Beautiful Bark

02/18/2003
Beautiful Bark

I'm from the Midwest, and I'm betting that most of you are looking out at pretty dreary, winter-worn landscapes right now, at least if you're living in Zones 6-7 and northward. Here's a thought to add to your planning list for your garden this year: Plant trees and shrubs with beautiful bark!

A winter visit to the Jardins de Bellevue (see under "Visitez les Jardins Francais") this past weekend reminded me of just how splendid plants with showy bark look at this time of year. All you need is an attitude adjustment, whereby you stop thinking of February as a time when everything looks dead and therefore ugly. Instead, think of it as a time when there are fewer distractions to keep you from noticing the bare essentials of your landscape. I'm talking about the form of the beds (hopefully harmonious), the textures of paving, and the silhouettes and bark colors and textures of your woody plants.

Plants with beautiful bark make a winter garden downright elegant. Consider the rich auburn, silky sheen of the paperbark cherry (Prunus serrula, main photo above). Hardy in Zones 5b-6 through 8a, its bark is its raison d'etre. Growing to 20 to 30 feet, with a round-headed outline, paperbark cherry likes good drainage and sheltered spot in the northern parts of its range.





Another "paperbark" tree, Acer griseum (left) is known as the paperbark maple. Truly a plant connoisseur's tree, paperbark maple is always expensive because it is slow growing. This same characteristic makes it ideal for small-space gardens. Individual trees vary greatly in form and character, with the majority having rich cinnamon colored bark, but some trees having darker, almost blackish color. As a bonus, paperbark maple is easy to grow in full sun, and has bright orange fall foliage color. Every tree develops outstanding architectural structure in time; it needs no pruning whatsoever. Paperbark maple is hardy in Zones 5a through 7b and farther south in partly shaded locations.






Coralbark maple (Acer palmatum 'Senkaki', right) has flamingly bright coral bark. It is such a small tree that it takes up no more room than a big shrub, and has probably the most brightly colored bark of any temperate woody plant. It is hardy to Zone 6b.

Many of us are familiar with the early blooming, large shrub, corneliancherry dogwood (Cornus mas). However, the Japanese cornel (C. officinalis) is less well-known. Although its chartreuse flowers are borne more diffusely than those of corneliancherry dogwood, the Japanese cornel (a small tree) has interesting peeling, bicolored bark that doubles its winter interest (left).







Of course, birches are well-known for having attractive bark. Not only the familiar white birch (Betula papyrifera), but also the native American river birch (Betula nigra) offer outstanding winter interest. But until I visited the Jardins de Bellevue, I'd never seen the stunning beauty of Betula costata. There is surprisingly little information available on this birch, which seems to be much more widely grown in Europe than in the U.S. One source gives its hardiness as being Zones 3-6, but I am skeptical.







Perhaps the immaculate smoothness of the bark on this white-limbed beauty is what is so irresistable. Even the lenticels are white. But then there's the faintest blush of peach as it were, beneath its skin. I'm fairly sure this exotic birch is native to China or the Himalayas, and I saw it growing in Normandy, probably the equivalent to a USDA Zone 7.

But trees aren't the only woody plants to bring barky beauty into your winter garden. A number of shrubs have colorful bark as well. The so-called red- and yellow-twig dogwoods are well-known and widely used for their colorful bark. But perhaps a more interesting shrub dogwood for winter color is the 'Flame' dogwood (Cornus sanguinea 'Winter Flame', right). This European dogwood has stems that start out yellow at ground level and warm to fiery red about halfway up their length.











A much more difficult shrub to find is the Himalayan raspberry (Rubus cockburnianus). Most of us aren't used to the idea of growing a raspberry as an ornamental, but this plant is grown strictly for its extremely glaucous, white-over-purple stems, which make a dramatic fountain in the winter landscape. This is a shrub best pruned regularly to emphasize its shape. Both it and the colored-stem dogwoods profit from removal of 1/3 of the oldest stems at ground level each spring. Doing so stimulates lots of new, brightly colored growth.



Woody plants with beautiful bark and architectural structure form the backbone of the winter garden. Good companions include winter-blooming shrubs such as hybrid witchhazels and corylopsis, as well as winter-flowering perennials, including the lovely hardy cyclamen (Cyclamen coum), with bright mauve blossoms that blanket the ground when it is happy. And it is happy when it is nestled around the roots of trees, which provide the summer-dry environment it prefers. Of course, don't forget hellebores, and the earliest bulbs, such as snowdrops. All these plants complement the winter drama of beautiful bark.

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Products of Interest:
'Jardinier' garden spade
'Senlis' landscape spade
Provençal garden and transplant spade
Champagne shrub pruners