Coppice wood3/21/2023 ![]() ![]() A shrub that is cut back hard responds with vigorous new growth. ![]() The English have been growing shrubs and cutting them back hard with the express purpose of harvesting the branches for fencing for centuries. ![]() Dogwood which is grown for branches is at some point cut back near to the ground. Spring Meadow Farms has been instrumental in offering great new cultivars of vibrantly barked shrubs to nurseries. New cultivars of dogwood sport clearer and more intense color than the species. Cut from the garden, this dogwood has small branchlets, and cream colored growth scars. The species red twig dogwood is dull and dark red. This color and bark texture destined to last throughout the winter- so welcome. The red bud pussy willow has a glossy dark red brown bark, and red orange buds. The flame willow is the color of cinnamon. The curly copper willow is a yellowy orange. The dogwood branches have glossy bark in a variety of shades of red and yellow. Our shipment of cut branches arrived a few days ago. I am fortunate that there are farmers in this country that grow certain species of shrubs and trees from which they harvest cut branches. Lacking that kind of space does not mean that I have to do without some winter color. Given a large property, I could have swaths of red and yellow twig dogwood, groves of bungeana pine, a group of London planes, and all manner of interesting willows. I run up against the limits of the space all the time. Planning a landscape for winter interest is a good idea in my zone. This means that the shrubs and trees that sport bark with great color are of great interest. For every gardener unwilling to go quiet, the branches, twigs and poles available late in the fall can offer a new lease on a garden life.įor those gardeners who live in more northerly zones, the time between the last of the fall leaves and the spring crocus can be a very long time indeed. So much brown! The garden is going quiet. The bark of the linden is a gray variation of brown. The natural birch branches, honeysuckle vine rolls, grapevine deer, wood crates and pumpkins in the above picture are one shade of brown or another. Once those leaves fall, the landscape takes on a much more subdued and subtle palette. The green of the evergreen shrubs and trees is all the more intense by contrast with the colors sported by the leaves of deciduous plants. From the asparagus to the sweet gums, color is in the air. The most glorious color award in the landscape must surely go to the fall season. ![]()
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