Five Star Performers For Winter Gardens

Winter gardens are all about form, foliage and texture. In our continuing quest to bring you amazing plants for your garden, here are five tried and true star performers from Art's Nursery. Add any or all of these to your garden to create multiple seasons of interest.

Winter Jasmine Flowers

Winter Jasmine
Jasminum nudiflorum
Jasminum nudiflorum, or more commonly, Winter Jasmine, is a deciduous slender scrambling vine from China that features dark green arching stems and bright yellow flowers that bloom in mid to late winter on bare stems. It's not a true climber as it often needs to be tied to a support to grow upwards. But it is a great plant for brightening up an otherwise dull winter garden. Winter jasmine prefers full to part sun and tolerates most well drained soils including poor ones. It's also suitable for urban conditions. Prune after flowering to keep its vigorous growth habit in check.



Dawn Viburnum Flowers



Dawn Viburnum

Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn'

This usually multi-stemmed deciduous shrub features large clusters of pink tubular flowers that appear in late winter and early spring from cherry red flower buds. Flowers are very fragrant giving off a wafting cherry-vanilla like scent. Serrated foliage is dark green but emerges a deep purple colour when new. mid summer and fall brings on dark coloured inedible fruit. Viburnum Dawn grows 6-8ft in height and spread. Best planted in sun to part sun. Hardy to zone 5.

Himalayan Sarcoccoca

Himalayan SweetBox, Himalayan Sarcococca
Sarcococca humulis
This underused evergreen is a slow growing, compact dwarf shrub with shiny dark green leaves. Tiny vanilla-sweet fragrant white flowers appear in late winter and early spring. Flowers are followed by small roundish black fruit. Grows 1-2 feet in height and several feet across. Himalayan Sarcococca is a great groundcover or border plant. Plant it where its heavenly fragrance can be enjoyed during the winter. Near a front door, garage or walkway is ideal. Prefers part sun to part shade in any well drained soil. Hardy to zone 6.

Helleborus 'Ivory Prince'

Ivory Prince Hellebore

Helleborus 'Ivory Prince'

Ivory flower buds flushed with pink appear in mid-winter and open to outward facing blooms that last most of the spring. Petals are streaked with green and backed with a warm rosy shade. Clump forming, blue green foliage. Excellent in a perennial shade garden or a container. Prefers shade to part shade in moist, but well drained soils. Water generously for best results. Grows to a height of 12-18inches with a slightly larger spread.

Acer palmatum 'Sangu Kaku'

Coral Bark Japanese Maple
Acer palmatum 'Sangu Kaku'
This Japanese maple variety is also extremely popular with customers. Architectural branching and light chartreuse green leaves in emerge in spring turning gold, orange and red in fall. As winter returns, Sangu Kaku's trunk and stems intensify into a brilliant coral red in colour. Great when planted in a location that is visible iduring the winter, for example, near a doorway or from a kitchen window. Ideal when combined with dwarf conifers, rhododendrons, camellias and other japanese maples. Grows 15-20ft in height and 12-15ft in spread. Prefers part shade to part sun, but will tolerate more sun if kept somewhat moist. Soil should be slightly acidic, moist but well drained.

Can be planted in containers and gardens. Altough it is hardy in zones 5-8, protect from cold winds and expect some winter tip dieback with this variety. Deciduous.


Art's Nursery opens in mid to late January to serve you. These and many other winter gardening favourites are available now and throughout the year. Drop by or give us a call and we'll be happy to show you how these plants can be incorporated into your garden designs.

 

This Post Was Written By:

The Talented Art's Nursery Staff

Your Garden In December

Snow Covered Red Holly Berries at Art's Nursery

 Sheesh, you would think everybody is busy enough in December without us telling you about more to do! But since you're here reading...

