Winter Dreaming
Winter is the time of year that gardeners sit back and relax with a good gardening book, magazine, or catalogue and gaze out the window at their beautiful snowy winter landscape. Some of the best inspiration comes during these long cold months. This winter, why not think of ways to improve your off-season view by planning your spring planting to include some plants and features that stay attractive all year? Here are a few suggestions to carry your garden through the winter. These plants keep working for you while you simply admire their persistence.
- Betula papyrifera Paper Birch (white peeling bark), zone 2
- Betula ‘Crimson Frost' Birch (white peeling bark), zone 3
- Cornus alba ‘Bud's Yellow' Dogwood (shrub with yellow stems), zone 3
- Cornus sericea Redosier Dogwood (shrub with red stems), zone 2
- Prunus maackii Amur Cherry (golden-bronze bark), zone 2
- Juncus effusus ‘Unicorn' Rush (corkscrew stems), zone 3
Plants with Winter Berries
- Celastrus scandens Bittersweet Vine (zone 3), traditionally needing both male and female plants to bear fruit, a new bittersweet is now being tested that does not require a pollinator
- Malus Ornamental Crabapple ‘Makamik' (zone 2), & others that hold their fruit
- Rosa rugosa ‘Blanc Double de Coubert' (white, zone 3) and ‘Hansa' (purple, zone 2) are both very hardy, fragrant, and produce rose hips
- Viburnum trilobum ‘Wentworth' Highbush Cranberry, zone 2
Plants with Attractive Seed Heads or Form
- Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster' Feather Reed Grass, zone 3
- Clematis tangutica ‘Golden Tiara' Clematis, zone 2 vine
- Helictotrichon sempervirens Blue Oat Grass, zone 3
- Sedum spectabilis ‘Autumn Joy' Stonecrop, zone 3 perennial
Plants with Evergreen Foliage
- Heuchera, especially purple-leaved types, zone 3 perennial
- Bergenia cordifolia Heartleaf Elephant Ears, zone 3 perennial
- Juniperus scopulorum ‘Medora' Upright Juniper, zone 2
- Picea abies ‘Pendula' Weeping Norway Spruce, zone 3
- Picea pungens ‘Globosa' Globe Blue Spruce, zone 2 dwarf evergreen
Other features to include are clusters of natural rock, statuary, weather proof containers filled with seasonal arrangements of evergreen cuttings, and solar lights. Lighting looks especially nice when used under a paper birch in the winter.
Winter is also a time to think about trying something new, like starting tomato seeds in the house next spring or planning to build a compost bin. You'll find many new plants that will be available this spring by looking through garden catalogues and the upcoming spring issues of gardening magazines.
We like to look through the many catalogues that we receive each year to try to find different perennials and annuals that will look good in container plantings. We also tend to think of our stomachs, searching for the best fruit and vegetables to trial in the coming growing season.
Check out the "Plants" page of our website to read about a few of our favourites from 2007. We feature the Evans Cherry, pie pumpkins, and the mixed container planting from the cover of our 2008 Spring Catalogue.
The "Recipes" page profiles our delicious cherry pie and pumpkin pie recipes, among others, and the "Garden Necessities" page contains some useful garden-related tools and products. Of course, many more products can be found on the downloadable version of our Sundwall Gardens Spring 2008 Catalogue (coming soon!).
Gardening in the winter is largely fantasy in this neck of the woods, but before one partakes on any successful adventure in life, the mind must perceive the formation of a dream... so keep dreaming. Soon enough the snow will melt and another great gardening season will begin!