Everyone who attended the 2024 National Convention in Cincinnati has had the experience of exploring at least a small part of this 180-year-old Garden Cemetery. We were awed at the age and extent of the conifer genus and species available for examination at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum. There are at least 18 genera, 74 species, and hundreds of varieties throughout 450 landscaped acres of 750 acres total. Most of the arboretum specimens are in solitary plantings, however, there is a Garden Courtyard which is the primary location for the Dwarf Conifer Garden.
Dave Gressley, Director of Horticulture, was responsible for applying for the Reference Garden status just before his retirement. Now, Brian Heinz is the Director of Horticulture and Arboriculture and will be continuing the ACS relationship in conjunction with ACS Member Sponsors Byron Baxter and Chris Daeger who live in the area. Dave Gressley stated: “Each accessioned plant is mapped and cataloged as part of Spring Grove’s plant record program. Although the slip tag accession labels can be lost, the map and catalog record of each specimen is permanent. Unique plant specimens have a metal photo display label mounted on a stake, looped with insulated wire around a branch, or screwed into the main leader. The latter practice is no longer practiced.”
For a brief history of Spring Grove’s origins, in the 1830s and 1840s, Cincinnati experienced a cholera epidemic. Local small church cemeteries were overcrowded. To alleviate this problem, members of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society formed a cemetery association in 1844. They searched for a location to create a picturesque park-like rural cemetery close to the city but rural enough to allow expansion. The www.springgrove.org website, states: “In 1987, Spring Grove officially changed its name to "Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum" to include the expansive collection of both native and exotic plant materials as well as its State and National Champion Trees and its Centenarian Collection.”'
Spring Grove is open seven days/week from 7 am - 6 pm except from Memorial Day to Labor Day when Monday and Thursday it is open from 7am - 8 pm. Be sure to check out https://www.springgrove.org/arboretum/ before your visit. Plan to visit every season for different views of your favorite conifers and the many blooming deciduous trees and shrubs. The spring azaleas are amazing!!
One of the difficulties in creating a form and foliage garden is that most nurseries and garden centers play to the ‘perennialistas’, with a focus on flowering plants. While there are some specialty nurseries with interesting selections of trees and shrubs, most garden-makers are relegated to shopping at the more mainstream spots where dwarf conifers, Japanese maples and the like are after-thoughts, if, indeed, thought of at all. That’s just what Brent Markus, the wunderkind of the Oregon nursery world, aims to change. We visited Brent a couple of weeks ago and he showed us around his kingdom. We are now loyal subjects!
After mentoring by horticultural luminaries Henri Bort, Don Howse, Larry Stanley and Rich and Susan Eyre, Brent burst onto the scene in 2007 at the age of 24 when he bought Dick Haslebacher's Woods Creek Horticultural in Salem, OR and started Rare Tree Nursery in Silverton. Conifer Kingdom is the retail/mail-order arm of Rare Tree. Brent oversees an operation that today is propagating roughly 700 different varieties of conifers, Japanese maples and Ginkgo—more than any other single supplier in the U.S.
For Brent, it’s all about quality and educating the customer, whether that means the wholesale buyer at the garden center or the retail consumer who orders on line. He starts with high quality plants that are showcased in gorgeous website photography by employee Sam Pratt. Brent has also developed distinctive and informative plant tags that provide planting and care instructions.
Most high quality conifers and Japanese maples are propagated by grafting cultivated varieties onto durable rootstocks, in the same manner as roses. Grafting is more expensive than growing from cuttings, but produces better plants. The quality at Rare Tree/Conifer Kingdom begins with their careful choice of understocks. Brent explains, ‘For example, with firs, we've used what we have experienced to be the best performing understock for a broad range of hardiness, heat and humidity, Abies bornmuelleriana, the Turkish fir. However, this winter we’re starting to use Abies firma as our rootstock. We believe that this will even allow firs to excel in the heat and humidity of the Southeast. They’ve never been able to grow firs down there, but with Abies firma as the rootstock, there is a very good chance that they will thrive.'
