Bark Adds Interest to the Winter Landscape
 

Another nice activity for winter gardeners is learning about and enjoying ornamental bark. Ornamental bark is one of the reasons people plant particular trees.

 

It’s easy to see winter as a time of desolation in the landscape - trees are bare, grass is dead - when it’s not buried under the snow - and many of the wild creatures of summer are miles away or out of sight in winter quarters.

 

The attractions of the winter landscape tend to be more subtle than the riot of flowers and foliage in spring and summer and the blazing colors of autumn, says Mary McLellan, Extension Master Gardener program coordinator at Michigan State University. But once you start looking, there are colors, textures and shapes galore. BetulaNigraBk250.jpg

 
Textured or colorful bark adds interest to the winter view, she observes. The patchwork of browns and greens of sycamore and London plane tree, the black and white of river birch, the shaggy bark of the hickory and the smooth silver-gray of the beech tree are distinctive and easy to recognize, especially when trees are bare of foliage.

 

The branching systems of landscape trees are also more apparent in winter, she points out, and the distinctive shapes of American elms, sugar maples, tulip trees and pin oaks make them easy to recognize.

 

Some plants, such as beeches, hold onto at least some of their leaves through the winter. Others carry colorful fruits into and even through the cold months.

 

Leslie Johnson shares some of her knowledge in this article.

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