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Winter Garden Color
Heritage river birch
Add Color to Your Winter Yard
While most plants hibernate through the long Heartland winters, some trees and shrubs add color and contrast to snow-covered yards. Frosty favorites such as red-berried hollies, burgundy-stemmed dogwoods and 80-foot-tall birches, with peeling shards of bark, can wake up stark, napping landscapes.
Ethan Johnson, plant records curator at the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio (about 25 miles east of Cleveland), recommends five shrubs and trees to brighten winter. All grow at the 3,400-acre arboretum, where temperatures may dip to 10 degrees below zero and snowfall can reach up to 100 inches.
For each choice, we include USDA hardiness zones (see link below). The trees and shrubs, which you can buy at garden centers, grow in zones indicated and areas farther south.