The quality continues with the maintenance of the plants. Dick Haslebacher, who has remained with Rare Tree, is the nursery manager and in charge of quality control. It is Dick who carefully monitors which plants need to be potted up into larger pots and regularly culls the blocks of sub-standard individuals. Brent notes that even though it raises the cost to repot plants into bigger pots and to discard some, it’s critical to ensure that the customers always receive high quality plants that meet Rare Tree’s standards.
‘We want to make interesting varieties available to the educated landscape designer and the forward thinking garden centers. But there is only so much that they can carrry--they can’t carry 600 varieties of conifers! So for that market, we focus on a smaller number of varieties but in much greater numbers. For retail, we have a much broader offering, with some new cultivars that are hard to find, especially in many parts of the country.'
The garden centers can order their plants in attractive wooden boxes with the informative labels, giving them a distinctive look with more eye appeal. Brent’s idea is to focus on a key list of specific cultivars—similar to ‘Proven Winners’—that the garden centers can promote and that retail customers will gravitate to.
No small part of Brent’s success as a grower is that he is a credentialed designer and understands how to use plants in the landscape. He sells most cultivars in several different sizes: ‘We have plants to fit every budget. If you’re a collector and your budget needs to accommodate a lot of different cultivars, we offer small sizes for you to buy and grow them on. Or you can order a specimen from us in larger size.'
'You can accomplish the same design no matter what size plant you order, it’s just a lot easier to visualize when the plants are bigger! The larger versions can be planted and mulched and they look great right away.’ When asked about the conventional wisdom of larger plants being difficult to transplant successfully, Brent responded that that is not a problem as long as you don’t buy large balled & burlapped specimens that aren’t properly root-pruned over a period of time. ‘That’s one reason to buy larger plants from us where you will never encounter that problem, as we are vigilant about quality control. '
Rare Tree also carries large, 'specimen' plants, some of which are mountain-dug. All have unique shapes and character and each plant has an individual label; if you see a photo of a particular plant and order it, that is the exact plant that you will receive. The Taxodium pictured above, for example, is specimen #1468 and can be found on the website!
At this point we were confirmed believers and pleased to get such a detailed behind-the-scenes peek at how a high quality grower operates. The rows and rows of specimens--75,000 retail-ready plants!--are gorgeous in their own right, like racks of paint samples, yarn or piece goods. “But wait,’ said Brent, ‘there’s more!’ as he led us to a grouping of trees and shrubs of varying textures and colors.
Brent is a practicing landscape architect as well as a nurseryman, with academic credentials in landscape design and horticulture. He set out the grouping of plants pictured above to demonstrate the beauty of different colored foliage used in combination--not a hard sell with us!--and also to highlight power of yellow in the landscape. The maple in the center of the photo is a brilliant chartreuse and gold, and draws the eye in, as do all lighter colors. It 'pops' in the landscape and adds depth and interest. The burgundy, blue and orange also augment the different shades of green, and the chartreuse Thjua plicata 'Franky Boy' in the foreground echoes the foliage of the maple.
In the photo above, the chartreuse-leaved 'Autumn Moon' and 'Franky Boy' have ben replaced with a green-leaved 'Autumn Fire' and Thuja plicata 'Whipcord'. Pretty, but nowhere near as exciting or interesting as the first grouping. None of the other plants have been changed, and yet the burgundy and blue don't seem as striking as they do in the first photo. The lighter chartreuse livens up all of the plants around it.
So if you're looking for interesting dwarf conifers, Japanese maples and Ginkgo to add beauty, texture and value to your landscape and you don't have a good local source (or even if you do!), visit Conifer Kingdom. This kingdom is not found in a fairy tale, it's at www.coniferkingdom.com. Order some trees and we think that everyone will live happily ever after!
The monsters come out for Halloween, and the garden is no exception. Some plants, like the Sequoiadendron giganteum 'Pendulum' above, are downright bizarre, even supernatural. With our minds on tricks and treats we are seeing creatures everywhere!
