Spring Planting for Winter Beauty

good morning to all! i'm fairly new to this forum. been an observer for a while and but feel good enough today to add a thread and a thought. ( i don't type all that well so typo's are so a problem for me!)

as we get ready to plant in the spring we can't wait to see the bright colors of the forsythia, the budding azales and rhododendron and the like. it's been a long winter and we are ready! we all run down (or some of us to our local nurseries with the thought of those colors sparkling in our heads and can't resist to buy a few more to add to our gardens). or at least that is what i did for years before i realized i could actually see some color in feb and march! wow....so for the next years following i began the search for the best winter garden one could have. (sorry no pics this year! too busy with local springfest in feb) but i wanted list a few wonderful plants that one may consider putting in this spring instead of another forsythia........and be able to watch the blooms begin in feb and march.


for wonderful flowering during winter months:
just to name a few:
Corylopisis spicata- Winter-hazel
Corylopisis glabrescens- Fragrant Winterhazel besides beautiful yellow flowers it is fragrant!
Corylopisis pauciflora Buttercup Winterhazel..smaller to fit in a tight spot more dense pale yellow flowers.

Lindera obtusiloba-Spicebush...wonderful fragrant! most beautiful little flowers!
Lindera salicifolia-Willowleaf Spicebush- grown more for it's stem.
Lindera benzoin

Hamanelis any and all! Witch Hazels have such beautiful winter flowers! some purple, some orange and some yellow! here's just a few wonders!

my favorite! Hamamelis vernalis 'Purpurea'(aka 'Washington Park') Vernal Witch Hazel
Hamamelis X intermedia 'Rubin' Bohjle-one of the best flowering growns well in the mid west us.
Hamamelis 'rochester'(mollis x vernalis) Fennichia- the strongest scent of any witch hazel

fruits.

Ilex verticillata' Winterberry Holly
Ilex opaca 'Xanthocarpa'-Yellow fruited American Holly (for some reason i'm a sucker for yellow in the winter months!)

Stems:(just a few)

Cornus 'Mid Winter Fire' Orange-stem
Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea' Yellow-stem
Cornus serucea Arctic Fire 'Farrow' PPFA
Salix 'Coral Embers'-gets wild although beautiful yellow-red-orange stem you need to prune.
Alnus mayerii- Alder

Foliage:

Thuja plicata-Western Arborvitae
Chaemecyparis obtusa-Hinoki Faslse Cypress
Calocedrus decurren-Incense-cedar
and on and on.

there is so much more to chose from and i want to add that the above named plants are still wonderful additions to any summer garden as well it's just you'll get a "bit" more from them when you need it most!


happy planting to all!

Excellent point. I've worked at nurseries part-time for a number of years, and we always lament that anything that flowers or fruits beautifully outside of that May-September window simply does not sell. In my mind, those are the plants I really need the most. Something to lift me during those long, hard winter months.

I also have a pet theory that works most of the time. Basically, I try to name the month a garden or a landscape was installed by noting the plants that are in it.

Scott

scott....i know you are so right! i (of course) know every nurseryman in my area and they say the same. they just don't sell. so i say to them......educate them!!! have classes....show them slides of winter gardens. some area nurseries are now beginning. it's just that the "average" home owner just wants evergreens and weeping cherries...hehehehe! (and you must know exactly what i mean).

it was funny...i was attending a lecture during our springfest that a friend of mine was giving in feb. while he was speaking he mentioned that someone had noted a forsythia was already in bloom in feb. i raised my hand and said........well not quite.......that it was indeed a winterhazel that was in bloom not a forstyhia...with that then everyone wanted to know all about it!

part of why (even though the horticultorist i work with was against it and said i wouldn't learn a thing since i have been doing this so long) i became a master gardener was to educate (really myself in areas i was weak) and.....to tell people to take the blind folds off! hope it's beginning to work! and i have indeed learned even more than even i expected by taking the program.

This message was edited Apr 6, 2006 10:12 AM

This message was edited Apr 6, 2006 10:12 AM

Adding my caboose to this train of thought...

Overcoming habits is the challenge, and working outside of the box of our comfort zone may be the strategy. Nurserymen cannot force-feed customers during the winter, because they aren't generally out shopping. Master gardeners and enthusiasts attend conferences and show slides and PowerPoint™ presentations and pat each other on the back for winning the silent auction for the newest Plantabulous incrediflorififolius.

But how to really expose ideas and plants to those who will not learn?

Go where they are, and be fruitful.

I propose (as I have practiced) to plant in public places.

We all have them: parks, parking lots, libraries, courthouses, churches, etc. etc. etc. Make a donation of time, materials, ideas, and influence. Putting just one Hamamelis out there where it will be seen (in addition to having one on your own property) will get the juices flowing in those who get to see it. You know the experience you enjoy when encountering fragrance unexpectedly, that you have to know where it's coming from. Expect the reaction to be so great that the plant may get stolen once or twice.

Master gardeners, plant enthusiasts, public servants, AND enterprising nurserymen can do so much better than just lament the repeated use of the same big three or five overutilized species. Get out there and change it.

ViburnumValley or do you mind if i just call you VV?? lol...anyway your point it not only well taken it's exactly what i donated my time to.

you'd be surprised in my area just how many want to learn. however, i still believe at least in this area the nurserymen must take the lead with the stock they carry. frankly, one can't buy much more than the norm at any given nursery in my area. we have one local one that's just beginning to get the idea and is starting to carry some interesting and unusual cultivars of trees and plants. if we didn't continue to see the same old plants around the nurseries landscaping areas, which draws so many in and since they are usually set out in the highways and seen readily, then that would peak the interest of many...i think...but you never really know.

i personally donate my time not only in local community projects but i also go out of my community and travel to do horticulture theaphy in other communities. i or (we) have also opened my gardens this year to the county's arts and heritage council for touring to help educated those who would like to learn. (and what a pain to be in such a rush to get our gardens ready for the sake of helping the community learn and experience different things....it directly effects our personal "fun").while one person can certainly help to make that difference it's a team of persons in the field that need to do their part. makes no sense to plant a few wonderful new cultivars out at town hall when those cultivars would not be available in any local nurseries. we are an agriculture county and not a horticulture county...which many of us are doing our best to change. it's happening just very slowly. but...as we know change is never easy! :)

additionally in hopefully addressing this forum i'm reaching those who may understand and seek info via this site and are here because of their continued interest in gardening and learning....i know that's why i'm here..:) i think i learn something new everyday!

editing my typo's again and again!




This message was edited Apr 7, 2006 1:31 PM