Many birches are as charming to look at in winter as summer for their elegant shape and attractive bark. The canoe birch's bark is a lustrous, silvery white, peeling to reveal a pale orange/brown under layer. Betula papyrifera's other attractions include male catkins in early spring and dark green leaves that turn vivid yellow in autumn. Birches look pleasing planted in groups. There is nothing lovelier than to walk through a plantation on a sunny winter day and glimpse blue sky through the tracery of their silvered branches. Birches will grow in any moderately fertile, moist but well drained, soil in full sun or light dappled shade.
Propagation: Sow seed in a seed bed in autumn. Root softwood cuttings in summer or graft in winter. |
If you have a large garden and are looking for a tree to brighten up gloomy January days, then this ash might be just what you are looking for. It has bright yellow juvenile shoots and paler branches that look wonderful in winter. Like other members of the ash tribe, 'Jaspidea' is a vigorous grower, becoming a spreading tree of 100ft by 70ft when mature, so it needs plenty of space. The yellow theme continues through the seasons. The pinnate leaves are yellow when they appear in spring and turn a clear yellow again in autumn. Ashes are excellent trees for woodland planting and like to be planted in fertile, moist but well drained, neutral to alkaline soil in full sun.
Propagation: Graft in spring on to seedling stock of the same species. |
Snake bark maples look good whatever the season and make fine specimens for an average sized garden. Acer rufinerve grows to about 30ft by 30ft and is lovely with arching branches and pretty leaves that turn rich red and yellow in autumn. Its green and white striped 'snake' branches come into their own in winter. Spring sees the appearance of greenish yellow, upright racemes of flowers followed by decorative red winged fruits. It looks lovely under-planted with hellebores such as Helleborus sternii. Grow it in fertile, moist but well drained, soil in sun or part shade.
Propagation: Sow seed in situ or in containers outdoors as soon as ripe. Graft in late winter or bud in late summer. |
