Trees = Architecture

Winter is for architecture. This is the season when the cacophony of foliage and flower is stripped away. Now is when the bones of the garden are the foreground and the feature.

Let’s face it. By mid-February in the Midwest we’re pretty sick and tired of winter. We escape to the conservatories and murmur sweet nothings to the palm trees. It doesn’t help that snow is a touch-and-go proposition in this era of climate change.

And yet I am still stopped in my tracks by the elegant tracery of branches on a frozen morning. The trees force me to pause and really see them for their elegance, like my China Snow Pekin lilac. Look at all those bird nests! Perhaps flowers are overrated when we have such artful woody plants begging for attention.

A brief snowfall, and the ink drawings of trees leap into the limelight. Even my next door neighbors’ ancient yews seem fresh and asking for a quick pat on the bark. And such bark! This is my favorite way of growing yews - big, bossy, brassy, and delightfully blowsy. You can keep your canape-trimmed tiny bits and blobs. I want a yew as big as a van!

The Hetz Columnar junipers are doing their best to screen the neighbors and set more berries for the coming years. With a dash of snow, they are a lacy curtain between our kitchen windows as sleepy squirrels make doubly sure all the ripe berries are gone.

What are your trees up to this winter?