A Japanese Garden in Winter

The Malott Japanese Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Japanese gardens are all about peace, harmony and tranquility, a place for contemplation and the appreciation of nature. Trees, rocks, stone lanterns and winding paths are there to enjoy year round.

Most visitors to the Chicago Botanic Garden, though, probably visit its Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese garden in the spring and summer given our temperature swings. That's a shame because winter, at least in my opinion, is the best time to appreciate its design.

The surrounding lake is now covered with ice, providing a white backdrop for the many plants along its shoreline. Snow also sets off the twisted and pruned shapes of the trees and shrubs. And when the sun breaks through the clouds, the shadows created are all the more dramatic as a result.

Trees on Horaijima stand out against the snow.

I recently visited the Japanese garden as part of a free photo walk sponsored by the CBG on the first Saturday of every month. The sky was overcast at first, but patches of blue started peaking through in the early afternoon, lifting my spirits.   

This place officially is Sansho-en, Garden of Three Islands, designed by Dr. Koichi Kawana.

The main island, Keiunto (Island of the Auspicious Cloud) is reached by an arched wooden bridge and is connected to Seifuto (Island of Clear, Pure Breezes) by a zigzag bridge.  Both have winding paths around their perimeters and various buildings.

The third island is Horaijima (Island of Everlasting Happiness) which represents paradise, a place that can’t be reached by mortals. It is not accessible to the public although it can be seen from the other two islands and provides a lot of “borrowed” scenery, a key element in Japanese gardens.

During the rest of the year, these islands have plenty of greenery – deciduous trees and shrubs as well as bamboo and other groundcovers.  In winter, though, it’s stripped to its bare essentials. It’s a scene right out of a Japanese ink wash painting – simple, serene and striking, all at the same time.

By Karen Geisler

The north end of Keiunto as viewed from the entrance bridge.

The twisted shape of this tree is highlighted by the icy lake.

Stone lanterns and rocks are essential parts of a Japanese garden.

The shape of this tree is more easily appreciated in the winter.

"Borrowed" scenery, a common element in Japanese gardens, is everywhere.

Winter Pruning: 5 Tips for Making the Kindest Cut

It's time to do winter pruning.

With the official start of spring barely three weeks away, it’s time to get out and do some pruning. Not only is it easier to see the branch structure of a tree or shrub before the leaves emerge, but the plant will be able to heal the cuts before major pests emerge.

Still I always seem to put off my pruning because I want to make sure I'm removing just the right branches. Hey, once it's gone, it's gone. You can't glue a branch back on. Trees and shrubs are amazingly resilient though, and will recover in no time flat.

Here are five tips to help you make the kindest cut.

1)  Use a sharp, sterilized blade. You'll cause the least amount of damage to the tree or shrub. Spray rubbing alcohol on the blade between cuts to avoid spreading any disease that might be on the branch.

2)  Remove suckers, water spouts and wood that's either dead or diseased. Suckers form at the base of the trunk and need to be removed annually. Ditto for water spouts. These look like branches that head straight up from the branch. When looking for deadwood, check out the buds on the branch. They should look healthy rather than dried up or sunken. If you're not sure, take your fingernail and lightly scratch the bark. If you see green underneath, the branch is alive.

3) Remove crossing and rubbing branches. This is tough because you often have to cut living wood. It's important, though, to create a good structure for the tree or shrubs. Think of the framework used to build a house. You're trying to do the same thing. Think line drawing.

4) Prune, don't shear. When many people want to shape or limit the height of a tree or shrubs, they simply cut off the tips of the branches. A rounded shape or a flat-topped hedge is usually the result. This process is called shearing and you'll soon be back in the same situation because a cut spurs growth at the spot where it occurs. The resulting dense growth also will keep sun from getting to the inside of the plant and all the foliage there will die as a result. The solution? Remove some of the branches all the way down to the ground. If you do cut the branch tips after that, stagger the branch lengths so it looks more natural.  Do not remove more than one-third of the plant in a given year or you'll weaken it.

5) Removing a large branch requires three or four cuts, not one. The first cut should be on the bottom of the branch about 18 inches from the trunk. The second will be an inch farther away from the trunk and on top of the branch. Keep going until the branch breaks free. The final cut should be at the branch collar, a swelling where the branch meets the trunk. Don't get too close to the trunk. No flush cuts! And no, don't put paint on the wound. Both of these interfere with the plant's natural healing process.

