Now that we are in the depths of winter with every possible weather system, it is a good time to examine your yard for winter interest. While we often think of flowering plants as the sole source of color or interest, many plants have other interests. While often lending a supporting role during the flowering seasons, colorful conifers are actually the backbone of your landscape and become the stars of the winter landscape. Many shapes, sizes, colors and textures are available. Contact us if you need some suggestions.

This is the best time to prune trees and shrubs, while they are still dormant just prior to bud break, although it can be done anytime during the dormant season.

Plants with fruit in the winter often provide two sources of interest - color from the fruit themselves and the activity of birds and other wildlife. Ornamental crabapples now have the ability to provide food for birds throughout the winter. Contact us to help you select the best fruit berring tree for your landscape. 

Washington Hawthorn, black chokeberry, barberries, cranberrybush, viburnums and many junipers also provide colorful fruits for birds' enjoyment as well as our own.

Bark interest can also be a source of winter enjoyment. The tissue paper like peels of the White Birch can easily be seen now as well as many colors of red and yellow twig dogwoods. Evergreens can have showy bark as demonstrated by lacebark pine with a patchwork of green, white and gray.

Look for egg masses of gypsy moth and destroy them. The egg masses are covered with yellow to tannish hairs and are typically attached to the underside of branches, beneath or among loose bark, on recreational vehicles which sit long periods of time, on firewood piles, under eaves of homes and inside protective plastic tree spirals (if left on year round). Removal of these large egg masses greatly helps to lessen the amount of defoliation.

Now is the time to contact us to schedule spring cleanup services, which can include: raking up debris and leaves, cutting back perennials, fertilizing or re-mulching your planting beds.

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