The winter white is usually welcome through the Christmas season, but can become monotonous and bland. The white background can be utilized with other color provided by the landscape. Snow topped tree branches and trunk in various shades of brown, charcoal and gray, smooth and rough textures, fine branches to thick mature trunks. In town, this type of background may be limited to a hedge or a forested riverbank. On a small city lot, the view from the windows will be the most important. A shrub here or a shrub there may be enough.

When you mention winter color, the first trees you may consider are evergreens. These trees should not be over used in the landscape in a manner that might fortress in your yard. They should be use as specimens here or there for accent. The strong formal pyramidal growth form of spruce and fir trees are beautiful while coarser foliage and informal growth of pines provide excellent background with height. Smaller evergreen trees and shrubs should be used as fillers and to help tie the landscape together. The finer texture of foliage of arborvitae, juniper and yew are great nearer the house. Don’t forget the smells of balsam fir, spruce, pine needles and bringing cut boughs and cones into the house.

The use of specimen trees with accent colors such as the red and yellow colors of mixed varieties of dogwoods and willows against the silvery gray bark of maples and lindens. The white to greenish white bark of birch or aspen trees with irregular black spots provide compliment and contrast. Peeling and exfoliating barks of river birch, black cherry and Amur chokecherry add interest and coppery brown colors. Winged euonymous and some bur oak trees will have a gray bark that grows out from the twigs to appear as wings.

The reddish brown bark of flowering crab apple is not its only contribution to the winter landscape, but also its small apples. Fruit of crabapples, hawthorn, mountain-ash will vary from purple to bright red to bright yellow and orange colors. Viburnums will vary from a red berry on Highbush cranberry to black purple berry on Arrowwood. Remnants of the aril type fruit on winterberry euonymous and wahoo will vary in color from yellow white to crimson and pink. With a slight dusting of white snow and the colors are complimented or enhanced.

I learned several years ago in landscape courses that when people ask for more color in their landscape that they are really looking for more variety. With fruiting varieties of plants, wildlife will make visits and they make the landscape a dynamic one. Wildlife also appreciate water, so if this is your desire, you may want add a small water heater to the bird bath. And to supplement the food source with a bird feeder, suet or sunflower seeds mixed with peanut butter plaster in a tree knothole. Songbirds and squirrels will continually visit the site and further add color to the winter landscape.



Plant List for Winter-Long Interest

Evergreen trees:
Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)
Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris) several seed strains
Mugho pine (Pinus mugo pumilio) shrub form
Austrian pine (Pinus nigra) dark green and fragrant foliage
Norway spruce( Picea abies) several dwarf and shrub forms
Black Hills spruce( Picea glauca var. densata)
Colorado blue spruce( Picea pungens) several bluer cultivars & shrub forms
Serbian spruce(Picea omorika) dwarf form also
Balsam fir (Abies balsamea)
Douglas-fir (Psuedotsuga menziesii var. glauca)
White fir ( Abies concolor)
American arborvitae ( Thuja occidentalis) —numerous columnar, pyramidal, dwarf and shrub forms
Rocky Mountain Juniper( Juniperus scopulorum)—numerous columnar, pyramidal and shrub forms
Taunton Spreading Yew ( Taxus x media ‘Tauntoni’) small shrub

Attractive bark:
Quaking aspen ( Populus tremloides)
Swedish aspen ( Populus tremula var. erecta)
Wild Black cherry (Prunus serotina )
Amur chokecherry (Prunus maackii)
Crabapples (Malus x cultivar)
Dogwoods (Cornus sericea)
Paper birch (Betula papyrifera)
River birch (Betula nigra)
Golden willow(Salix alba ‘Vitellina’)
Redstem willow (Salix alba ‘Chermesina’)
Flame willow (Salix alba ‘Flame’)
Winged euonymous (Euonymus alata)
Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)

Attractive fruit or other colorful parts:
Wahoo (Euonymus atropurpurea)
Winterberry euonymous (Euonymus bungeana)
Highbush Cranberrybush Viburnum (Viburnum trilobum)
European Mountain-ash (Sorbus accuparia)
Showey Mountain-ash (Sorbus decora)
Flowering Crabapple cultivars with persistent fruit into winter months
Red fruit: Adams, Donald Wyman, Firebird, Guinevere, Red Jade, Red Jewel, Red Splendor, Robinson, Sugar Tyme
Purple fruit: Kelsey, Pink Spires, Prairiefire,
Red & Yellow fruit: Indian Magic, Snowdrift
Yellow- Golden fruit: Harvest Gold, Lancelot

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