A word of caution: The best time to prune a flowering tree or shrub is right after it has bloomed. That said, you can do some pruning this time of year if you want a better view of the branch structure. Just remember that you'll be cutting off some of your blooms if your tree or shrub flowers in the spring.

Don't laugh. I once talked with a gardener who complained that his forsythias never, ever bloomed -- no matter what he did. Turned out he was pruning them every winter, removing every single flower bud in the process. Was his face red!

A final suggestion: If you have any concerns about a tree or large shrub, check with a certified arborist. Many problems can be prevented with proper care by a trained professional.

By Karen Geisler

Snow, Glorious Snow

Snow. Great big white flakes of it tumbling to the ground. Steadily. And for hours at a time. When you’re still in or recovering from a drought, there’s no more glorious sight for a gardener.

The Chicago area finally had its first major snowstorm of the year last Thursday with accumulations up to 9” in some places. Yes, we’ve had some rain in the past month but much of that has run off the still-frozen ground. This snow, when it melts, should help the garden get ready for that early spring predicted by the groundhog. 

I know the snow accumulations we got are nowhere near those dumped on the Northeast during a blizzard this weekend. I'm hoping, though, that the impact follows a pattern similar to ours.

First day: Horrendous.
 

 

Second day: The snow actually starts to look pretty. Then the kids get out and start having lots of fun. Snowmen pop up everywhere. A large city park where teenagers were running cross country a few months ago becomes a major sledding hill – packed with people of all sizes and shapes.

Temperatures warmed up today and melted much of the snow, lessening its beauty somewhat. But before it did, I went for a walk in a wooded area near my home as well as the city park mentioned above. I needed to get some photographs just in case it takes another two years to get such a storm.

Here's hoping the Northeast gets back to normal soon.

By Karen Geisler

 

 

 

 

Ten Steps to Great Winter Containers

 

With the start of December, it's time to go full speed ahead on everything Christmas -- even if the temperatures in Chicago are near 60 degrees. For me, that means decorating the front door with a container full of fresh evergreen branches.

I still customize and hang a wreath as I've done for more Christmases than I'd care to admit. A winter container garden, though, is a recent addition and has proven to be a nice complement.  It was a bit intimidating at first, but with a few helpful hints from my co-workers, the pots have started looking better and better.

Tip #1 -- Use many different types of evergreens. Spruce and pine are all well and good, but other evergreens can add different colors, textures and fragrance. The more the merrier!

Tip #2 -- Use topsoil, not potting soil, in your winter container. Topsoil is heavier and therefore much better at holding evergreen stems upright.

Tip #3 -- Make it your own. Add berries and other natural materials. Throw some glitter in the mix. Or omit red to make it more of a generic winter pot. It's all up to you.

Below is the official Chalet Nursery winter container "recipe" formulated by horticulturalist Jennifer Brennan. Its 10 easy steps will help you add a classy touch to your home's entrance in no time flat.

Ingredients:            Spruce tops, small or medium

      White pine tips

      Noble fir tips

      Port Orford cedar

Blueberry juniper

Incense cedar

Winterberry and red twig dogwood 

Tools needed:         Top soil, placed in container and watered

                                    Polyurethane container

                                    Pruning shears
                                    Wire cutters

                                    Wilt-Pruf

 

Step by step directions:
 

1. Select a spruce top that is twice the height of your container and insert into the middle of the container.
2. Insert 3 more spruce tops that are shorter than the first, placing one in each third of the surrounding area. This is your “foundation,” the basic form of your arrangement.
3. Select 5 white pine cuttings to insert through out the spruce top foliage for texture and color variation.
4. Add 3-5 Noble fir tips.
5. Accent with 3-5 Port Orford cedar tips for an arching soft shape and for the lemon scent it provides.
6. Place 3-5 incense cedar tips throughout the arrangement to accent with the yellow color; one in the middle of the arrangement, 1-2 cascading over the edge of the pot, and 1 echoing the central spruce top.
7. Do the same with blueberry juniper if desired.
8. Use 5 redtwig dogwood stems as color extensions, placed throughout the arrangement.
9. Place 3 winterberry stems for the final accent. Use as you would use lipstick – the focal point, to draw the eye into the most interesting part of the arrangement. You can also add pine cones, lotus pods, eucalyptus and other materials.
10. Spray the entire arrangement with Wilt-Pruf (to prevent drying) and place outside to enjoy until March.

