You’ve dead-headed the hydrangea, raked the last of the weeping willow leaflets and planted a final grouping of tulip bulbs—you and your garden are ready to hibernate for the holidays. But don’t get too comfortable, your flower beds may have some end of the season surprises in store.
A four season garden, the goal for many gardeners, can provide beauty all year long. Sure, the vibrant colors may be absent, but this is the time of year for texture, sustainability and resilience.
Brenda Alexander, Horticulturist and Public Works Deputy Director for the City of College Park, MD, has suggestions for late fall and winter perennials that hold their own despite Maryland’s mercurial temperatures.
If you want to maintain texture in your garden, Alexander says keep your ornamental grasses long instead of trimming them down at the end of the season. They not only pack a powerful late season punch, they shimmer when covered in ice and snow. Varieties that can stand up to Mother Winter’s forces include Calamagrostis, Miscanthus, Pennisetum, and blue Fescue. Ornamental grasses can also provide shelter for small animals and birds during the winter months.
Other structural plants that thrive year round are red and yellow dogwood and Harry Lauder’s walking stick.
Want to make sure those small birds and squirrels have enough to eat? Try planting trees, shrubs and vines such as privet berry, Virignia creeper, dogwood, Pyracantha, viburnum, serviceberry, Echinacea and Rudbekia. Each variety renders seed heads and berries that attract local wildlife.
Keeping it green is important to many gardeners and the mid-Atlantic region boasts many evergreens that provide a great deal of organic shape. Alexander suggests blue juniper, magnolia, birds nest spruce, camellia, Japanese holly, Adromeda, Nandina (or heavenly bamboo), boxwood and Photinia for four season color.
If you feel the void of flowers, there are plants that will bloom later on like witch hazel, hellebores, snow drops, or continuously, like winter pansies.
For a silver accent, mounded perennials such as artemesias, Russian sage, santolinas, dusty miller, lambs ears, and lavender can bloom long into the winter, depending on the temperature.
The most important thing, adds Alexander, is making sure your winter garden is properly mulched and cleaned of dead branches and leaves that could interfere with the growth of your four season plants. After you’ve done this, you can continue to find the beauty in your garden, even if it’s covered in white.
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