Winter can feel so devoid of color. There are no flowers blooming, the deciduous trees and shrubs are bare. The grass is no longer green. But that same grass is now a butterscotch gold against the snow. The branches of deciduous shrubs sometimes develop an even deeper color in the cold that is unveiled with the loss of leaves.
The following three photos are of various willows that I see along my weekly and sometimes daily drives. I purposely look for these patches of yellow, peach and red stems- bright pops of color in an otherwise gray and white world. Willows are in the genus Salix. I decided not to attempt to identify those in these photos to species– willows can be difficult and there are no flowers or leaves to help.
(I don’t even notice them in the summer)
Another very popular shrub grown in many gardens all over the world, is red-twig dogwood. It is popular because of the bright color of the stems, especially against the snow. We have a native species, Cornus sericea. It can be found growing on the gravelly banks of rivers.
Willows and red twig dogwood are riparian plants, which means they grow in wetlands along rivers, streams and other bodies of water. In the winter it may be difficult to tell them apart.
What are some plants that brighten up your winter landscape?