Yes, that's right -- March. A few branches may turn brown, but most of the arrangement should last until you can almost smell spring in the air. For the best results, try planting some miniature evergreen trees in your pots and generously water them in.

In the picture above, I kept the arrangement low because my container, the base on an old fountain, was shallow and already pretty high. It includes white pine, Noble fir, Port Orford cedar, incense cedar, red twig dogwood, huckleberry stems, seeded eucalyptus, lotus pods and some red balls.

A note about containers: Use one made of metal, resin, plastic or concrete. If you use ceramic or terra cotta, it could crack if the soil has water in it and freezes.

Picture below are some pictures of winter container gardens done by Chalet. How do you decorate your front door for the holidays?

 

 

By Karen Geisler

To Cut, or Not to Cut

To cut, or not to cut: that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the garden to suffer

The stalks and seedheads of outrageous foliage,

Or to take pruners against a sea of dead leaves

And by cutting end them?

 -- With apologies to William Shakespeare

Hamlet’s got nothing on me, at least when it comes to cutting back the garden each fall. I’m always of two minds.

Should I leave the foliage of my perennials and ornamental grasses up all winter? Or should I cut them all down?

I fell in love with the look of seedheads and ornamental grasses in winter after reading the books of Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf. The Lurie Garden in downtown Chicago, where he designed the perennial plantings, is an excellent example.

Ornamental  grasses along with my evergreens provide some much needed structure in the winter landscape. I also love the way the grass foliage can wave in the wind and cast shadows on the snow.

Seedheads provide food for the birds in the winter. Coneflowers (Echinacea ssp.) especially seem to be popular with my feathered friends. There’s generally nothing left on them by the time spring arrives even though I regularly stock two bird feeders.

Coneflower seedheads in the winter garden

The foliage can provide shelter to birds and other living creatures as the cold weather finally arrives. In addition, it insulates the crowns on plants I’ve added in the past season. The survival rate in my garden has definitely improved by waiting until spring to cut everything down to the ground.

With this year’s drought, though, the question of whether to cut is proving to be more problematic than usual. The remains of my peonies, for example, don’t look good – with black spots over large portions. I’m going to cut them off and bag them, just in case it’s due to a disease or fungus. Leaving them up would only compound any problem.

I'm also thinking about pruning everything around my bulbs and spring bloomers. Because the weather got so warm so early last spring, I didn't get a chance to cut down the clutter around them until they were already up and growing fast. Spring clean up was much more difficult than usual as a result.

I know that my catmint (Nepeta x faassenii  'Walker's Low), a sprawler if ever there was one, could easily stand one more "haircut" this year. Ditto for my daylilies.

Prairie dropseed foliage in the winter garden

Then there’s the question of my soil. Although I put lots of compost in my clay soil initially, I haven’t done it for a few years now. Boy, could you tell during the drought this last summer. Some newer beds especially fared poorly.

My garden obviously needs more organic matter and fall is a good time to do it. That way, the compost or other material can break down over the winter, just in time to provide nutrients to my plants in the spring. Besides, spring usually is too wet to work with clay soil. (At least I can hope that will be the case after this year's drought.)

Amending the soil will be difficult unless I cut down most, if not all of the foliage in some areas. At this point, I’m waiting for a soil sample to come back before making a decision. It might be a case where, as Hamlet said, I must be cruel only to be kind.

I've been lucky so far because the weather has turned a bit warmer, allowing me to hold off making a decision. I 'd like to do something before the snow flies, which probably won’t be long now. Let’s just hope it doesn't turn out to be, as another Shakespeare character once noted, the winter of our discontent.

By Karen Geisler

Winter Redux



Witchhazel blooming in the snow

Just when you think it is safe to start getting out in the garden again, Mother Nature always seems to remind you who's boss.

