Leaves, Bark and Movement for Winter Interest

As we move into “stick” season as we call it in New England, when mostly we're looking at bare tree and shrub branches, it's good to remember we can have more than “sticks” in our yards. There are herbaceous perennial flowers, grasses and shrubs that can put on quite a show, especially in locations that have less consistent snow cover in winter.

Many gardeners are quick to cut back their perennial flower gardens in fall. Current thinking is to leave the spent flowers, branches and leaves. They provide overwintering sites for beneficial insects and pollinators. But there's another reason to leave the foliage: color. Some perennials have colorful leaves in fall and into winter. We're enjoying our Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Storm Cloud' perennials right now. They are known for their light blue flowers in spring and their foliage turns a brilliant golden color in November. It brightens up any landscape and the plant is easy to grow with few pests. I'm also impressed with the foliage color of our Heucheras or coral bells this time of year. These plants are semi-evergreen in the North and part shade lovers. Varieties, such as,' have silvery-colored foliage that turns a rosy color in the fall. 'Dolce^® Toffee Tart' features amber colored leaves that hold color into winter.

For a longer lasting winter show, you can't beat ornamental grasses and shrubs. These plants feature interesting seed heads, foliage and bark. Euonymous fortunei, or winter creeper, features some beautiful, disease resistant selections with variegated, evergreen leaves. 'Gold Splash^®' grows only a few feet tall, but can be trellised up a wall or fence. The leaves hold their gold and green color into winter. The shrub dogwoods also have great winter color and they're tough shrubs. It's the bark that shines. 'Arctic Fire' Cornus stolonifera grows only 3- to 5-feet tall with beautiful, bright red stems that contrast well with any snow you get. There's a yellow stemmed version as well. The key to getting great color is to cut back the shrubs hard every other year to induce more new growth. It's the new branches that are most colorful. This dogwood tolerates a variety of soils, grows well in part shade and the stems are great for cutting.

Ornamental grasses not only add color to the landscape in winter, they move! I recently was at the Montreal Botanical Garden and enjoyed their hardy, ornamental grass plantings swaying in the breeze. Some of the best ornamental grasses for the North include Maiden grass or Miscanthus sinensis. 'Morning Light' is a 3-foot tall selection that features striped leaves that look beautiful with ice or snow encrusted on them and dramatic seed heads. The native switch grass Prairie Winds^® 'Niagara Falls' (Panicum virgatum) has arching, powder blue foliage and cream colored seed heads in winter. Fountain grasses are another good choice for our region. 'Prairie Winds^® Desert Plains' Pennisetum alpecuroides grows more than 4 feet tall with cream colored, bottlebrush shaped, seed heads in winter. Ornamental grasses are easy to grow and deer resistant. Plant grasses where you can see them from indoors so you can enjoy their movement. Cut some of the seed heads to use in flower arrangements for the holidays.