10 Shrub Stand-outs to Add Interest to Winter Gardens

By Sheena Adams | Image: Carolyn Jones

The winter season is fast approaching, and while the garden will soon be dormant during its annual sleep, there is no reason for it to be boring. There are two wonderful ways to add winter interest and encourage the flicker of life in your landscape.

The first is to include plants that are at their peak in winter, due to colourful bark, interesting branching habit, bright berries or winter bloom. Plants that offer exceptional winter colour are those that are evergreen but shut down chlorophyll production, thus bringing on winter colour on year-round foliage. One of my favourites in this category is Nandina (heavenly bamboo). These plants offer loads of winter colour, including berries, and hold their leaves right through to spring when they green up again.

The second way to add life and beauty to the winter landscape is to plan for perennials, shrubs and trees that attract and host the winter crowd of birds. At this time of year birds have a greater need for food and shelter. Provide it and they will come.

10 SHRUB STAND-OUTS
Here are my top choices for great shrubs that do double duty in the garden, providing year-round colour and winter accommodation for our birds.

1. Arctostaphylos uva-ursi: This low-growing evergreen groundcover, perfect for filling in and controlling slope erosion, has modest clusters of pink flowers in spring that develop into red berries in fall. The foliage takes on red tones when the temperature cools. Drought and disease resistant and hardy to zone 4, it thrives in full sun to part shade.

2. Gaura lindheimeri: This perennial produces beautiful whirls of blooms on top of wispy stems all summer long. Colours range from white, pink to deep red, depending on the cultivar. The tiny seeds attract and feed small birds. Cut it back in early spring after the birds have feasted. Give it full sun and good drainage. Hardy to zone 5.

3. Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ (Oregon grape): An evergreen mahonia with holly-like leaves growing in whorls along the main stalk, it can easily reach 2 m (61⁄2 ft.) in height and width. In winter the leathery evergreen leaves take on a slightly glaucous blue accented with purples and burgundy. Vibrant, slightly fragrant, bright-yellow flowers held atop the shrub in late winter produce miniature grape-type fruit in spring. The fruit is edible and makes wonderful jelly or can be left for the birds to enjoy. Use this in a winter container, plant several as a hedge or screen or enjoy it as a specimen plant in the garden. It’s hardy to zone 6 and suitable for sun to part sun, although in the hottest part of the summer it does best if it receives some afternoon shade.

4. Malus ‘Red Jewel’ (crabapple): A weeping tree to 4.5 m (15 ft.) with white flowers and glossy red fruit. Lending year-round beauty and structure to the garden, the tree provides perching spots and an early-winter banquet of small fruits for birds. Absolutely stunning in late fall, it’s hardy to zone 4 and suitable for full or part sun.

5. Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’ (maiden grass): This 1.5-m (5-ft.) ornamental grass looks fabulous in the winter garden, particularly when touched with frost. The bleached stalks last through the winter and provide a graceful element and a perch for birds. All of the clones of maiden grass are handsome and offer a variety of variegation options and heights (from ‘Yaku Jima’ at about 1 m/3 ft. to ‘Cabaret’, at about twice that size).

6. Picea pungens ‘Glauca’ (blue spruce): This prickly, steel-blue evergreen conifer provides a perfect place for nest building. Hardy to zone 2, this tree can take all that winter can dish out.

7. Pyracantha (firethorn): This is a superb evergreen shrub with dense foliage and many thorns. Creamy-white, fragrant flowers in early summer are followed by brightly coloured fall-into-winter fruit; the various cultivars produce red, orange or yellow berries. An outstanding plant for training against a wall, firethorn also makes a great hedge or thick screen when mass-planted. Prune it as hard as you like, but be sure to do so in early spring, as a later pruning will remove flowers and the future berries. Hardy to zone 6, it prefers full to part sun.

8. Rosa rugosa (salt spray rose) and its hybrids: Known for its beauty and disease resistance, the thorny branches of this suckering rose display loads of colourful orangey-red hips in winter – a feast for the birds. Choose from cultivars with pink, white or deep-purple blooms. Plant singly as a specimen or en masse to control erosion, create a hedge or enhance a wild area. Hardy to zone 2, these roses love full sun and, as its common name suggests, it can tolerate spray from the sea.

9. Sambucus (elderberry): This wonderful plant offers winter interest and important food and shelter for birds. For year-round interest, look for S. nigra ‘Gerda’ black beauty™. Its dark bark and foliage contrast beautifully with the pink blooms. With its sweet lemon scent, this shrub is a showstopper. Flowers transform into edible purple-black elderberries. Suitable for sun or shade, and hardy to zone 4.

10. Viburnum trilobum (highbush cranberry): This large shrub, growing to 3 m (10 ft.), bears white flowers in spring, followed by glossy, bright-red fruit that hangs on through winter until it ferments and is enjoyed by the birds. Hardy to zone 3, this shrub prefers full to part sun.