In many parts of North America, the gardening season lasts barely six months before winter sets in. Most gardeners would agree that the remaining six months is simply too long to endure without something beautiful to gaze at out our windows.

Although no landscape should be designed entirely for winter, structure, form, texture and color should be year-round constants. Here, then, are seven ways to improve your winter garden.

Evergreens

Every landscape needs a few conifers or broadleafed evergreens to give form and hold the snow in winter. I like ‘Black Hills’ spruce, a form of white spruce (Picea glauca) which reaches only about 10 feet (3.2m) in 10 years and matures at about 25 feet (8m). ‘Ohlendorff’ is shorter, maturing at 8 feet (2.8m). Hemlocks are graceful trees, especially with a mantle of fresh snow, and can be kept sheared to size. Weeping Nootka false cypress, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’ is very elegant with its pendulous shape and matures at just 20 feet (6.8m). Hedging is especially effective in the winter garden, where it maintains the lines that divide the space in the garden. Boxwood (Buxus spp.) parterres are lovely in summer, but in winter, the designs they trace are like stunning landscape paintings. A white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) hedge provides privacy and brings chattering chickadees and brilliant cardinals. Yew (Taxus spp.) is dark-green, almost black in winter, and tolerates more shade than many hedging conifers. Then there are all the subtly-colored small conifers such as gold false cypress, dwarf blue spruces (e.g. ‘Fat Albert’) and many junipers, some of which take on purplish hues in cold weather These will give texture to your garden throughout the year, but are especially rewarding in winter when color – even nature’s many variations on green -- is so desperately needed.

Trees and Shrubs With Attractive Shapes

Many trees and shrubs have interesting, architectural shapes that reveal themselves fully in winter once foliage is gone. Consider the elegantly branched katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum). With its spectacular mosaic of small, heart-shaped leaves that turn a brilliant combination of apricot-gold-mauve in fall, this multi-trunked tree is already a winner, but older trees also feature bark that sheds, giving the branches a unique, shaggy appearance. Japanese maples are lovely, especially beside water; for tiny gardens, there’s weeping featherleaf Japanese maple, Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’. And no winter garden should be without the impossibly curly Harry Lauder’s walking stick, also known as corkscrew hazel, Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’.

Bark and Stems

Paperbark maple, Acer griseum, is one of the best small garden trees with its shiny, peeling, copper-colored bark, and leaves that turn rich red in fall. Or look for Himalayan birch, Betula himalayense ‘Jacquemonti’, with white bark like native paper birch, but thought to be more resistant to the bronze birch borer that preys on our native birch. As for shrubs, I love the brilliant red stems of dogwoods like Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’ or native red-osier dogwood, Cornus servicea, and the bright yellow ones of Cornus servicea ‘Flavamirea’.

Colorful Winter Berries

Crabapples have colourful fruit and, depending on the size (small ones like ‘Red Jade’ are eaten by squirrels and birds before the end of autumn), will usually last into cold weather. The plump red crabapples of Malus ‘White Angel’ tend to hang on through early winter and the tree has large, gorgeous, white May blossoms. Blue holly (Ilex x meserveae) bushes usually bear an abundant crop of brilliant red berries that contrast beautifully with the shiny, evergreen leaves and remain on the shrubs until spring, when they have lost enough tannin to make them attractive to Baltimore orioles and grosbeaks. Related winterberry (Ilex verticillata) grows in damp soil and has jewel-like red berries along the stems, making it an important food source for birds in winter. (Because all holly species are dieocious, meaning sexes are on separate plants, make sure you buy a male shrub to pollinate one or more female shrubs, which then produce the colorful fruit.) European mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) has clusters of bright orange berriesAnother lovely winter display comes from the small fruit clusters of the Washington thorn tree, Crataegus phaenopyrum. One of the last trees to flower in late spring, it is also one of the last to turn color in fall – brilliant shades of red, orange and gold. But the highly-tannic fruit remains on the thorny branches until well into the following spring, making it a good choice for winter color.

Ornamental Grasses

Three of the best grasses for holding their shapes, at least in early winter before heavy snows bend them down, are maiden grass, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’ with its slender blades; feather reed grass, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’; and switch grass, Panicum virgatum, with its arching, airy seedheads.

Artistic Elements

Position a piece of statuary, Japanese pagoda lantern, iron obelisk, sundial, armillary or some other feature to catch the snow and create a focal point in the winter landscape. Even pergolas, arbors, wooden trellises and iron stair railings can catch the snow and create a visually interesting “still-life” in the winter garden.

Garden Lighting

Subtle lighting effects that highlight the “bones” of trees, shrubs and arching grasses in your garden can be very dramatic in winter, especially under a fresh blanket of snow. But remember: with garden lighting, be discreet – less is always more.

Read about Janet’s winter garden.

Adapted from a column that appeared originally in the Toronto Sun

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