By Karen Edgington
Each week, Signal Akron will help you in your gardening adventures with an excerpt from "The Root of It," a monthly newsletter from the Summit County Master Gardeners, Ohio State University Extension.
Annuals are toast, perennials asleep, shrub and tree branches bare. What a great time to look at garden beds with fresh eyes.
Are the bones in place? Without some evergreen help, beds that are lush during the growing season may be bare-ground-boring during the cold half of the year.
Evergreen (conifer) ground covers are garden work horses, providing year-round textural display. Junipers, low-growing staples, are tough and carefree. But if you’re thinking, “That is so then,” beautiful new cultivars have hit the market.
Check out chartreuse All Gold (Juniperus conferta ‘All Gold’) and Tortuga (Juniperus communis ‘Tortuga’) with its wispy, even fluffy, demeanor.
If you haven’t already met, I’d like to introduce you to a few other outstanding conifer ground covers.
Meet Hillside Creeper Scotch Pine (Pinus sylvestris ‘Hillside Creeper’). This gem offers undulating, ground-hugging branches with blue-green needles. As Scotch pines age, their rust-hued bark exfoliates — just beautiful!
Then there’s Ground Hugger White Pine (Pinus strobus ‘Ground Hugger’). The long, wispy needles of white pines add grace to any garden. The low growth of this one makes it a showstopper.
The spruce family offers Gold Drift Norway Spruce (Picea abies ‘Gold Drift’). Often staked and used as a vertical specimen, when it’s left to ramble, Gold Drift makes a striking ground cover. Lime green foliage in early spring turns to vibrant yellow during late spring and summer, providing a great pop of color.
Russian arborvitae (Microbiota decussata) isn’t an arborvitae at all, and has been around for ages. You may know it as Siberian cypress. Its wispy branches and carefree nature make it a great addition to the border. And, it grows in shade as well as sun. What’s not to like?
As the demand for smaller-scale conifers grows, more and more diminutive cultivars will be developed. Yes, they are harder to find, and you may need to ask your nurseryman to procure them for you or grab them online.
Yes, they are slower growing than their deciduous cousins, but in the plant world patience is the name of the game. Now’s the time to check out your garden beds and see where you could use some conifer help.