Posted on 11/25/2022 6:34:49 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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14 Eye-Catching Shrubs to Add Interest to Your Winter Landscape
Winterberry
Firethorn
Hollys
Witch Hazel
Winter Daphne
Red Twig Dogwood
Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick
Japanese False Cypress
Dwarf Arborvitae
Snowberry
https://www.bhg.com/gardening/trees-shrubs-vines/shrubs/shrubs-with-winter-interest/
Yes, I KNOW! Nothing you can do about it NOW - but the Winter months are for PLANNING for NEXT season. :)
I am in Zone 5a, and my FAVORITE winter-combo (and one I’ve sold to many customers through the years) is:
An Evergreen of your choice
A ‘clump of three’ Japanese Whitespire Birch
A Red Twig Dogwood
After Beau took down the ‘deader than dead’ ancient Cottonwood tree in the front corner of the house yard, I added this planting combo. I also did the same in one of our tree lines coming up the driveway where we had some Evergreens die in the drought of 2012, which left a gap.
Totally GORGEOUS, and the local birds love it for daytime winter shelter. It doesn’t look like much in the Summer months, but in Winter, against the snow? Gorgeous, Darling! Gorgeous!
Pinging you all EARLY, as I'm on the fly in the morning.
.
I chopped down the tomato, pepper, and few remaining basil plants (frosty sticks) today.
Stowed the tomato cages.
But as far as next season goes - today I also got out the seed starter
trays and covered greenhouse trays and washed them.
I'll start the first vegetable seedlings indoors by the windows around
the end of February.
I'll start looking through the seed catalogs when they arrive.
The gardening proceeds forward!
Just for the heck of it...
COZUMEL
Product Description:
53 days. This very early Caribe-type pepper produces
attractive and tasty, 4 inch long blonde fruit that
matures through a sunset of rosy orange tones to a final
red color. Thick walled and juicy, the flavor develops
from mildly spicy to fruity balanced with tingly fire.
I’ve still got lettuces in the unheated greenhouse. My GOAL is to have greens into December, which just MIGHT work this year, as our temps have moderated again, and with an extra cover over them, they’re still making it through the frigid nights.
Other than that, I’m growing Arugula under lights right now, then I’ll start some Spinach inside and a few rounds of sprouts to tide us over.
As far as growing Peppers indoors go, be VIGILANT about looking for and guarding against Whiteflies and Fungal Gnats. They WILL find your Pepper plants in an off-season indoor environment, no matter what.
zone 7. After taking out 7 30 to 45 foot trees, I was planting lots of flowering shrubs along my neighbors fence. Bought a tiller and started on the side vine covered yard rounded it up and planted grass. some shoots are showing. Today i moved around the herbs window boxes in the green house 6X8. seeded some tarragon, marjoram, more chives, parsley. Seeded some walla walla, and sun gold tomatoes. see what comes up. Planted some blue berries with the raspberry bush and some strawberries a few weeks ago. All doing great. Now that i have more sun, i am moving the garden up to the middle of the back lot. I will extend my tomato net structure to include the ruit and will plant some melons in there in the spring.
Red twig dogwoods + Japanese false cypress (lemon thread) = awesome
The dogwoods are ~ 7ft. this year, and situated in naturally moist ground, whereas the nearby lemon threads are on higher ground I built up. They are thriving with the “just right” amount of natural watering they get from up-slope.
Not really an intentional companion planting. A few years ago (a couple seasons after the false cypresses went in) we scored some ‘rescue’ dogwoods, free for the digging. They went in where they could go.
The combo is not only gorgeous, the shrubs attract a lot of birds all year-round. Save for being minimally sampled by fawns (and spit out), the lemon threads have not been eaten. Around here that’s a big deal.
The dogwoods do get nabbed on the buffet line side we don’t see anyway, but this causes a lot of new shoots to sprout.
Fantastic display this season. The west side backdrop is a natural winterberry thicket, so that’s three from the list!
Ha! The snow melted enough for us to rake the leaves and trim back some dying flowers. Gotta love Wisconsin.
Good looking peppers! Peppers that grow quickly are the way to go!
Fungus gnats are attracted to the smell of spagnum moss. They lay their eggs in it, feed on it when they hatch, and can also feed on the tender roots of some developing plants.
There is a product called Mosquito bits that has BT that will kill the larvae. you sprinkle it in the soil and soak it in. Diana might know something to use on the Whiteflies.
Nice pic!
I bought a bunch of red twig dogwood plants from NH at their annual plant sale. Got a pack of 10 for $15, IIRC.
I planted them along the embankment that runs along our driveway. We need something for erosion control besides trees that, if a storm takes them out, will take out our power with them. These grow into nice bushes, they are native plants, and so far has established themselves very well.
I have some winterberry holly, too, for around our pond where the ground is wetter. I need to check and see how they are doing.
Beautiful. Is it your garden?
I am so not ready for snow.
We put in a wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox, in front of the porch as we come in from the driveway. A week or so before Christmas it starts flowering, the most beautiful cloud of scent when the air is still and above freezing, and there are always some flowers for the Christmas vase. It keeps blooming until we get a night below around 18 degrees or so, went all the way through January last year.
Siting is a bit tricky...we put it by the porch so that we would be able to smell it every day without trudging through mud, snow and bad weather, and for the few degrees of frost protection that the house gives. It was supposed to be 8 feet tall.but it pushes 15, overhangs on the roof, has coarse ungainly leaves and branches. I keep pruning it back. What it needs is a very strong growing, shade tolerant clematis to justify its summer existence.
There’s a woody Abutilon megapotamicum in a pot on the porch still blooming, has survived several nights at 25 deg. How low will it go?
Zone pushing...fun and folly...
The chili pequines still doing good, just need sunlight to ripen.
I’ve had good luck getting rid of fungus gnat larvae by watering with a sort of tea made from those BT granules. Put a spoonful in a pitcher or other container and add hot tapwater. Stir daily and add more water as needed. Use this to water your seedlings. You can keep adding more water until it begins to stink. But this does nothing for the adults gnats. Those are best controlled with good ol’ yellow sticky paper stuck to a small plant label. Covering the seed starting mix with a layer of vermiculite also helps, but can get expensive if you’re starting a lot of seeds.
I've successfully dealt with them for years with Tanglefoot / Tangle-Trap.
Sticky goop that attracts them - they land on it - and are stuck!
Brush it onto 2 or 3 inch squares of paper or cardboard
and place
around your indoor plants. When the card is 'full' -
toss it away and replace it with a new one.
I learned about the stuff from my dad. He used to propagate azalea and
rhododendron cuttings, forsythia, day-lillies, et-cetera in his garage.
The fungus gnats were a problem until he started using this tangle stuff.
May God Bless my dad's green-thumbed soul - he would be 96 now!
Good luck with the December greens!
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