"Winter is a fascinating season, a time to closely watch changes in plants. It is when I have seen miracles and been confounded by mysteries. Everything has a story to tell and secrets to reveal, from the design of a snowflake and the patterns of frost, to the first flowers piercing the cold ground, their blossoms resting on a snowy pillow."
These words by avid gardener and author Suzy Bales give an insight into her fascinating new book titled "The Garden in Winter: Plant for Beauty and Interest in the Quiet Season" (Rodale Books, $34.95).
This volume is a great help for gardeners who want to have four more months of interest in their garden.
Bales developed her love of flowers as a young child in Washington, where one of her earliest memories was picking wildflowers in the meadow across from her home. Eventual moves to Michigan, upstate New York and Long Island fostered her a lifelong interest in plants. Her career working as a landscape designer and garden writer for a major seed company gives her a unique ability to help make the "quiet season" more interesting.
Utah, like the rest of the temperate world, is blessed with four seasons. But winter is the most difficult season to create interest in the garden. Most gardeners give up and shut their eyes during the winter, but with a little planning and some judicious plant selection, winter gardens can be strikingly beautiful.
Bales explains gardeners need to change how they view their gardens. "I think that winter tends to be black and white. Put in a golden conifer or a holly with golden berries. Yellow or gold is the color of sunshine. Gold brings sunshine down to the earth and makes the days brighter," Bales said during a telephone conversation from New York.
"Even the shoots of golden conifers are very showy. Add them to a wreath for a little punch — I think that people are not used to seeing gold, and it is very effective. It is almost a mesmerizing Midas touch.
"Gardeners gold may be chartreuse, sulfur, citron and lemon — shiny or matte. And consider this: The saturation of a color often depends on the amount of direct sunlight the plant receives. The gleam may dim if planted in dense shade; on the other hand some golden foliage may scorch in full sun. Check descriptions carefully for cultivars that are prone to scorching," she advises in the book.
Red is also an effective color. Crabapple fruits and cotoneaster berries are bright red well into winter. Pyracantha and European cranberry bush viburnum have a more orange color but are still striking. Many of the dwarf cranberries don't bear fruit, so they lack winter interest.
Don't overlook the beauty of a plant's bark. Bales recommends dogwoods, with their bright red, yellow and green twigs. The contrast of the twigs with the newly fallen snow is stunning. Because these plants are native to Utah, they are well adapted to our conditions here.
One of Bales' favorite deciduous shrubs for winter is the witch hazel. Although these plants are uncommon in Utah, they could be grown here with a striking effect.
"There are several varieties in the genus Hamamelis that bloom as far north as Zone 5. The earlier-blooming American witch hazels grow up to 10 feet tall and tend to hold their crinkled and dull khaki leaves, making it harder to see the flowers," Bales said.
While the Chinese types are striking, her favorite is the first one she planted. The hybrid Hamamelis x intermedia "Arnold's Promise" have a golden flower that reminds her of party confetti that has been left behind. Other varieties of this species include "Diane," which has crimson blooms, "Jelena," which has copper blooms, and "Vesna," which has orange flowers.
According to Bales, we are sometimes the worst enemy to winter interest in the garden. "We have all of the seed heads on many of our flowers, including black-eyed Susans and other cone flowers and tree peonies.
"Sunflowers are another wonderful winter plant. I have sunflowers that are 6 feet high in the vegetable garden. Right now they are bending down their heads and look like they are working in the garden," she said.
"There are so many things a gardener can do to create a lovely winter garden. Ironically, winter is when we need color the most, but it is the season least planned and planted for color."
Don't let the long, gray days of winter get you down. The inversions, the fog and the short, murky days do not seem quite as dismal when you can see your garden has life and is going to come back this spring.
Larry A. Sagers is the horticulture specialist, Utah State University Extension at Thanksgiving Point.