The Winter Garden

Winter is usually a time of rest and relaxation from the garden, and panic for the holiday season. After that, it’s just cold. This winter is forecasted to be colder than average, but no -20°F like we had last winter. To get the chill out of winter, I want to suggest some plants that provide winter interest with fragrant blooms (yes, I said fragrant flowers), peeling bark and interesting structure.
Many of us already have plants with winter interest, like those grasses we’re so keen to cut down early. Instead, leave them up for color, movement, seed heads and to prevent crown rot. Leave seed heads up for reseeding, especially for an informal garden where perennials such as coneflower, coreopsis and tall verbena start filling in the spaces for us. Don’t forget about crape myrtles either. Their top ornamental feature is their mid-summer flowering, but their bark brings out warm shades of cream and beige year-round.
Now to get to the good stuff – this is a short list of plants that have impressed me or come highly recommended by other gardeners. For plants that begin in fall into early winter, the garden can never go wrong with winterberry and camellias. Winterberry starts color in October, lasting as long as the birds have other goodies to eat. Mostly coming in shades of red, there is a gold variety (‘Winter Gold’) available and a combination male/female plant. Often mistaken for roses, camellias bloom either fall into winter or early spring based on species. Camellia sasanqua is the fall blooming type tolerant of more sun, compared to C. japonica blooming in early spring. Not all are fragrant, but of note is Yuletide, a red, single flowering fall bloomer that with mild weather continues into late December and January. Hardier spring blooming varieties show promise for zone 6 growers. Look for ‘April Remembered’ and ‘Spring’s Promise.’
For some of the sweetest smelling shrubs, witch hazel, sweetbox and paperbush are top picks. There are various witch hazel on the market. There are two native species, plus Japanese/Chinese hybrids which are selectively bred for better year round performance in the garden. However, the native species showcase the best fragrance. Hamamelis virginiana turns a golden yellow in fall followed by yellow, fragrant blooms from October to December. H. vernalis boasts even stronger fragrance than its native counterpart from February to March on smaller orange/red flowers. Although probably more of an early spring bloomer, sweet box (Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis) has to be grown for its comparatively sweet smell to fresh baked vanilla cookies. This particular variety reaches about two feet tall, slowly spreading to four feet wide. It’s absolutely delicious. Paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) was one of those plants I had written down to consider, but this past month when I stumbled upon it at a nursery with my co-worker (who bought one), it became a must have. I was totally surprised by its tropical, Dr. Seuss structure and silvery, silk buds. From January to April the daphne-like flower buds open up, giving off a wonderful fragrance that my co-worker better invite me over to smell!
Like I said, this is a short list of many plants that have winter interest. I want to leave you with a few more suggestions that I didn’t have quite enough room to talk about: Contorted Filbert (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’), Winter Heath (Erica cvs.), Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) and Hellebores or Lenten Rose (Helleborus cvs.).
Written by Lauren Popper, horticulturist at Cape Shore Gardens and graduate of Temple University’s School of Environmental Design.