Tag Archives: winter

Brrr, It’s Cold Outside

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Burr Oak & Cranberry Viburnum
Heatherwood Winter

The sight of a leafless Burr Oak sends a winter chill through my spine. Of course the below freezing temperatures help a bit as well. The combination of the berries on the Cranberry Viburnum and the stark structure and bark of the oak create an interesting winter attraction in our Heatherwood garden. Many of our tree and shrub selections have been made to create a four season interest in the garden. Winter strolls are always a delight.

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New Year Snow

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Yukimi in Snow
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

A light snow turns Heatherwood into a winter wonderland. A light one-inch snow provided a garden treat on New Years Day. The snow was wet sticking to leaves and branches, creating several beautiful vignettes through the garden. I had a list of “to do’s” that I had set up to accomplish on New Years. But, I couldn’t pass the opportunity to walk though the garden with my camera. Those “to do’s” will just have to wait.

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Who Says a Garden in Winter Doesn’t Have Color?

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Yellow, Blue, and Green
Heatherwood in Winter

I took my last stroll of 2024 through our Heatherwood garden this morning. Sunrays filtered through the cloudy sky. Colors of the garden popped out. I started out for just a short stroll in the cool winter day (34 degrees). Two hours later I came in. Where did the time go? I got lost in the winter color and textures. It was a great way to start the day!

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Winter Color

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Winter Color in First Snow
Heatherwood

We just returned from a two week break in Palm Desert where the temperatures were in the high 70’s and low 80’s. We were welcomed by a little snow fall. It was a great way to experience a quick change of seasons.

Heatherwood is created to have color throughout the four seasons. In this scene, the berries of a cranberry viburnum provide a bright orange. The leaves of a sawtooth oak create the bronze. A yellow twig dogwood contrasts with a blue spruce. Oak leaf hydrangeas add a little red to the scene. The beauty of our garden is a treat to return to, even in winter.

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Spring is Coming

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Emerging Daffodils
Heatherwood Crabapple Grove

Today we change over to Daylight Saving Time. Spring is just around the corner! These emerging daffodils are harbingers of what will soon come.

We are far behind on our winter clean-up to prepare for spring. New growth is starting everywhere, but we have not started cutting back last years spent grasses and perennials. I have started a little pruning, but have a long, long way to go! We also have a lot of transplanting to do before we start our spring planting. The new plants are scheduled to be delivered in mid-April. I’m getting a little nervous.

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Winter Garden #10

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Grass Lined Garden Path
Heatherwood Winter

A grass-lined garden path wanders up from our meadow’s center circle. The path is bordered with ‘Piglet’ fountain grass. Red twig dogwoods and columnar Taylor junipers separate the path from the rest of the garden with contrasting colors and textures. During the winter, I can catch a glimpse of the garden beyond.

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Winter Garden #8

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Meadow Grasses
Heatherwood Winter

Remember that brown is a color. Heatherwood is full of various shades of brown in the winter. Grasses and spent perennials grace our garden with various tones of brown and textures during the winter months. The various grasses in the meadow have different forms, colors, and textures. Throughout the winter, they keep my interest peaked. Very soon, they will all be cut back to make room for spring’s spurts of new growth. The meadow will soon look bare.

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Winter Garden #7

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A Chief Joseph Lodgepole Pine Named Fred
Heatherwood Winter

Chief Joseph lodgepole pines are major stars in Heatherwood’s winter garden. During the winter their needles turn brilliant yellow. Soon they will start to transition in the spring into their light green summer color. Mahonia Repens creeping Oregon grape encircles the Chief Joseph with its dark purple colored leaves.

This little Chief Joseph is named Fred. Mary enjoyed our first Chief Joseph, planted in 2019, so much that we planted our second one in 2020. She still was not satisfied, and we looked for another in 2021. Alas, we could not find one from our regular nursery suppliers. She didn’t give up and found one on line and ordered it. When it arrived she selected where she wanted it planted. She supervised her “in-house” gardener to plant it just right. She named it Fred. Now, three years later, it is thriving.

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Winter Garden #6

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Autumn Leaves, Sedum, and Thyme
Heatherwood Winter

Even the ground is covered with winter color and textures in our garden. Purple woolly thyme provides the base of this vignette. The red new growth of Tri-color sedum highlights the image, while the fallen autumn leaves create a gentle overlay.

Enjoying this little scene provides a stimulus to add more and more ground covers to our spring planting plan! Spring is less that a month away.

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Winter Garden #5

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Abstract Art in the Garden
Heatherwood Winter

Garden art is all around me as I walk through Heatherwood. I just need to discover a way to display it. I saw this combination of ornamental grasses in the foreground, red twig dogwoods in the mid ground, and yellow twig dogwoods in the background peeking through the red twigs. I thought of an abstract watercolor painting of beige, red, and yellow brush strokes. I played with a series of multiple exposures and “voila”, an abstract painting appeared.

Have a happy day!

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