Ashley’s Gardening Tips – July

Plan ideas and plant additions now to enhance your garden in the winter season! Many plants offer fruit, interesting bark, early bloom time, or interesting silhouettes to liven your garden space in the winter season.

Listed below are a few plants to help you get started. If you’ve been experiencing extreme heat like we have in Ohio, there’s no better reason to sit in the air conditioning and brainstorm garden ideas. Wait to plant until late summer-early fall, as cooler temperatures will be less stressful on new plants trying to establish. For further information and photos of plants, I find the plant finder tool on Missouri Botanical Gardens’ website extremely useful. Click the link to follow. http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder.aspx

Plants with winter fruit:

• Winterberry Holly- Ilex verticillata
• Chokeberry- Aronia arbutifolia
• Black chokeberry- Aronia melanocarpa

Plants with interesting bark:

• Paperbark maple- Acer griseum
• River birch- Betula nigra (also available in smaller, weeping forms)
• Seven Son Flower- Heptacodium miconioides

Plants with striking silhouettes:

• Harry Lauder Walking Stick- Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’
• Weeping Eastern redbud- Cercis canadensis ‘Covey’
• Tatarian dogwood Cornus alba spp.
• Red Twig Dogwood Cornus sericea spp.

Plants with early bloom time:

• Witchhazel- Hamamelis sp. (large shrub/sm tree)
• Lenten Rose- Helleborus sp. (perennial)
• Winter aconite- Eranthis (bulb)

Don’t forget the movement and sound of ornamental grasses!

Ashley