Daphne odora 'Aureo-marginata' in garden designer David Ellis garden

Daphne odora 'Aureo-marginata' in my friend Julie's garden, she took the photo and her son shows just how large the plant has grown

Daphne odora 'Alba' in my garden, small but fragrant

If you seek winter fragrance and are not a plant snob, Mahonia bealei is reliable and hardy from Zone 7 to 9.  I know this because it was a dominant plant in my landscape when we purchased our current home over 6 years ago.  A stalwart shrub, it thrives in the shade and has tough spiny evergreen leaves.    I still have more than I want of it and as time and my budget allow, I plan to replace the majority of them with other shrubs.  Still, in December through February I  appreciate its yellow sweetly scented blooms especially  in other people’s gardens when I’m out walking our black lab.     If I were going to plant a mahonia it would be Mahonia ‘Soft Caress.’    This smaller and more diminutive mahonia is great in the garden or in containers and as the name suggests, the shiny evergreen foliage is soft to the touch.

Other plants of note this month include the buds of  Edgeworthia papyifera, the Chinese rice paper plant, colorful bark of many different trees, fuzzy  buds of deciduous magnolias, winterberry with brilliant red fruits (deciduous hollies)  and foliage of Angelica keiskei which I see offered by Plant Delights www.plantdelights.com , a mail order nursery in Raliegh, NC.   One note here about this Angelica, Plant Delights describes it as an evergreen rosette of foliage.  Mine is evergreen until summer heat sets in and then the foliage disappears for a few months, only to return when the weather cools off.  Because of this you may want to underplant with a low creeping evergreen groundcover. 

Edgeworthia papyifera buds in January 2012

Helleborus x hybridus in my garden, Jan 2012

Magnolia buds in January

I have been thinking about how much I enjoy deciduous trees in the winter landscape. Here in Atlanta, Georgia, Zone 7, the weather today is in the 60’s but temperatures are predicted to dip down to the 20’s by the weekend.  Then I’m certain we will have more mild weather followed by periods of cold, this is our winter.  While I enjoy winter blooms, especially,  Daphne odora, Helleborus x hybridus and the Japanese flowering apricot, Prunus mume, deciduous trees never disappoint.  Some have colorful bark while others offer striking silhouettes or curious forms like Harry Lauder’s walking stick, Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’ which only looks good in the winter when one can appreciate its twisted branches and catkins.   In the autumn I was charmed by the fruits of Taxodium distichum .  In January, these same fruits take on a new look.   Below are some of the plants that I enjoy at this time of year. 

Taxodium distichum fruits in January

Acer japonicum in January

Stewartia pseudocamellia bark in January

Wisteria at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC

Edgeworthia papyifera buds in January

Plants with interesting forms have always beckoned to me and winter is a season when I especially appreciate trees and shrubs with distinct branching as well as a particular growth habit, such as upright, fastigiate, weeping or pendulous.   Winter is also a time when we notice  bark, shiny, flaky, peeling or colorful.  Buds too, like those on big leaf magnolia,  Magnolia macrophylla, one of my favorite trees, or the distinct flower buds of Edgeworthia chrysantha, also known as paperbush.  Of  the plants I added to my garden last fall, paperbush elicits the most comments from my neighbors who wonder about this shrub which looks like it has been decorated with tiny pendulous ornaments on bare branches.  My yellow twig dogwood (the stems actually look more yellow-green) reminds me that I still want to add the shrubby dogwood called Cornus ‘Winter Flame’ and my Prunus mume has a few buds (it is a white flowered selection I bought from McMahan’sNursery last year).  I also have a small witchhazel with fragrant orange yellow flowers which I’m excited about even if I can’t remember its name.  Hellebores have started to bloom and daffodils are pushing up through the thick layer of  leaves in my woodland.   These are just a few of the gems in my garden that cheer me up especially on dreary days which there seem to be a lot of recently.

Below is a list of shrubs and trees with interesting forms or showy bark. 

Acer griseum- paperbark maple has shiny cinnamon colored bark and shines in the winter garden.

Acer palmatum ‘Sangu Kaku’- coral bark maple has coral red stems

Betula nigra ‘Dura-Heat’- a selection of river birch with beautiful bark and a high tolerance for heat and humidity.

Carpinus caroliniana- our native ironwood

Clethra barbinervis- a shrub with mottled bark, it also blooms in summer

Cornus mas ‘Spring Glow’ handsome bark and early yellow blooms

  Cornus sericea ‘Cardinal’- red osier dogwood with winter  stems

  Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’- Harry Lauder’s walking stick, twisted branches and showy catkins

Crataegus viridis ‘Winter King’- winter king hawthorn has mottled colorfulbark and persistent red fruits

witch hazel in February

Fagus americana -American beech has beautiful smooth gray bark and tawny  colored papery leaves that sound like gentle rain when they blow in the breeze

 Parrotia persica- ironwood has colorful bark and tiny red flowers in late winter

Ulmus alata – winged elm- distinct branches and buds

 Stewartia pseudocamellia- Japanese stewartia with beautiful mottled bark

Sources for Edgeworthia chrysantha:

Ashe-Simpson Nursery, 4961 Peachtree Industrial Blvd.,Atlanta, GA

770-458-3224

GardenHood

353 Boulevard SE
Atlanta, GA 30312

404-880-9848

  Despite this winter which seems particularly long and cold this year in the South, spring will be here soon and many of these winter beauties will transform when almost magically overnight they put out their new foliage and flowers.

winterberry in the landscape February

Winter buds of Edgeworthia chrysantha