Friday, February 18, 2011

Images of Winter, whispers of Spring

Sorry we haven't posted for a while...although winter is a time of slowdown for many gardeners, for nursery operators, it can be a very busy time. We're planning for the spring and summer, choosing new plants, tending our overwintering plants, and enjoying the joys of winter.
With all the snow we have this winter, it's a great idea to look around your garden and see what you have for 'winter interest.' Do you have shrubs with interesting shapes that look like living sculptures when snow or ice cover them?
Or shrubs and trees with bright bark, like this red-osier dogwood, which looks its best when surrounded by a blanket of pristine snow?
Perhaps you have some terrific evergreens, as we've talked about before, that will turn brilliant shades during fall and winter. The purple-bronze microbiota or Russian cypress is one of our favourites.
But we also like Thuja 'Sunkist', here just getting started in turning its winter gold colour when it was nearly buried in snow.
Take heart, fellow plant fans and gardeners. Before we know it, we'll all be busy in our gardens again, and enjoying the glorious blooms of such perennials as this Japanese Tree Peony...
Or this exquisite magnolia. It's too bad we can't put fragrances somehow into a blog post, because scented magnolias are wonderful.
And before we even know it, we'll be enjoying the tasks of the garden, dividing hostas, daylilies and echinaceas, pruning shrubs, planting our vegetable gardens. We're over the worst of winter now, and counting down til spring.

Stay tuned...we'll have news about new plants here at Baldwin's Nurseries in the not too distant future!