Autumn's misty days exacerbate the eeriness; we wonder if the alien pictured above at Coenosium Gardens has designs on that tractor, or even the barn...we had barely escaped its clutches when we came upon the next horrible beast:
Not sure how much more our nerves could stand, we fled from Coenosium and sought sanctuary at Iseli Nursery. All seemed well, until we saw the horrible multi-headed sea serpent sitting outside the front door, daring anyone to enter:
At Iseli, it appeared, it was too dangerous to linger. Would Buchholz & Buchholz be any safer? We were weary of running and hoped to find safety soon.
Buchholz was clearly not the place to stay! An enormous creature greeted us in the Flora Wonder Arboretum and we decided that the only safe place was home, so we made our way back to Sonoma County. At Quarryhill Botanical Garden we realized that we must have just missed a witch's coven, as one of the witches left her broom in a pine tree:
So on to Circle Oak Ranch, where we breathed a collective sigh of relief. No sooner were we settled than we realized that we had been invaded!
What had appeared to be a lovely specimen of Cedrus deodara 'Divinely Blue' turned into the Loch Ness Monster! We recoiled and ran right into a series of webs...
Everything just looked eerier and eerier to us...spider webs were everywhere.
Giant blue gardener-eating amoebas flowed along the ground, creeping along at our feet, sending out tentacles to nibble at our toes.
Some of the monstrous brutes have fierce teeth, which look like they could make short work of us. We scurried away. Where would we be safe?
How had we not noticed all of the teeth before? They were everywhere!
Exhausted, and with darkness falling, we realized that we needed to seek shelter in the house. We ran down the hill, passing a trio of demons, barely escaping their clutches.
At last, safety was ours, warm and snug inside, with the doors locked, a fire lit and the dogs on guard. We opened a bottle of wine and discussed how many narrow escapes we had had. What we didn't realize was that the creatures were waiting for us to leave to really let loose.
Succulents seem to be all the rage these days, with specialty nurseries and designers abounding. We admire many of the succulent creations, but never really embraced the 'total look', which seemed often to lack scale and suffer from excessive cuteness. When we focused on some of the edgier genera, with larger specimens, such as Agaves, we also realized that we didn't need to isolate succulents in their own beds and containers, we could incorporate them into the overall garden design.
Agave 'Blue Glow' can hold its own beside conifers (in this case Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Golden Girl', Picea pungens 'Glauca Procumbens' and 'Picea orientalis
A study in dusty blue: Cedrus deodara 'Prostrate Beauty' and Agave parryi var. huachucensis
Foliage gardeners continually must grapple with the fact that most of the interesting foliage plants have small leaves. From the conifers' needles to shrubs such as Abelia, Berberis and Hebe it is difficult to get away from fine textures. Most of the large-leaved shrubs, such as Rhododendron and Pieris, are denizens of the woodland garden and not happy in sunny gardens without acid soils. Many succulents provide large scale leaves that beautifully contrast with finer foliage.
Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor' and Juniperus x media 'Daub's Frosted' share the same yellow and green foliage colors.
The same Agave, this time keeping company with Arctostaphlos 'Emerald Carpet' and Berberis thunbergii
The idea of interplanting succulents with conifers and other foliage plants strikes some as odd if not downright unnatural. To get a taste of how Nature herself does it, visit a forest in Mexico and see Yucca and Agave growing side by side with pines and cypress. We think of Mexico as a succulent haven when in fact Mexico also has more native pine species than any other country. Many of our perceived design rules are products of our own traditions and not necessarily representative of what is possible or, indeed, even plentiful in Nature.
Yucca 'Tiny Star' and other succulents with coniferous accompaniment. The conifers echo the yellow in the Yucca.
Succulents come in a vast array of colors although most of the genera with larger species (Yucca, Agave, At selections in shades of green, blue and yellow. It is not uncommon to find multiple colors with either stripes, such as many Yucca and Agave, or marginal accents in contrasting shades.
Aloe striata in a bed of Juniperus procumbens, flanked by golden Chamaecyparis
Aloe striata has coral leaf margins and in shade, rosettes of broad, flat, bluish-green leaves. The leaves turn ruddy pink in full sun and make for a beautifully two-toned plant. In the photo above, the blue-green of the Aloe is echoed by the juniper, again with a marvelous textural contrast. The Aloe is hardy to only 20 degrees, so in this garden is planted in a container, which may be moved to a protected area when necessary.