• Check stored tubers and bulbs. Shake them up, remove moldy bits, add more shavings and if you have some handy, shake on some Cinnamon – it’s a fungicide and mighty tasty one at that - but I wouldn't eat it afterwards!
• Check drainage in outdoor pots after that first bit of snow. If there is too much water build-up move under an overhang.
• You can prune trees and shrubs now. There are some good pruning resources you can check out http://www.treesaregood.org/ for some excellent information on pruning trees and shrubs as well as your local library, or come on in and see us and we can give you some great tips as well as set you up with the proper tools.
• Mist house plants, check locations, some may need to be moved away from drafty windows. Use pebble trays to increase humidity. Fill tray with pebbles and place under the drip tray of a house plant. Add water to pebble tray, water evaporates from the increased surface area of the pebbles, increasing humidity right around the plant.
• Trees, shrubs and hardy perennials can be moved as long as the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. New planting can also be done at this time.
• For a bit of indoor sunshine, get your indoor forcing bulbs now. Paperwhite Daffodils and Amaryllis are by far the most popular
• You can still plant outdoor bulbs now as well as long as the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged.
• Stock up for our feathered friends; locate bird feeders where you can watch them. Art's carries a nice selection of bird houses and bird seed but for an even wider selection the local Wild Bird's Unlimited is awesome!
• Be kind to yourself, take some extra time to relax, have your vitamin C and D and bring in some winter bouquets from your garden.
• Catalogues, catalogues, catalogues. Place feet on comfy stool, grasp catalogue in both hands and…relax. Daydream and plan for next year. Draw, clip pictures and browse the web for some great ideas.

Enjoy, give yourself a pat on the back for another garden year under your belt and take time for yourself. When we have some good weather days, go for a walk in your local park or botanical garden and check out the winterscapes.

This Post Was Written By:

Laurelle O.
Laurelle is an ex, former, recovering landscape designer, heritage apple tree lover, part-time horticulturist at Art's Nursery as well as guest blogger. If you've got a question about apple trees, she's the local guru! You can get in touch with her through Art's Nursery

Your Garden In November

We’ve had quite an interesting fall haven’t we! I still have leaves on the
 Honeylocust (Gleditsia tricanthos) in my front yard…an amazing feat when you
consider they are usually all off by September! They say we’ll have a Century Winter this year with lots of snow and cold, hmmm I’m a bit skeptical, but bring it on, I’ll wax up my toboggan and bring out my almost pristine red Olympic gloves…not like it got cold enough last year to even use them.

  

Here’s November's To-Do-List:

-Winterize, hey, it might not happen, but it couldn’t hurt to be overcautious. Bring pots into carports, under decks against the house in a sheltered area and group them together. Use carpet underlay or that silver wrap you can get from Revy to winterize outdoor taps, or even bubble wrap.

-Once you’ve winterized your pots, those in a sheltered place at the front can be updated. After the first few wind storms, you should have a nice collection of pine and cedar boughs which you can add to the planters, you can also add some lovely evergreen colour with Skimmia, Gaultheria procumbens and grasses as well as some artfully placed red twig dogwood and curly willow from your friendly neighborhood Arts.

-Rake up leaves and either bag them to use as insulation for pots or use as mulch in garden beds around sensitive plants. Don’t use apple, rose or other fruit tree leaves to avoid spreading scab or black spot etc.

-Divide up hardy perennials.

-Plant or move trees and shrubs.

-Prune out old raspberry canes.
 
-Lift and store Dahlia’s after a frost knocks down the green growth. Store your bananas, Cannas, fuschias, begonias as well as other patio plants. Store in a greenhouse or garage or other area where they will be cool and well ventilated, but will not freeze.

-Drain and blow out irrigation systems…your camping trailers as well.

-Plant out garlic.

- Keep an eye on those gutters they fill up fast with leaves.

- Weed, you can take a break from it in January.

- Now that we’ve started up our furnaces after those lovely mild days of October, mist your houseplants, even better place pebble trays under them and add water. As the water evaporates from all that surface area it will humidify the air and make your plants happy.

- Don’t forget to bring in some cool bouquets, evergreens and berries look great in a simple glass vase. Make sure they are out of reach of children and Border Collies. Our florists can whip up something for you while you wait - come in and say hi!

- Clean up and sharpen tools and the lawnmower! Don’t forget to remove the fluids. Old gas makes for a nasty start-up in the spring, so nasty in fact I gave up and traded it in for a push mower.

- Put patio furniture away and make some space for all that snow we’ll be getting.

- For those of you who are going away someplace warm this winter I am very very jealous. For the rest of you, I’ll see you on the toboggan hill!!

Cheers,
Laurelle

P.S.
Plan on attending Art's Christmas Open House, Wednesday, November 17th, 6:00pm until 9:00pm. Everyone welcome - bring your friends!