The Master Gardener’s Bookshelf
The Winter Garden: Celebrating the Forgotten Season by Naomi Slade
Review by Susan Wilhelm, Extension Master Gardener
When thinking about gardens, the first thing that often comes to mind is spring or summer gardens with their blooming flowers and abundant foliage. Winter gardens, however, also have their own special beauty. The Winter Garden: Celebrating the Forgotten Season by Naomi Slade, is a love letter with beautiful photography that celebrates the winter garden, and an inspiring guide to creating your own vibrant winter landscape.
Slade says that the beauty of a winter garden comes from different features than those in gardens in other seasons. Rather than the greens and floral colors of spring or summer gardens, the winter garden primarily highlights the beauty and structure of dormant plants. Trees and woody plants that have lost their leaves provide structure, grasses left standing add texture and movement, and berries, textured bark, or colored stems provide additional interest.
Like any garden, the winter garden requires careful planting. Slade states “A good winter garden may be effortlessly strong in other seasons, but the reverse it less likely to be true: a garden that is outstanding in the summer is far less likely to put on a stellar performance in the winter without some considerable planning behinds the scenes. So it is crucial to think about how the planting scheme is going to look when the garden is not at its conventional peak.” For example, one might plant evergreens as a backdrop to enhance the colored stems or berries of other plants.
Slade notes that winter gardens are not limited to ornamental landscapes but can include vegetable gardens or prairie gardens. And, like their spring/summer counterparts, winter plants with strong stems are suitable for cutting for indoor arrangements.
The Winter Garden provides detailed information on how to create a winter garden, addressing traditional design elements such as light, hardscapes, focal points, and planting for structure and texture. Slade describes strategies for using bulbs and containers to add color and includes helpful suggestions. For instance, many perennials, shrubs, and trees are available as dormant bare root plants in winter/early spring. Dormant bare root plants are less expensive and require less maintenance when first planted. She also addresses other considerations such as weather and climate change.
Slade is based in Great Britian and the plants she recommends are generally available in the United States. However, with a few exceptions such as Panicum virgatum (Switchgrass), they are usually not native to Northern Virginia. Readers may consult resources such as the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia’s Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic to learn about native alternatives with winter interest such as yellow stems of a Ceanothus americanus (New Jersey Tea) or the red berries of Ilex verticillata (Winterberry).
The Winter Garden: Celebrating the Forgotten Season (DK Publishing, First American Edition 2023) is beautifully written with wonderful photos. You can find it at the Arlington Public Library, the Fairfax County Public Library, and national booksellers.
Want to learn more about designing and caring for winter landscapes? Check out these resources:
- Beautiful Native Plants: The Stars of Winter Video Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia
- Beautiful Winter Gardens presented by Supervisory Horticulturist James Gagliardi, Smithsonian Institution Let’s Talk Gardens Video Library.
- Native Plants for Winter Interest Elaine Mills, Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia
- Winter: Caring for Your Native Plants Garden Elaine Mills, Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia
Enjoy these images of the winter garden taken by Extension Master Gardeners Mary Free and Elaine Mills.
Note: Click on images to see enlarged photos, captions, and photo attributions.
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