Mangave 'Macho Mocha' is one of the few larger succulents with significant maroon coloration.
There are larger succulents with maroon foliage. Some of our favorites are the Mangaves, thought to be crosses between Agave and Manfreda. 'Macho Mocha' is a stunner; it reaches 4-6' across at maturity and its broad, strappy leaves are liberally peppered with deep, bronzy red.
There are several Mangave cultivars, ranging in size from the large 'Macho Mocha' to 'Blood Spot', which makes a compact rosette about a foot across. Most Mangave appear to be hardy to between 0-10 degrees, which make them, along with some Agave, among the most cold-tolerant succulents.
Aloe polyphylla, with its distinctive spiral leaves, stars in this bed, with Pinus strobus 'Mini Twists', Abies pinsapo 'Horstmann' and Cryptomeria japonica 'Knaptonensis' in the chorus. A string of Echeveria elegans
So what about cultural requirements? How can low-water succulents exist next to conifers and other woody plants, much less green lawn? Something isn't right, right? Wrong! Firstly, most succulents need more water than is popularly supposed. While they can be classed a 'low water' plants, they are certainly not 'no water' plants. Those fleshy leaves store water but it needs to be replenished. The only tricky part is understanding what time of year each particular succulent grows, as this is when it needs the most water. Many are spring and summer growers; others, such as many Aloe, grow in winter months.
Secondly, many conifers and woody plants can do with less, or at least less frequent, water than many perennials. The fussiest succulents--those that are frost-tender or require extremely well-drained soil--can be planted in containers which both allow for removal to shelter during winter and provide excellent drainage. However, it is perfectly possible to grow succulents near other plants simply by creating a mound made up of 1/2 soil and 1/2 a gritty substance such as lava pebbles. If the succulent is planted high up in such a mixture, it can receive the same amount and frequency of water as the other plants, and it will drain much more quickly.
Most succulents do not like to be cold and wet at the same time, a challenge for those in Mediterranean climates. Mounding with pebbles or judicious use of containers generally works to provide enough drainage for all but the fussiest plants. Planting next to a hardscape that warms quickly in winter sun can also create a more friendly microclimate.
Agave vilmoriana
Fall is a great time to plant and winter a great time to ponder and plan. So when you are looking for the perfect plant for a particular spot, whether it is next to a spruce or a spirea, consider whether a succulent might fit the bill!
American Forests has just published the 2020 Champion Trees National Register. This is a fun and informative list, and can be sorted by type of tree or location (find the ones in your state) and then sorted by various criteria, such as trunk circumference, height and crown spread. Of course, not all are conifers, but they have a good representation on the list. AF is one of the premier woody plant conservation organizations.
I started by searching for all of the trees in the register from California. Not surprisingly, Sequoia and Sequoiadendron lead the list. But in addition, I found firs, pines, spruces and more. I have bookmarked the page! Now when I plan a trip to visit gardens or nurseries, I will check to see what Champion Tree(s) might be in the vicinity. What Champions are in your neck of the woods?
There are lots of reasons to add a few conifers to your landscape, and one of the most compelling is the decorative cones that many bear. Fir, or Abies, have the reputation for having the dressiest cones, but as you'll see, even the under-appreciated pines put on some stylish decoration that lasts all year. So slow down and observe when you pass a conifer and enter the 'cone zone'!
Wine red female cones drip off the branches of Picea orientalis 'Early Gold' in spring.
The following series of three images depicts the cones of Abies koreana 'Horstmanns Silberlocke' through the seasons. This tree wears gorgeous foliage even without its 'jewelry', and together with its cones makes one of the most decorative specimens in the garden, even giving floriferous angiosperms a run for their money.
The cones start out as small, chartreuse gumdrops and then become lavender and celadon eggs with a texture and design that would make Faberge proud.
By autumn they have dried out and matured to rich rusty brown, resembling intricately woven baskets.
