Red and Yellow Twig Dogwoods
Heatherwood Woodland Garden
Today I took a two hour stroll through our garden with my camera. With one month left in winter, I decided to focus on the winter garden highlights throughout Heatherwood. Throughout the woodland area we have planted red and yellow twig dogwoods. They provide an understory of winter color. Winterberry and mahonia (not show in the above image) provide additional winter color in other spots in the woodland.
“Red Maple”
Heatherwood Woodland
This red maple is leading the charge into autumn in our Heatherwood woodland. It is one of the red maples that we planted a year ago. It is brilliant red while the other two are not showing any color change yet. Who knows why. I will record the changes in my garden notes and see if this behavior will remain the same in future years. I look forward to what next week will bring.
“Kousa Dogwood Berries”
Heaterwood Autumn
The bright berries of our dogwoods are always a sign that Autumn is here. Our kousa is just a little tree right now, but it is full of bright red berries. By the time the last berry drops, we will have a beautiful blanket of red beneath the tree.
Back in Pennsylvania, we had a row of mature Kousa dogwoods that lined the driveway. Every day from the time they started to drop their berries until the last one fell, we had to sweep our driveway to keep the cars from squishing the berries and making a big mess. In the spring we had a zillion of little seedlings. We replanted many and nursed them to a state where they could be planted back in our pin oak grove. We had a natural supply of new dogwoods. I look forward to doing the same at Heatherwood and share them with our neighbors.
“Blooming Redbuds”
Heatherwood Woodland Garden
The woodland is coming to life with the blooming redbuds and the new understory that we have been planting during the last two years. It will take 3-5 years for trees to get large enough and the understory to fill in to be able to start to get the feeling that we are walking through a woodland. In the meantime we will enjoy the blooming young trees and understory highlights and dream what it will be in the years ahead. Patience! Patience! Patience!
“Don Egolf Redbuds”
Heatherwood Woodland Garden
Last spring we planted nine redbuds as part of our new Woodland Garden. The blooms were gone at the time we planted them. This spring they erupted in bright pink buds. It will take years for this part of the garden to mature. But. we look forward to seeing it evolve over the years to come. As a comparison, the following image from the Yakima Arboretum is what we may expect these young redbuds to mature into.
“Mature Redbud in Spring Glory”
Yakima Area Arboretum, Washington