Twenty Terrific Plants for Winter Landscapes

It is very difficult to imagine what a yard would look like in the winter, but the winter brings an entirely new landscape with colours, textures, and shapes that cannot be seen at any other time of the year. What if the coming winter meant five months of beauty without staking, pruning or watering a single plant?

Here are twenty plants that will keep a low profile from spring to fall, and then reappear when the cold weather arrives!

Color: When the world fades to shades of white and grey, these shrubs show their true colors.

Shrubby Dogwood (To guarantee bright color each winter, prune dogwoods each spring to remove some older branches and allow more new growth. The newer branches show better color.)

• Cornus alba 'Sibirica' (coral-red branches)
• Cornus alba 'Bud's Yellow' (yellow)
• Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' (orange-red)

False Cypress

• Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Filifera Aurea' (yellow)
• C. pisifera 'Boulevard' (blue)

Creeping Juniper

• Juniperus horizontalis 'Wiltoni' (blue)
• J. horizontalis 'Mother Lode' (yellow)

Holly

• Ilex x meserveae 'Blue Angel' (blue-green leaves, red berries)
• I. x meserveae 'Golden Girl' (green leaves, yellow-orange berries)

Berries: If done right, birds will enjoy these berries until late winter.

• Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)
• Firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea)
• Beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma)
• Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum, V. dilatatum, V. lentago, V. opulus, V. rhytidophyllum and V. trilobum).

Texture: Shiny bark mirrors winter light and grasses rustle in the wind.

• River birch (Betula nigra)
• Paperbark maple (Acer griseum)
• Bamboo (Nandina domestica)
• Grasses (Miscanthus sp., Panicum sp.)

Shapes: Different sculptural forms are pleasing to the eye and create a foil for frost and snow.

• Boxwood globe (Buxus)
• Irish yew (Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata')
• Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus avellana)
• Flowering Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia, C. florida and C. kousa)

Winter Yard Work Checklist

During the winter months, landscape and yardwork is usually the last thing on the minds of homeowners. But during these times are actually the most ideal times to renovate the lawn and eliminate the brown spots and crab grass left over from last summer.

Lawn Renovation

Lawn renovation begins with raking to the open ground to expose the soil so that new seeds can germinate. This should be followed by levelling the lawn to cover the lowest areas with new soil and then reseed the entire lawn if necessary or merely patch certain areas as required.

To ensure germination, add a good fertilizer and cover the seeds to protect them from hungry birds. Then wait for three to four weeks for the seeds to sprout. The advantage to doing this during the winter is that nature provides enough water to germinate the seeds, whereas it is obligatory to water the areas during other times of the year.

Crab Grass

Your grass is full of crab grass seed waiting to sprout in the spring, so you need to spray a pre-emergent during the last week of February, just before the temperature starts to warm up. You do not want to apply the pre-emergent any earlier than February because it could kill any new seeds that you have planted. Also, the chemicals are not as effective in the cold weather.

Pruning

Now is the time to begin pruning your trees, and your roses too! In order to improve the production of these plants, you must prune before they start to bud. 

Flower beds

Take the time to remove the fallen leaves and blossoms to avoid protential fungus and molds from growing. 

Planting

Planting bare-root trees and roses before spring arrives, is good because the prices are the best for new trees and bushes at this time of year.

Contact Landscape Professionals

Winter is the most ideal time to contact a landscape contractor about updating, remodeling, or totally reinstalling your yard. Most people typically wait until spring to make their initial calls, and often find that landscapers are busy and are even scheduled in advance all the way to March. Plan ahead to get the best services and prices of the year.

Winter Landscaping Tips

As the winter months approach us very quickly, the plants are asleep and their colors disperse, leaving a variety of shades of white and gray. It’s too cold and icy to plant anything in the Winter, but with careful planning in the spring, summer, and fall, you can have a beautiful landscape that shines in the peaceful season. 

Here are six winter landscaping tips that will make you love your yard in every season. 

1. Focus on bark. Deciduous trees lose their leaves in the wintertime, which leaves just their branches and trunks. Planting ornamental trees like dogwoods and birch trees, that have very distinctive texture and colour bark, will add some variety to your winter landscape. 

2. Include berries. Many trees and shrubs have berries that stay throughout the fall and winter, which will provide food for birds. Some examples are crabapples or holly with berries can be very beautiful within the snow. 

3. Don’t forget evergreens. Evergreens are wonderful in the winter landscape for several reasons. The first is that they add colour: not just green, but some are yellow, blue and all the colours in between. These trees are not only important for your winter landscape, but they make good focal points all year round. 

4. Rely on your hardscape. Winter is the best time to consider your hardscape. The solution to enhance your winter landscaping might not be a plant, but rather a trellis, a bench, an arbor or even a garden sculpture. 

5. Embellish your summertime containers. Window boxes, hanging baskets and winter-safe containers are all essential for winter landscaping. You do not have to spend money on other plants, just fill the containers with evergreen boughs of different colours, textures and interesting twigs. 

6. Stick with four-season perennials. There are some perennials that have evergreen shrubbery: ornamental grasses, hellebores, even dianthus with its beautiful low-creeping foliage. These are great for winter landscaping. Just make sure you read the plant label and find out if the plant has foliage in the winter, so you can enjoy it year round.

10 Gardening and Landscaping Tips for October

As the month of October comes to a close and the autumn weather gets colder, we would like to share with you ten tips to prepare your garden and yard for the colder weather.

1. Be sure to remove any old plants or other shrubbery that may have fallen onto the soil/grass
2. Do a final weeding before the cold weather hits.
3. Mulch the garden bed with straw, grass clippings or chopped leaves. These mulches will turn to soil and fertilize the ground in time for next spring’s crops.
4. Collect and store any flower bulbs.
5. Mow your lawn one last time!
6. Collect the leaves that have fallen to shred and compost.
7. Cut back tender roses to ten to twelve inches, and remove any foliage so that insects cannot take over during the winter.
8. Cover any tender, hybrid roses with leaves or straw to protect them against the winter temperature changes.
9. Bring in any pots that cannot handle the freezing weather.
10. Clean and oil any garden tools before storing for the winter. 

If you have any other tips, please share them in the comments below!