The spruces (genus Picea) in the next two photos, taken at Sonoma Botanical Garden in Glen Ellen, CA, have similarly shaped cones but with dramatically different colors. Well, some of us like emeralds and others prefer rubies - it's the same with cones.
The limey elongated cones of Wison's spruce (Picea wilsonii) complement the turquoise needles on this specimen at Sonoma Botanical Garden.
Both Picea wilsonii and Picea likiangensis hail from China, and both get too big for most gardens, but we love to seek them out and enjoy their lovely ornaments. Both of these specimens are large and laden with cones.
As a general rule, firs hold their cones upright and spruces, as in the two examples above, have pendulous cones. The quite, unassuming Poulsen fir (Abies x. arnoldiana 'Poulsen' doesn't put out a huge display of cones every year, but when it does, it's a showstopper.
They start out in spring a rosy black-raspberry, then deepen to grapey purple.
By late summer/autumn they have faded to a soft lilac.
Even though most of us call the cones of all conifers 'pine cones', the cones borne by pines look very different from those of the firs and spruces. Many of true pine cones look like they are carved out of wood when they are young, as with the new cones of one of the mugo pines (Pinus mugo var. mugho).
With its yellow cone in early summer, this branch of 'Golden Ghost' red pine (Pinus densiflora 'Golden Ghost') resembles a bird with flamboyant plumage. The two-toned needles put on even more of a display than the cones!
In this photo of 'Golden Ghost' we see both this year's cone (the tiny 'carved' one on the left) and last year's mature cone (on the right).
This Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii 'Thunderhead') is a prolific coner, with lovely green, sculptural cones.
Since we're moving through the colors, white pines have great cones, too! They are much more fragile than those of the red or black pines, and often have a sap glacee that makes them glitter in the sunlight.
We mentioned emeralds and rubies earlier, but some cones are aquamarines. The cones of this Oriental arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) don't even look like cones.
All of the cones that we've shown you so far are females - they contain the ovaries and ultimately the fertilized seeds. But let's not forget the boys! Unlike much of nature, where the male of the species gets the elegant plumage and fine feathers, in plants the male's display is generally less showy. But we think that this crowd of pollen cones on the 'Golden Ghost' pine are one of the trustiest signs of spring!
So whether you're walking in your own garden or a botanical preserve, when you see a conifer, stop and take a look. If more people don't start slowing for the Cone Zone, Form and Foliage is going to begin issuing citations!
Acer palmatum 'Iijima Sunago', Physocarpus opulifolius 'Mindia' and Spirea japonica
The garden blogs and magazines are full of photographs of spring flowers as much of the country says farewell to a brutal winter. It's no coincidence that many of these are macro shots, as the flowers are often a small part of the overall landscape this early in the season. If you're a foliage gardener, however, you can get out your wide-angle lens and snap away, almost indiscriminately. The colors assail you from every part of the spectrum: yellows, blues, maroon, orange, red, bronze and of course, green. In the photo above, the Spirea does look like it is on fire, giving credence to its name of 'Goldflame'.
At this time of year, texture and form take a back seat, as the colors are bright enough to leave afterimages on the retina. The fiery yellows and oranges are complemented by the richness of the greens and reds, while blue strikes a soothing note.
Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey', Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' and Arctostaphylus densiflora
The spring colors are also borne by evergreen shrubs, which perk up and shine with the stronger sunlight and longer days. The trio in the photo above are all evergreen; they carried the garden interest through the winter and now aren't about to be outshined by their deciduous neighbors.
Cupressus cashmeriana, Viburnum nudum 'Winterthur' and Pinus ponderosa 'Big Boomer', with Berberis thunbergii 'Orange Rocket' and Quercus robur
Some of the evergreens seem to spring to life as the deciduous shrubs and trees nearby leaf out. The soft, deep green conifers provide the perfect backdrop for the red and yellow of the barberry and oak.
