Grey winter days are much more cheerful if you can look out of your window and see bright berries, colourful stems or decorative twisted branches. This is just as possible for smallspace gardeners as it is for people with large spaces.
But small-space gardeners find these joyful scenarios easier to obtain if they choose compact trees. However, I've seen people keeping non-compact trees to a very dwarf size on cramped townhouse patios. Their secret is simply frequent snipping and pruning.
One of the loveliest trees for winters colour is the hawthorn. These flower prolifically in spring with flowers in white or various shades of pink. Red berries follow, which usually last past Christmas but by New Year's begin to be eaten by birds once frost has softened them.
This tree has beautiful bark: grey, craggy and fissured. Because there are many kinds of hawthorn, it's best to make sure exactly what you're getting. Thorns can be an issue with some species.
Another useful tree is the European Spindleberry (Euonymus europea). Heads of small white spring flowers become dense clusters of bright pink fruit that split open to reveal orange seeds. Towhees love to do acrobatics in this tree, hanging upside down as they try to eat the seeds.
Hollies are another tree where red (sometimes yellow) berries last into the New Year. By January, the branches become a feeding station for birds and squirrels. Most hollies grow huge and are difficult to prune if you wish to keep the berrying branches.
But the Blue Hollies are slow-growing and well adapted to small spaces. Male and female forms can be planted in the same hole and the scattering of red berries they produce is as much of a Christmas delight as the larger forms. Blue Boy, Blue Angel and Blue Girl are three of the most popular.
Equally lovely berries can be found on pyracantha. This shrub is evergreen, responds beautifully to pruning and produces big clusters of bee-friendly white flowers that become red, orange or yellow berries.
Birds love these berries- and people who want pyracantha berries to remain in their garden over Christ-mas will find their chances better if they choose yellow-berried forms.
Once leaves fall, trees with contorted branches are quite spectacular-and even more so when snow lodges in the waves and spirals.
Three of the most popular are Contorted Hazel (Corylus avelana 'contorta'), Contorted Willow (Salix matsudana tortuosa) and Robinia pseudacacia Twisty Baby. All can grow into large trees if they're not cut back regularly, but pruning can trigger suckering problems with the hazel and the robinia.
Suckering doesn't seem to be an issue with contorted willow. The cultivars Golden Curls with yellow twisted branches, and Red Curls with red spirals are especially beautiful.
For bright stems and easy pruning, gardeners might prefer the native Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) or the yellow form (Cornus stolonifera Flaviramea).
These need to be sheared to the ground in spring. The new stems that emerge will have bright colours.
Since these are native, they're easy to keep happy. If you cut only half of the stems each year the older ones will produce heads of white flowers in spring followed by white berries in fall.
Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions. Send them to amarrison@ shaw.ca.
