\u201d part of the common name.\u00a0 If you are a wild food enthusiast, however, you can collect them, add a sweetening agent and turn them into jams or baked goods.\u00a0 I prefer to leave the berries on the shrub to do decorative duty through the winter.<\/p>\n

Crabapple or malus varieties are also members of the rose family.\u00a0 Most people buy them for the glorious spring flower show, but four-season gardeners know that most commercially available varieties also set colorful, long-lasting fruit.\u00a0 If you have enough space, install two flowering crabs, one that bears red \u201capples\u201d, and another, like \u2018Autumn Treasure\u2019 or \u2018Brandywine\u2019 that produces yellow or gold autumn fruit.\u00a0 In winter the little crab apples hang like jewels on the trees.<\/p>\n

If you have ever pruned a Pyracantha coccinea, or scarlet firethorn shrub, without gauntlets, you have felt the pain that comes with this highly decorative plant.\u00a0 Firethorn is another member of the rose family and is generally well-armed with long spines, making it great for boundary hedges, privacy barriers and other situations where excluding humans or animals is necessary.\u00a0 More sociable individuals can train the rambunctious, fast-growing stems up arches, tall trellises or sturdy walls.<\/p>\n

Pyracantha is a little like a brilliant fractious teenager.\u00a0 Gentle but persistent supervision and discipline is the best way to achieve a good outcome.\u00a0 Pruning is a must if you don\u2019t want your firethorn to end up as a 30 by 25 foot raging inferno.\u00a0 To give yourself the best chance at a reasonable-size plant and plenty of berries, prune after flowering in the spring.\u00a0 Cut back thick, older canes to the ground and shape as necessary.\u00a0 If you prune judiciously, the shrub will reward you with flat-topped clusters or corymbs of white spring flowers, followed by red-orange berries that mature in the fall and persist well into the winter.\u00a0 In slightly warmer climates, pyracantha may be evergreen or semi-evergreen.\u00a0 A well-tended pyracantha with exuberant berries is a lovely sight in November and December.<\/p>\n

Winter is the time to seek comfort where you can find it.\u00a0 Inside that means warm sweaters, a comfy chair near a heating unit, and pot roast in the oven.\u00a0 Outside, it means warming the landscape with the flames of bright berries.<\/p>\n

\"Tiny<\/a>
Tiny red crabapples persist on trees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winter can be beautiful, with bright clear mornings when the sun glints off fresh snow and the world looks pristine.\u00a0 Winter can also be ugly, with a succession of gray days interrupted only by the promise of mass transit delays and more snow shoveling.\u00a0 Either way, it helps\u2014if only just a little\u2014to have some color … 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":[1998,1999,1997,1994,980,1232,1995,1996,1992,501,1993],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-arelia","tag-chokeberry","tag-firethorn","tag-flowering-crabapples","tag-habitat-gardening","tag-ilex","tag-malus","tag-pyracantha","tag-winter-color","tag-winter-gardening","tag-winterberry-holly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","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=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions\/2578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}