Pinus mugo 'Ambergold', Leptospermum 'Dark Shadows', Coprosma 'County Park Red', Juniperus x-media 'Daub's Frosted', Cordyline 'Design a Line Burgundy', Libertia peregrins and Cupressus glabra
Even the dark foliage has a richness in spring, especially when repeated throughout the border. The Leptospermum, Coprosma and Cordyline are drenched in the same deep burgundy, which provides the perfect anchor for the yellow, blue and orange. Green, as always, is the unifying theme.
Acer palmatum 'Mizuho Beni', Juniperus communis 'Kalebab' and Loropetalum chinensis
The burgundy of the Loropetalum in the photo above provides the same contrast to the greens and yellows and the orange of the maple (Acer palmatum 'Villa Taranto) just leafing out on the right.
Even the seed pods of the Cercis chinensis
In the photo above we see the Spirea, Physocarpus and Acer 'Iijima Sunago' again from another angle. The oranges and reds are made even brighter when contrasted with the blue of the cedars over the door and the seed pods of the redbud in the foreground pay homage to the maples' fiery tones.
Ginkgo biloba 'Mariken' and Berberis thunbergii
Green and red are color wheel opposites and make dramatic combinations. This pair of deciduous hardwoods slumbered through the winter unnoticed until they burst into attention-grabbing foliage in spring. The same Berberis
The 'Admiration' barberry has evergreen neighbors on its other side, and when it leafs out in its red glory it brings out the crimson stems of the Drimys lanceolata on the right and the bronze tones of the Thuja plicata 'Whipcord' and Cryptomeria japonica 'Elegans Compacta behind.
Yellows, like all light colors, draw the eye and liven the landscape. Yellows are represented above by Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Euonymus 'Emerald 'n Gold', Yucca 'Walbristar, Acer palmatum 'Mizuho Beni' and even the light green foliage of the Banksia in the foreground. A softer blue note is provided by Cedrus deodara 'Prostrate Beauty'.
The other side of the path has a similar theme, but the Euonymus is joined by Phormium 'Golden Ray' and the blue is provided by Picea pungens 'Lucretia' and Agave 'Blue Glow'.
From the other angle, burgundy plays a much more significant role, and the blue of the plants is echoed in the ceramic pots around the folly.
The brighter colors draw the eye, but there is also beauty in the softness of groupings of colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, termed analogous combinations. The Cedrus, Arctostaphylos and Banksia provide repose from the incendiary foliage around them.
Even though we are overwhelmed with the spring colors, we can't ignore structure and form completely. A trio of young Agave vilmoriniana, aptly named 'octopus', anchor a corner and provide textural as well as color contrast. We're using more and more succulents in the foliage garden, interplanting among the conifers, maples and other woody plants. Stay tuned.
We think of a winter wonderland as a landscape covered with snow, glazed and glistening, soft and serene. But for those of us who never receive snow's purifying blanket, wonderland in winter is provided by the cold-weather hues of the conifers, the enduring, often colorful, leaves and bracts of broad-leaved evergreens and the ornamentation provided by berries, stems and seeds. Above, starting on the left, the Thuja occidentalis 'Rheingold' (hardy to USDA Zone 3) wears an apricot winter coat (it's yellow in the summer months), the Juniperus communis 'Berkshire'(Zone 2) turns from blue-green to a rich plum color in the cold weather, the Cordyline banksii 'Electric Flash' (Zone 9), Pinus mugo 'Pal Maleter' (Zone 2), Leucadendron 'Ebony' (Zone 9), Loropetalum chinensis (Zone 7) and Cupressus macrocarpa 'Greenstead Magnificent' (Zone 7) are electric and magnificent all year-round. This rich horticultural tapestry is not difficult to achieve and creates a wonderland in the dead of winter.
Winter color on Berberis thunbergii 'Orange Rocket' and Liquidambar styraciflua 'Gumball' are a dazzling combination with the icy blue juvenile foliage of Pinus maximartinezii Some of the winter colors come from the deciduous trees that are late to turn and even later to drop their leaves. Both the barberry (Zone 5) and sweetgum (Zone 5) above hold their leaves well into December in this zone, and by planting them near a blue-needled conifer, in this case big-cone pinyon pine (Zone 9), we get the dramatic effect provided by complementary colors (color wheel-opposites).
