I love being able to walk outside my back door onto our property in a thick pair of boots on a snowy day with a pair of garden clippers,and gather most of the things I need for winter decorating. I’ve been striving every year to add to my winter cutting garden so that each season, there is just a bit more to gather.
I add a few plants here and there every spring and summer. I see what I am missing, and make a mental note to find a place for them so that they work in my landscaping. Now, I will say, it does require some patience. If you don’t buy plants that are already a decent size, it can take 5-7 years to really get the full benefit,and for a few trees…Maaaaaayybe just a bit longer. But, if you have the time and the inclination, and like gardening,why not? Plant a winter cutting garden!
When you do trim your trees and bushes, make sure you are following proper pruning procedures and guidelines for that plant. You don’t want to accidentally kill your plant or clip off the blooms for the next year!
Also, if you are bringing in some of these plants indoors from your winter cutting garden, keep in mind some are considered toxic or poisonous, so keep that in mind if you have small children or pets.
I’ve grabbed pictures of some of my favorites and realized I need to put a hardy holly plant in my yard, and a few other things. Unfortunately, we are too far north for mistletoe, but if you live in a warmer climate, you can try to grow it! Country Living UK had a great article on the parasitic nature of mistletoe, I can’t find it ,but I found a great one on holly to share with you.
Here are some great plants you can grow at home to deck your halls and add color when it’s blah outside (These plants are great winter interest plants as well!)!
One of my favorites is boxwood! It’s great to use as an accent plant or make fresh boxwood wreaths.
Mine are three years old and I get quite a few clippings from them,it seems the more I clip them, the faster they grow. I love fresh boxwood wreaths!
The Red twig dogwood is another of my favorites.
It took about 3 years to establish, but once it got going, it now grows like crazy!
If we don’t trim it, it becomes a monster that hits our second floor window. The red branches look so pretty in urns around the yard and as accents.
Old fashioned roses not only offer up beautiful and fragrant flowers in the summer, but produce rose hips.
Birds love these lovely red berries, and they look so pretty against the snow.
In fact, there are all kinds of bushes and trees that produce berries that that look pretty incorporated into winter decor.
Burning bush
Viburnum of different varieties have different kinds of berries.
If you have about a minimum of about 15 spare years on-hand to wait, Junipers have dusty,lovely, blue-gray berries.
I guess the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.
Cedars and Cypress trees and bushes look nice in your yard and smell wonderful.
I have an Alaskan Cedar I planted 4 years ago, I was finally able to take cuttings from it this year.
We dress him up every year as a charlie brown tree.
Lemon cypress has a bright lime green color and smells really good. These are two years old and grow very quickly.
I had enough cuttings from underneath this year to dress up the vintage window behind on the fence.
And don’t forget about plants such as Sedum
or different varieties of Hydrangeas for your winter cutting garden.
These are just a few, but there are so many different plants, trees and bushes you can plant to not only enhance your landscaping, but use in your holiday decorating as well! And in the mean time, sometimes your local home improvement store will have a bin of free clippings from Christmas trees you can use as well!