This winter has been extremely mild in Chicago and there was no snow left when a major storm hit yesterday. This is the result. Of course, the temperature is supposed to reach 57 degrees by Tuesday, so it will all be gone soon.

Meanwhile, the heavy wet snow has crushed what's left of my ornamental grasses and weighed down the boughs of my (formerly) columnar white pine. It has coated each and every branch and twig with an icy reminder of what this winter should have been but wasn't.

I've always thought it appropriate that March was named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It seems like winter and spring are constantly sparring this month to see who will get the upper hand. Winter always loses but that doesn't stop their constant bickering.

All I can do at this point is sit back and watch the battle begin.

By Karen Geisler

A Winter Walk in the Lurie Garden

The Chicago skyline from the Lurie Garden

The Lurie Garden, with its New Wave mix of native perennials and ornamental grasses, is a popular attraction on Chicago's lakefront. About 1 million visitors ramble its paths annually. You'll see very few of them in February, though, due to the Windy City's often brutal and unpredictable winters.

This year has been different, with temperatures that have seemed downright balmy, so I decided to take a guided walk offered by the garden this past weekend. While the views might have been improved with a touch of snow or frost, there was still plenty to take in.

 


Wild quinine

Colors ranged from the grey of mountain mint to the red of Moorhexe moor grass to the light tan of prairie dropseed. They were punctuated throughout by the spiky seedheads of cone flowers and rattlesnake master. And when the wind blew, the dried leaves of the European beech trees and the Northern sea oat grasses rustled softly.



Rattlesnake master intertwined with Russian sage

All of this is framed by the Chicago skyline, the Art Institute’s Modern Wing and Lake Michigan. Yet, thanks to its “Shoulders” -- a large hedge of arborvitae, beech and hornbeam-- the site is peaceful and serene. It's a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle of everyday life as well as the rest of Millenium Park.



Culver's root



Ornamental onion  'Summer Beauty'

There are "communities" here as the various plants intermingle and weave a tapestry of sorts. Some of the subleties now apparent in planting plan by Dutch designer Piet Oudolf actually may have been lost in the snow most winters.



Bottle gentian, Russian sage and Culver's root

Horticulturalist Laura Young, who led Saturday's walk, said the garden is being effected by this year’s warmer-than-usual temperatures. The Lenten roses, for example, have already bloomed -- a couple of months ahead of schedule.  The chickweed (unfortunately) is doing well and needs to be pulled.

The garden, usually mowed during the first week of March, also may get its annual haircut a bit earlier this year as a result. So if you want to see the winter garden in all its glory, you probably should go sooner rather than later.  I hope it will inspire you, as it did me, to add more winter interest to your garden this summer using native plants.
 


Rattlesnake master silhouetted by the
Modern Wing of the Art Institute

The view to the north

Latin names:
Arborvitae                    Thuja occidentalis
Beech, European         Fagus sylvatica
Bottle gentian              Gentiana andrewsii
Cone flower                 Echinacea
Culver's root                Veronicastrum virginicum
Hornbeam                   Carpinus betulus
Lenten rose                  Helleborus orientalis
Moor grass                   Molina caerulea
Mountain mint            Pycnanthemum muticum
Northern sea oats        Chasmanthium latifolium
Ornamental onion      Allium lusitanicum syn A. 'Summer Beauty'
Prairie dropseed           Sporobolis heterolepsis
Rattlesnake master      Eryngium yuccifolium
Russian sage                Perovskia atriplicifolia
Wild quinine                Parthenium integrifolium

For a complete list of plants in the Lurie Garden, click here.

By Karen Geisler

A Frosty Morning

Jack Frost visited my garden last night. I was beginning to worry that he had forgotten all about me. It’s already mid-December and I haven’t seen any sign of him. Until now, that is.

When I awoke this morning, the white pine in my back border looked as if it had been flocked like an indoor Christmas tree. In fact all of the evergreens had been touched with Jack's frosty brush.

Jack didn't play favorites, though. Oh no. He spread his magic around the garden, from the tallest tree....

...to the perennials...

...and the grasses as well.

But Jack's magic didn't last long.  By midday, the sun had melted all traces of his visit much to my dismay. Here’s hoping you come back soon, Jack. The garden is waiting.

By Karen Geisler