Abies pinsapo, Spanish fir, has many cultivars that are garden-worthy. 'Horstmann', (Zone 6) pictured above, is slow growing and diminutive relative to its wild parents. Its blue-green needles are lovely themselves, but its russet buds, which are carried through the dormant season, provide additional interest. Note the contrast in shapes and textures of the two plants, as well as the lively color combination.
Brilliant display: Callicarpa bodinieri 'Profusion', Cornus sanguinia 'Midwinter Fire', Parrotia persica Some plants are dramatic in winter yet would barely catch your notice in other months. The above trio provides stunning color: the Callicarpa (Zone 5) with its purple berries, the Persian ironwood (Zone 4) cloaked in golden leaves, and Midwinter Fire dogwood's (Zone 5) brilliant stems. However, all are unassuming in shape, color and texture for most of the year. It's only when the weather turns cold that they erupt into this colorful display. And as if that weren't enough, the 'Motherlode' (Zone 3) and 'Blue Star' (Zone 4) junipers and 'Shirome-janome' Japanese black pine (Zone 5) provide golden and blue highlights.
Weak winter sun creates pleasing shadows and highlights, unlike summer's harsh overhead glare. The Monterey cypress cultivar on the left, 'Greenstead Magnificent' shows off its sea-green color and tweedy texture much better in winter than summer, and the Cordyline's delicate straps are teased and separated by the weak light. Cold also brings out its pink highlights.
Some inanimate additions can pump up the color and texture, such as ceramics or water features. The celadon ball intensifies the Echeveria's (Zone 9) color and the water reflects the Opuntia santa-rita 'Tubac' (Zone 8) as it is touched by the morning sun.
The glazed ball dominates the Echeveria, but when we step back we see it in context with the larger plants. It still provides textural and structural contrast, but the 'Stained Glass' octopus agave (Zone 9) and the clump of 'Blue Boy' yucca (Zone 7) are hard to compete with!
Although we've been focusing on other colors, brilliant green is just as dramatic in winter as purple or orange, especially when it is contrasted with yellow and gold, as in the above photo. Acacia Cousin Itt (Zone 9) is mouthwateringly verdant all year round, but we really appreciate it in winter's soft light, especially when highlighted with nearby yellow foliage.
The yellow foliage, already a winter beacon, becomes downright fiery when hit by the late afternoon sun. Even the drabber colors, such as that of the tall Cunninghamia unicanaliculata (China fir, Zone 7) in the above photo, lights up like a torch.
Like many conifers, a goodly number of succulents take on added hues in winter. The Echeveria agavoides 'Prolifera'(Zone 9) pictured above looks like it is wearing nail polish, but it's just its response to colder weather. The Lomandra 'Platinum Beauty', (Zone 8) on the other hand, is always beautiful!
We also appreciate our workhorses: the plants that look lovely all year round, need little to no maintenance and don't quickly outgrow their spaces, such as the Aloe arborescens, (zone 8), Chamerops humilus 'Cerifera' (zone 8), Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' (Zone 9) and Sedum rubrotinctum (Zone 9) pictured above. Cold weather doesn't stop their display, rather, it adds more red highlights to the Sedum. Even if you are in a colder zone, you can plan for at least one part of your garden that looks good in all seasons.
We tend to love the warm colors in winter but blue can be just as colorful and dramatic. The combination of Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca Pendula' (Zone 6) and Cedrus deodara 'Prostrate Beauty' (Zone 7), together with a variety of blue-foliaged succulents makes and icy display in front of the golden needles of Thuja occidentalis 'Malonyana' (Zone 4) and the lingering leaves of Fagus sylvatica 'Dawyk Gold' (Zone 4). But sometimes you go into the garden and find serendipitous color combinations, such as when the deep orange leaf of a Liquidambar dropped into the arms of an Abies concolor 'Blue Cloak' (Zone 3). Backlit by the weak winter sun, it is surely one of the season's garden jewels.
Note: USDA minimum zones are provided as a guide; many factors contribute to a plant's success, including maximum cold temperatures, humidity, summer heat (especially at night), etc.
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