Berries, Boughs and Broadleaves for the Winter

It's the winter season! With the shorter and colder days in our region, many gardeners are looking to bring some joy indoors. Look no further for inspiration than your own garden, meadows and woodlands. Decorating using natural materials is a great way to bring a touch of the outdoors inside while celebrating with family and friends. It's also a fun way to include kids and grandkids in the decorating fun. I used to collect pinecones, winter berries, seed pods, colorful leaves, peeling bark, evergreen boughs and mountain laurel for making wreathes, swags and mantle displays with my daughter when she was young.

 Let's start with shrubs that produce berries that persist into the winter. Many are still holding onto their fruit this time of year, perhaps none as striking or iconic as holly. The deciduous winterberry holly is a great candidate because the leaves have dropped, leaving nothing but the colorful berries to shine. You'll find it growing wild in meadows and swampy areas in sun and part sun, but you can grow your own to harvest each winter. Birds enjoy their berries once they’ve softened a bit after a few freezes.

Berry Heavy^® winterberry holly  (Ilex verticillata) produces a heavy crop of bright red berries that are slightly larger than native winterberry species and grows 6 to 8 feet tall. When paired with Berry Heavy^® Gold, which produces large, yellow berries, you get a striking combination that looks great in the landscape and as part of your holiday decorations. If Berry Heavy varieties are too big for your space, try the 3 to 4 foot tall Berry Poppins^® winterberry instead. 

Just remember that all hollies are either male and female plants, and you’ll need at least one male to pollinate up to five female winterberry shrubs. A good pollinator for all Proven Winners winterberries is Mr. Poppins^®.

Once you have the colorful splash for your decorating needs down, you'll need to decide on the backdrop. Nothing is better than evergreen boughs. Use them to make wreaths, garland, centerpieces or as a swag. I love the soft, lush texture and green color of Soft Serve^® false cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera). It’s a manageable 6 to 10 foot tall evergreen tree with bright green leaves flecked with blue and silver on the undersides. You’ll find that it is slow growing and needs no pruning to keep its billowy, pyramidal shape.

For a splash of gold in your arrangements, use the evergreen boughs of Soft Serve^® Gold false cypress. It has all the attributes of the green Soft Serve false cypress, but with yellow foliage that looks great in a display. Plus, the softly textured leaves are easy to work with when decorating.

To add a little blue to the evergreen party, try Aquavita^™ juniper (Juniper virginiana). It features blue-green leaves on a narrow, pyramidal-shaped tree that reaches 10 to 15 feet tall. It's perfect as a hedge plant or a specimen near your house and carefree since it is deer resistant and low maintenance.

When I was a child, I remember going with my mom into my grandfather's woods to collect mountain laurel branches for her holiday displays. She loved to pair them with winterberries in containers and left them outdoors all winter. They held up well and looked great with snow on them.

Broadleaf evergreens such as mountain laurel, rhododendrons and Pieris make great decorations. Interstella^® (Pieris japonica) is a is a unique variety that bears ruby pink flowers instead of the traditional white in early spring, followed by a flush of red new growth. It grows to 3 to 4 feet in a sheltered spot in the sun or shade and prefers acidic, well-drained soil. Cut some branches to bring indoors this season.