Winter garden

Snow transforms a garden into something more than summer flowers or fall color. The winter garden becomes form and shape, blanketed with monotonous white. Each plant declares its right to permanence, digging in and staying for the winter.

Some plants take it with a grain of salt. "We are built for this; we were born ready!" 'Tiny Towers' italian cypress stand at attention, decked in red lights. Green hellebores with their nodding heads bow to the cold. "Bring it on!"
Others, like my dwarf fuchsia 'Tom Thumb' seem caught off guard, still displaying blossoms now frosty and frigid. Phormium with its thick agave-like blades, now lined with snow sits there wishing for warmer days. The bare branches get their chance to shine. 'NO snow can laden me down...hahaha....I have no leaves!" What once was only brown sticks now are transformed to provide contrast with the glaring brightness of white. My neighbor's Forest Pansy redbud is absolutely gorgeous with snow on the branches...such layering can only be nature's handy work. And there are those who are hanging on to fall for dear life. The Japanese maple has ONE single solitary red leaf at the end of one branch absolutely refusing to senescence.

A winter garden is a whole different view of the plants we see all year. They are stripped bare, exposed, and raw...then covered, added to, dusted with precipitation that just may stay around for a while.

I appreciate every season in Portland because we get a little bit of it all here: beaches and mountains, lush valleys and high desert, winter snow and summer sun.

Winter protection for plants

With some colder temperatures heading our way a little earlier than normal this year, I thought it would be good to send out a reminder that some plants require some winter protection if temperatures dip below freezing.

Hebes and Phormiums (New Zealand Flax) are not as hardy as some other plants and easily sustain damage with temperature below 20-25 degrees. New plantings can be susceptible to winter damage as well regardless of actual hardiness because their root systems are not mature yet. Above ground plantings such as containers are also more susceptible as their root systems are above ground without insulation of the soil.

It only takes a little precaution to save your plantings. For Hebes and the like, I drape an old blanket over the plant, tucking the folds of the blanket around the root system. You can set a cardboard box over them. Hay bales, bubble pack, burlap sacks..anything that provides blanket like insulation. This is often enough to provide a ten degree differential between the outside air and the plant. You will not want to leave them on for extended periods of time. I try and remove them during the day and put them back on at night. If the day temps stay low as well, you can leave them for 3-4 days before the plant(s) start to resent it.

For new plantings, you can drape whole sheets, blankets, or tarps over entire areas securing them down with rocks or other heavy materials. Small evergreen perennials and broadleaf evergreens would be my focus as the conifers and deciduous plants are hardier and more dormant, thus able to survive teen temperatures more easily.


For containers, move them right up against the house or into your garage if you can. For your prized containers, wrap the base of the pot with the above mentioned materials (blanket, tarp, boxes). Cluster groupings of the pots together so they can insulate eachother.

I know it is a pain to do all this, but it will be worth it to protect your investment(s). Good luck, and may the frost be with you!