Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) has unique yellow flowers that blooms as early as October and as late as December. The curly ribbon shaped flowers are a nectar source for migrating insects. The seed pods take a full year to mature. When ripe they explode sending the seeds up to 30 feet. You can hear them explode if you are fortunate to be nearby.
Brighten Your Winter Garden Scape
As you are sitting cozily in your warm home thinking about spring and those soon to be delivered seed catalogs, take a look outside at your garden or landscape. Hmmmm… let’s consider what would be great for critters as well as your winter viewing pleasure. Leaving the spent flowers and stalks up for the winter provides shelter for many species of insects and spiders, but perhaps they are not all that interesting to look at. What if you added some winter interest to your garden with some of the following natives?
Switch Grass (Panicum virgatum) purple in flower gives way to a cloud of winter gold when highlighted by the sun. It is a larval host to the Delaware Skipper butterfly as well as providing seeds for many birds. It adds structure to your garden and in the spring it is a very popular nesting material.
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) is a true winter standout. The fall burgundy leaves give way to bright red berries. This deciduous holly prefers wet areas but will do well in drier locations. The berries are a favorite of many birds .Winterberry is dioecious, each plant is either male of female. Only the female plants develop berries. For pollination to occur you must have a male plant within at least 50 feet of the female plants.
Wild Senna (Senna marilandica) has attractive black seed pods, When nodding in the wind they create an ey-catching spectacle. These hard pea-like capsules drop their seeds in the winter providing food for foraging birds. Up to 4 feet in height this bushy perennial shrub is a host plant for various sulfur butterflies.
A great tree addition is the River Birch (Betula nigra). After the yellow leaves of fall drop the exfoliating bark peels off in papery strips of salmon, orange and tan tones to reveal the young ivory bark. The peeling bark provides a place for butterflies to hibernate and hide from predators.
Redosier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) a deciduous shrub reaching 4-5 feet. It may form dense clusters and prefers wet areas but does well in drier conditions. The purple-red foliage gives way to the bare and beauti-ful red stems. A versatile landscaping shrub whose berries are the preferred food of many species of birds. The branches and foliage form dense summer cover, offering protection and nesting sites for birds. Flowers are an important source of pollen for honey bees. Red squirrels, chipmunks and raccoons include redosier dogwood in their diets.
There are many other plants worthy of your winter garden scape. Plan for next winter - don’t forget many of these native plants and more will be available at our Spring Plant Sale, May 1-31, 2021. Limited supplies are available so shop early!
Plans, surveys and approvals for a larger and improved parking area and construction of an Educational Pavilion began in 2018. The process has been very slow and due to ecological concerns, a potential conflict arose...
