Top Winter Berrying Plants

The trees are bare and there is snow on the ground. This doesn’t mean that your garden has to become a winter wasteland. Evergreens can be quite stunning in the winter months. However, do not limit your landscape to these for winter interest. A well-planned garden should provide year-round interest and aesthetic entertainment. 
Although the number of colorful and floriferous plants able to withstand the harsh winters is minimal, vibrant colors can still be had in the form of berry plants. Nothing can compare to the vibrant color of berries during the winter. Berry palates range from bright red to yellow to pale blue and white, so there is something to please everyone. Additionally, many berries will also attract a variety of birds to your garden. Fortunately a plethora of hardy berry-bearing beauties exist to provide much needed punctuation to an otherwise drab winter landscape. Consider planting some of the following:

The American Cranberrybush (Viburnum trilobum) is hardy to Zone 3 and grows to a height of 10 to 12 ft. tall. Although it sports red berries, some cultivars produce yellow berries. This shrub sprouts clusters of white flowers in the spring.
For an interesting contrast, plant Arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum) whose berries are bluish-black and form clusters of dark berries. They are very popular with birds and bear clusters of small white flowers in the spring.

The Common Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) is adorned with an interesting white berry. It grows 3 to 5 ft. tall and is hardy to Zone 3. This little guy grows well in shade as well as sun and tolerates almost every soil type. Plant this in concert with the contrasting reddish-purple berries of the Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) shrub. Like Snowberry, this shrub likes shade as well as sun and is very easy to grow. It is also know as Indian Currant.

Consider planting Cranberry Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster apiculatus) if you are looking for an attention grabbing ground cover. It is hardy to Zone 4 and matures at a low 1 to 3 ft. tall. This great ground cover explodes with red berries but displays tiny pink flowers in the spring. Other low-growing cotoneasters include Bearberry Cotoneaster (C. dammeri) and Rockspray Cotoneaster (C. horizontalis).

Beautiful Pale Blue-Gray berries adorn the Northern Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) shrub. It is hardy to Zone 3 and grows 4 to 10 ft. tall. Although it is partial to full sun this shrub is extremely hardy and easy to grow in most conditions. It is also salt tolerant.
This is not an exhaustive list but is merely meant to get your creative juices flowing. There are many more varieties of berry and winter fruit bearing plants. The important thing is to keep in mind that winter does not have to equate to a dreary garden devoid of excitement. With just a little bit of planning, your garden can be a vibrant and colorful winter wonderland.

How to Care for Christmas Plants — Part One

Now is the time of year when we begin to see holiday plants and bulbs for sale all over the place - poinsettias, amaryllis, Christmas cacti, and others. Maybe you want to grow an Amaryllis bulb for bloom at Christmas, or perhaps you have a Christmas cactus that never blooms. Or do all of the leaves fall off of your poinsettia prematurely? Here are a few hints for caring for these plants. 
If you want an amaryllis bulb to bloom for the holidays, it is fun to start it yourself. Bulbs can range in price from a few dollars to $20 or more each. The price difference is a reflection of the size of the bulb, and consequently the plant, and the newness and beauty of the hybrid. I would make my decision on how much to pay for a bulb based upon whether I was going to try to keep the bulb and bring it to bloom for many years. If all you want is a plant to last one season, then the inexpensive bulbs are fine and beautiful.

Amaryllis typically take 6 to 8 weeks from the time you plant them until they are in full bloom. The flowers last about 2 weeks. Therefore, you should plant your bulbs in early to mid November for Christmas bloom. It is fun to have several bulbs and start them at one-week intervals to assure a prolonged bloom period.

If you want to keep your Amaryllis from year to year you should cut off the flower stalk when it has finished blooming. Keep the plant in a sunny window and keep watering it. Feed it with a water-soluble houseplant food once a month. You may move the plant outdoors for the summer but do not plant it in the ground. In August or September the leaves will start to turn yellow. Slow down watering and stop feeding. When the leaves die completely, cut them off and stop watering completely. Move the container to a cool dark place. When you want the bulb to grow and bloom again move it to a bright window and start watering and fertilizing. Do not repot Amaryllis frequently. Leave them in the same pot for three to four years.

Care of a poinsettia is simple, but there are a few tricks for keeping it attractive. First, be careful when you purchase the plant and bring it home. Try to buy your plant when it has just arrived at the store especially if it is in a paper or plastic plant sleeve. Remove the sleeve immediately when you get the plant home. If a plant sleeve stays in place more than 24 hours, the ethylene gas produced by the plant will cause the leaves to begin falling off. When you are bringing a poinsettia home, protect it from cold and drafts –these also cause the plant to drop its leaves.

At home, put your plant in indirect or filtered light. Do not place it in a bright southern or western exposure, on a hot television, near a heat vent or a draft from a door, or in a place where there is no natural light. All of these can cause leaf drop or the premature demise of your plant. Allow the soil of a poinsettia to get semi-dry between waterings. Make sure you drain off all excess water when you do water it. With the proper care, your poinsettia will last for months.

