{"id":2638,"date":"2019-02-04T11:25:10","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T19:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2019-02-04T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T19:25:10","slug":"wintercreeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wintercreeper\/","title":{"rendered":"Wintercreeper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winter sometimes gives us brilliant days\u2014sunny, crisp and clear.\u00a0 Everything sparkles, especially if fresh snow is part of the landscape.\u00a0 But then there are the other days, when earth, sky and human dispositions are all equally gray and dispiriting.\u00a0 Chilliness creeps in and stays put, making you understand why sensible animals hibernate during the dark months.<\/p>\n

But most of us have to rise up every day to face the realities of mortgages, families or other obligations.\u00a0 Hibernation has to wait for the occasional hour on weekends or blessed snow days.\u00a0 This is why it is important to have flowers in the house.\u00a0 I follow my mother\u2019s rule of keeping blooms around every day of the year.\u00a0 In winter, when the garden has little to offer, I buy them.\u00a0 To stave off bankruptcy, I usually invest in inexpensive grocery store bunches of long-lasting types like carnations.\u00a0 To fatten up my cheap-thrill bouquets, I add quantities greenery from the garden.\u00a0 Holly, ivy and variegated osmanthus or false ivy work well, but at this time of the year, my favorite filler is branches of evergreen wintercreeper, specifically Euonymus fortunei \u2018Emerald Gaiety\u2019.<\/p>\n

As the name suggests, wintercreeper is a low grower, rising only 12 to 15 inches off the ground and creeping across the earth like a carpet.\u00a0 Individual plants spread up to two feet.\u00a0 \u2018Emerald Gaiety\u2019 features the small, ovoid leaves characteristic of many euonymus, but those leaves boast white edges or variegation.\u00a0 In winter the white edges turn pink, giving the plants even greater distinction.\u00a0 It also makes the branches highly decorative in the post-holiday doldrums season.\u00a0 Mix them up with a few pink, purple or white carnations and you will have a gorgeous arrangement that will last for at least two weeks, providing you change the water periodically.<\/p>\n

Euonymus is a fair-sized genus, home to nearly 180 species.\u00a0 It belongs to the Celastraceae family, which also contains two familiar ornamentals, American and Oriental bittersweet.\u00a0 Like them, wintercreeper has a vining nature.\u00a0 It is perfectly happy creeping across the ground, but if it runs into something vertical, it will also start to climb.\u00a0 I have to discipline mine to keep it from scaling the privet hedge that stands in back of it.<\/p>\n

Wintercreeper has virtues beyond its four-season ornamental value.\u00a0 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\u2019 existence.\u00a0 By and large, it covers the ground thickly enough to form a carpet that outcompetes most weeds.\u00a0\u00a0 However, you can easily plant spring-flowering bulbs in the middle of that carpet and they will come up right through it.\u00a0 Once the daffodils or tulips are finished, the wintercreeper covers the dying foliage.\u00a0 This is definitely a win-win, especially for lazy gardeners like me.<\/p>\n

In my front bed, I planted several groups of five, large-flowered daffodils amid the wintercreeper.\u00a0 When they come up in spring, they look like bouquets rising amid the greenery.\u00a0 The neighborhood dog walkers are always complimentary about the show.<\/p>\n

\u2018Emerald Gaiety\u2019 works equally well when planted atop a low wall and allowed to sprawl over the edge.\u00a0 In fact, it is a good edge-softener wherever you plant it.<\/p>\n

The fortunei species came to America from its native Japan in about 1907.\u00a0 It is named for Scottish plant hunter Robert Fortune\u20141812-1880\u2014who botanized widely in Asia.\u00a0 He was the first to smuggle tea out of China to British-held India, which ultimately resulted in the establishment of Britain\u2019s long-running habit of tea-drinking.\u00a0 I lift my cup to him every morning.<\/p>\n

\u2018Emerald Gaiety\u2019 and its fortunei relatives are not without liabilities.\u00a0 If allowed to escape into woodlands, wintercreeper can be invasive.\u00a0 Most ornamental varieties do not flower, fruit or set seed, preventing birds from spreading the plant.\u00a0 Mine resides in a bed that is bounded by pavement on three sides.\u00a0 I keep it trimmed on the fourth, so it is not going anywhere.<\/p>\n

Deer allegedly like wintercreeper, but in my neighborhood, Mr. Antlers and his kin much prefer other plants, even in winter.\u00a0 Perhaps they are gourmets or at least finicky eaters.<\/p>\n

Variegated evergreens like \u2018Emerald Gaiety\u2019 make the garden sing in all seasons, but the song is the sweetest when the days are the darkest.\"wintercreeper\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winter sometimes gives us brilliant days\u2014sunny, crisp and clear.\u00a0 Everything sparkles, especially if fresh snow is part of the landscape.\u00a0 But then there are the other days, when earth, sky and human dispositions are all equally gray and dispiriting.\u00a0 Chilliness creeps in and stays put, making you understand why sensible animals hibernate during the dark … 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":[912,2041,1227,1992,976,2040],"class_list":["post-2638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-winter","tag-dry-shade-plants","tag-euonymus-fortunei","tag-ground-covers","tag-winter-color","tag-winter-interest","tag-wintercreeper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638","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=2638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2640,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions\/2640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}