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Trees and Shrubs for the Winter Landscape

Walk off some of those holiday calories and gather ideas for your garden.  Look for trees and shrubs that provide interesting form, bark and texture in the winter.

Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick’s twisted stems provide a unique form while the red and yellow twig dogwoods, oakleaf hydrangea and kerria have colorful bark.  Roses, winterberry and chokeberry provide colorful fruits and help attract the birds to your landscape.

Crabapples are great four season plants.  Upright, spreading and low growing forms are available.  Many like Firebird and Candymint have small fruit that persist through the winter. 

Tree bark can also add to your winter landscape’s beauty.  The coarse bark of a bur oak or Kentucky coffeetree is dramatic against the winter sky.  The colorful bark of many trees makes a nice addition to the stark winter landscape. 

And, don’t forget about evergreens.  They provide food and shelter for wildlife and year round greenery for us to enjoy.

A bit more information:  Watch for these and other trees with interesting bark that brighten the winter landscape.  Paper birch with beautiful white bark is a traditional favorite, but the borer resistant river birch with its orange, cinnamon and brown peeling bark is another winter beauty.  The smooth gray bark of magnolias, musclewood (Carpinus) and serviceberry make them standout against the winter sky.  While the camouflage bark of the large sycamores and the orange bark of Scotch pine and Amur chokecherry add additional color to the landscape.