How to Care for Christmas Plants — Part Two

Now is the time of year when we begin to see holiday plants and bulbs for sale all over the place - poinsettias, amaryllis, Christmas cacti, and others. Maybe you want to grow an Amaryllis bulb for bloom at Christmas, or perhaps you have a Christmas cactus that never blooms. We have talked about caring for pointsettias and the lovely amaryllis. Here you can learn how to care for your Christmas cactus.
Another common holiday plant is the holiday or Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera). There are many related cacti, and they bloom anywhere from October until Easter. Some bloom twice. They all look very similar and their culture is the same. The first rule with a Christmas cactus comes into play when you buy it. Do not allow it to be in a draft or sit in a cold car too long on the way home. All of the flowers and flower buds will drop off and you will have no flowers that year.

Once you have purchased a Christmas cactus, it is easy to grow for many years. Indoors, Christmas cacti should be grown in direct sunlight. You can place them outside for the summer, but when outdoors protect them from direct sun, which can burn the stems. Average house temperatures and humidity are fine, but avoid drafts and rapid changes in temperature, especially when buds are on the plant.

Christmas cacti should be watered when the soil feels dry to the touch. Drain excess water from the plant; too much water will make Christmas cacti rot. They should be fed with an all-purpose, water-soluble houseplant fertilizer every two to three weeks, from right after flowering until the setting of new flower buds.

The trick in growing Christmas cacti is in getting them to rebloom. Both temperature and length of day will affect flowering. Flower buds will form regardless of length of day if the night temperature is maintained at 50 to 55 degrees. Thirteen hours of uninterrupted darkness per night are needed if the temperature is between 55 and 70 degrees and 15 hours are needed if the temperature is above 70 degrees. One of the above conditions must exist for 9 weeks starting in early to mid September. This all sounds very complicated, but you can create the right conditions simply by placing the plant in a corner of a room that has a window but does not receive artificial light. You may also create the right conditions by covering the plant with dark cloth, or putting it in a closet at night. Do not give the plant 24 hours of darkness.

The Cyclamen As an Inexpensive Holiday Plant

Very few of the holiday plants at today’s superstores cost more than $15, and most are much less. As for quality, many large retailers are purchasing plants locally if possible. Local plants are often of higher quality due to the shorter stressful shipping time. An extra bonus is that buying them supports our local economy.
The cyclamen is marketed and sold this time of year primarily because most thrive on the cooler temperatures and drier humidity of late fall and winter. If your mother’s house is very hot and humid, you should look somewhere else for a flowering houseplant that would enjoy those conditions, but that might not be on the cheap side.

Cyclamen plants are fairly easy to merely keep alive, however if your goal is to recreate the beauty, bloom, or color again next year you will have varying degrees of challenge. Suffice it to say that most are enjoyed like Christmas trees, for one season and then composed.

Cyclamen are beautiful flowering tubers native to the Mediterranean region. Place them in or near a cool window in bright light, out of reach from any heat source, because they enjoy temperatures between 50 and 60 degrees. If suddenly placed in a very warm room, they are prone to drooping no amount of watering will correct. Over watering at this point will often kill the plant.
Enticing them into bloom a second year can be a challenge, but the foliage is pretty enough to live with if you want to try. While in bloom and growing, from autumn until late winter, keep them evenly moist, then gradually reduce watering and allow them to dry out between waterings. If a plant droops at this time due to lack of water, not excessive heat, plunge the pot into luke-warm water and it will revive quickly.

Continue keeping them on the dry side until late July or August when you can gradually begin to keep them moist again. This is also the time to repot them into a slightly bigger (no more than 1 inch larger) pot with fresh potting soil in anticipation of the growing and blooming season. Fertilize biweekly when flower buds begin to show. Cyclamen are propagated from seed that can be purchased mail order from many major seed catalogs.

Using Living Plants in Holiday Decorations this Year

A favorite of mine for holiday decorating (and gift giving as well) are tabletop evergreens. Tabletop evergreens are available in several varieties and can vary greatly in size. I like to use those in 4″ and 6″ pots. These tiny trees are perfect for a mantel or grouped together for an interesting centerpiece. They can be placed in attractive holiday containers or the plastic pots can be covered with cut evergreens. These trees are also fun for children to decorate and have in their rooms for their own special tree.

They like to be kept evenly moist while they are inside for the season. Many are hardy in this area and can be planted in your garden or in a container on your front porch to enjoy year after year.

Let’s not forget ivy and ivy topiaries. Ivy is a great houseplant all year round but can be especially useful during the holidays. It can be mixed in with the table top evergreens on a mantel or use to fill a bright red basket for a simple hostess gift and of course mixed with poinsettias as mentioned above. Ivy topiaries come in many shapes but the tree shaped are especially fun this time of year. Add little white lights and some ribbon and you have a great decoration that will last well beyond the holidays. Ivy likes the soil to be evenly moist and prefers filtered sun. Ivy also benefits from periodic rinsing of the leaves with water or water and a little soap to remove dust and help keep pests away.

And finally consider the indoor blooming bulbs, paperwhites (narcissus tazetta) and amaryllis (Hippeastrum hybrida). These bulbs can be used in so many different ways. The paperwhites with their pure white petals and sweet fragrance brighten up any holiday arrangement where they are included. The amaryllis, the “granddaddy” of indoor flowering bulbs, is available in a variety of colors, white, pink, red, orange, purple, solid color or edged or striped in another shade. They can make a wonderful centerpiece or stunning mantel when grouped with low growing ferns and ivy or cut greens. Both these types of bulbs can be purchased in growing kits or alone.

These are just a few of the many living plants that can be used in your holiday decorating. So get those creative juices flowing and bring a little of the garden indoors.