Flower Garden Lovers

Distinctive Twigs Provide A Winter Flower Garden with Color

Fall is long past and you are deep into winter. Your flower garden is a dream awaiting spring blossoming. Or is it? Just because there are no flowers blooming does not mean you cannot have color in your flower garden. Brighten up your winter flower garden by adding some shrubs that have distinctively colored twigs.

The shrubs discussed below can add some bright colors to both your fall and winter flower gardens. Arranging these shrubs against a background that will more aptly show off their spectacular color will enhance your winter garden pleasure. Consider a backdrop of conifers, some broadleaf evergreens or even a charming rock wall.

You may wish to even consider creating a "hedge" to border your landscaping and flower garden. Consider placement of the shrubs so as to allow the winter sun to highlight the beauty of the colorful twigs and fruits of these shrubs.

Dogwood Shrubs

Dogwood shrubs provide gorgeous winter color for your flower garden and the varieties we mention here vary in the size they will grow from four feet to twelve feet so you should be able to find one variety that will fit your garden size.

-First are the reds which are probably the most commonly know types:

Isanti Dogwood

Isanti is a fine twigged dogwood that produces white flowers in the spring that are followed by white fruit. It grows as a mound up to four to five feet tall but will spread from four to eight feet wide. It needs to be planted where it will receive adequate moisture. Indeed it can adapt and tolerate wet soils. This variety is not a fast grower and is more compact than the others. It will thrive in full sun or partial shade. As it will not grow very tall it will make a very bright accent against an evergreen backdrop in your winter flower garden.

Redosier Dogwood

The Redosier Dogwood is a larger red-twigged variety than Isanti. It's mature height can be from eith to twelve feet tall spreading from eight to ten feet wide. This variety of dogwood is adaptable to both wet and dry soils and a variety of different soil types. It prefers full sun to partial shade. Redosier will produce white to greenish four petal blossoms that are only two to four mm across in flat-topped flower clusters. Even the medium green leaves are interesting due to the white threads that run through the veins to the leaf tips. The twigs are of course what we are interested in here for our winter flower garden. They are bright smooth shiny and, of course, red.

-Yellow Dogwoods:

Yellow Twig Dogwood

Now this dogwood, Yellow Twig, grows to six to eight feet high and spreads to five to six feet, so it's not as big as Redosier. As the name implies it has twigs that are green in summer but turn a bright clean yellow in the fall creating a different color for your winter flower garden. The green leaves themselves will turn purplish in the fall providing yet another color for your fall garden. Yellow Twig prefers full sun and a soil that is well watered. You might want to try contrasting the Yellow Twig against the red twigs of on or both of the above dogwoods.

One final note of caution regarding dogwoods. Dogwood shrubs most often have the most colourful bark on young shoots. Once they are three or four years old, the bark will thicken and turn a dull grey color. (Most Redosier older twigs will maintain their red color.) If you are tempted to prune dogwoods, realize that most pruned twigs will die back to the next bud with that portion from the pruned spot to bud turning black.

For this reason it may be best to simply cut all the stems to the ground every year around mid spring, just as the leaf buds begin to swell for the best results. In a few weeks new shoots begin to grow, being straight up and tall by midsummer to look excellent all winter long. This will mean there will be a bare place in your garden for a month or so and you’ll not get to see the creamy white flowers and white or blue berries as the flowers only bloom in the second year of growth. To provide a good compromise, consider cutting only 1/2 to 1/3 of the stems each year.

In our next article addressing adding spark to your winter flower garden we will discuss another shrub that adds color and texture.

© 2006, Sandra Dinkins-Wilson

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