Glowing Up Your Winter Native Garden

Nuts for Natives
3 hours ago
2 min read

The secret is layering.

winter garden bed path and wall — Layered Winter Interest

My sense is winter gardens tend to evolve over time. Professional garden designers usually include winter structure in a new garden design from the very start. Structure may consist of hardscaping like pathways, walls and patios, plants like shrubs and trees with interesting structure, bark, colors and evergreens. Structure can be formal or informal. For those who DIY their garden design, my sense is it is the rare gardener who will start early on with winter structure. We are too enthralled with creating the garden one imagines having during the warmer months and all of those flowers!

At least this was the case for me. I added evergreens dotted around the garden later in the process. I thought I was doing pretty well with winter interest. Following the advice so many professionals give to really take a look at your garden during winter to see what the bones or structure of the garden looks like, I realized, in my informal style garden, I have lots of evergreens and shrubs with winter interest but they were dotted throughout the garden. It occurred to me, from studying photos of gardens specializing in winter interest, that not only do those gardens have plants that bring something special in winter, they either repeat it, or layer it.

Massing Plants in the Native Winter Garden

snow and shrubs with red stems — Red Twig Dogwoods (shutterstock image)

Think about a stand of five or seven red twig dogwoods (Cornus sericea). The collection of massed red stems make those red stems really stand out. Massing is a great design technique for winter and all year round. For smaller gardens though, it can be hard to devote that much space to just one type of plant. In a more diminutive garden. layering winter interest is more practical.

Layering Plants in the Native Winter Garden

green tree, blue shrubs and dried plants — Easter Red Cedars and Hemlock

Here a trio of eastern red cedars 'grey owl' (Juniperis virginiana 'Grey Owl')in front of an evergreen hemlock tree add texture and blue green color year round. But could this be more?

I first added a yellow twig dogwood (Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea')between the red cedars and the hemlock. It's a bit hard to see in the photo but in person it really added a pop of contrasting color. Better. I then added a dwarf white pine (Pinus strobus 'Nana'). In winter, white pines tend to have a yellow tint to their green needles and both the new texture and color made a big difference. Much better. That's when I realized layering your winter interest adds a little bit of something extra that gives you a glow up in your native garden!

Favorite Native Plants for Winter Interest

With snow on the ground, it is very easy to see your garden's winter structure. It's the ideal time to think about any moves or additions you may want to make in the coming year. Wherever your winter gardening takes you, may it be warm and interesting!

Happy Gardening.