UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE BOTANIC GARDENS WINTER / SPRING 2021 Creating a Fruitful Winter Garden Alexis Bacon, former UDBG annual intern With December comes gray, bleak days, but color in commonly known as the winter landscape can help raise the spirits. Looking winterberry. Because out the window at the bright red of holly berries against winterberry shrubs gently falling snow makes planning for a colorful, fruiting are deciduous, winter garden worthwhile. Fortunately, the choices of their berries are winter-fruiting plants are abundant. Winter fruits come striking, especially in a rainbow of colors and many provide food for wildlife, against an evergreen T T especially birds. The following are several plants that will add background. As the RE F HN a touch of vibrancy to a monochromatic winter garden. iconic holly for holiday : JO PHOTO decorations, winterberry fruits When it comes to colorful winter fruit, no other plant can generally come in shades of rival the hollies. A unique holly for its vibrant red fruit red. However, the berries of IN THIS ISSUE gracefully held on long peduncles and leaves that lack spines, Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Gold’ Ilex pedunculosa does not seem like a holly at first glance. are a glorious apricot color. A Fruitful Winter Garden ..... 1,4 The evergreen leaves are smooth, shiny, and sometimes have dense, rounded shrub which Director's Corner .................. 2-3 a slightly wavy margin, bearing a resemblance to Ficus leaves. reaches around 6‒10’ tall, I. Green Matters ........................ 5 I. pedunculosa generally grows to a maximum of 20‒30 feet, verticillata ‘Winter Gold’ is a Where Are They Now? .... 6 which makes it a wonderful plant to use in the small home perfect fixture in any garden Plant Sale Highlights .......... 7 garden. I. pedunculosa is also an excellent food source for for its outstanding ornamental Around the Garden ............ 8 birds. berries. TOP: Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Another incredibly beautiful holly for stunning winter Daphniphyllum macropodum interest and superb food source for birds is Ilex verticillata, Gold’ berries provide food for is one of the only winter- hermit thrush in winter. fruiting trees that has blue Photo: Rick Darke Cont'd on pg. 4 What have we been up to over the winter? Director's Thanks to the generosity of so many of you, Andrew Adams (UDBG Horticulture Manager), has been busy marketing and collecting resumes of students interested in interning at the UDBG this summer. Unless COVID’s trending takes a wrong turn, we’ve corner been approved to host 5 students. To say we’re excited is an understatement. Like many gardens, Valann Budischak we’ve extended the right of first refusal to those Acting Director students that had been selected last year, prior to shut down. The 2021 summer experience will Winter is often a time of hibernation. You may include the installation of a Featured Plant Garden pass the winter months trying new recipes, designed by former UDBG intern, Connor Armstrong. reading an additional book or two, conquering a The students will bring a design to reality. They will few 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles, putting a dent measure, draw, and establish the beds, acquire in your pile of firewood, and joining in UDBG’s plant material, and plant both B&B and container expanded array of lectures offered via Zoom. plants. Lastly, they’ll get some hands-on curatorial Nothing prevents plant enthusiasts from gathering. experience as they learn to accession plants new However, COVID has put our winter hibernation to UDBG. We can’t wait to introduce them to you. into overdrive. Let’s be honest, we’re chomping at As artist, Andrew Wyeth, once remarked “I prefer the bit to get back out there in the garden. I hope winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure you’ve received your plant sale catalog and have in the landscape.” I couldn’t agree more. With been armchair plotting, planning, and preparing the absence of foliage, you really appreciate your shopping list. We’ve got great plants! the intricate branching of trees and shrubs. Therefore, winter is ideal for pruning. We’ve 2021 SPRING PLANT SALE CALENDAR Thursday, April 1, 12:00 p.m. Patron Online Store opens Wednesday, April 7, 4 p.m. Patron Online Store closes Thursday, April 8, 12:00 p.m. UDBG Members Online Store Openspens Tuesday, April 13, 4:00 p.m. UDBG Members Online Store Closesoses Friday, April 30, 4:30 p.m. General Public Online Store Opensens Thursday, May 6, 4:00 p.m. General Public Online Store Closesses 2 allocated one day/week to pruning and have City of Newark protocols and guidelines which limit been working our way around the garden. Based the number of people at both indoor and outdoor on the amount of time Andrew spends feeding gatherings. The number of shoppers at our sale at our chipper, we know we’re making an impact. any given time far exceeds those limits. We’ve been anticipating that this may happen, so we’ve been Planning and preparation for the 2021 trial garden planning for both scenarios since last summer. We is well-underway. After last year’s consolidation, will pivot and hold the sale the 2021 garden will online. While we can’t shop return to full capacity together in-person, we’re featuring rows of IN WINTER I PLOT AND determined to offer you the glorious colors and next best thing. You’ll love textures. Dr. Bob PLAN. IN SPRING, I MOVE. our enhanced and expanded Lyons is busy planning online store with great images the layout. Bob has ~ HENRY ROLLINS and descriptions of all our generously donated plants to ensure a pleasurable added seeds to shopping experience, augment the All-American Selections and Proven a great complement to our hardcopy Winners. Please be sure to visit this summer. catalog. We look forward to seeing you and Unfortunately, we will not be able to hold our sale loading your plant purchases in pick-up. in the traditional manner again this year. COVID still In the meantime, we wish you continued holds our world captive. Thank heavens, there’s a good health. Thanks for your support! light at the end of the tunnel. However, for everyone’s safety we need to adhere to state, university, and Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red' near the pond in the Lepidoptera Trail this winter. Photo: Rick Darke 3 Creating a Fruitful Winter Garden Cont'd from pg. 1 fruit ripening in the fall and persisting through the winter If you have ever visited the ocean in the northeast United months. Introduced to the United States in 1879, D. States, you have likely walked past many northern bayberry macropodum is still extremely rare and difficult to obtain; plants growing along the sand dunes. Morella pensylvanica generally, it is only seen at botanic gardens and in the yards (synonym Myrica pensylvanica) is a quite adaptable shrub of plant collectors. Besides its blue winter fruit, it has with the ability to thrive in poor, sandy soil and salt spray, long, shiny, evergreen leaves with strikingly red petioles and is very commonly found on the coast. It can be easily and buds. Although the flowers are easy to miss, they are identified by the spicy-sweet fragrance of its leathery, quite interesting. Female plants exhibit light green flowers bay-like leaves which derives its common name, northern in racemes, and male bayberry. Female flowers are a bit showier, plants bear occurring in raspberry- interesting small colored clusters. The gray fruits that light gray, smooth bark persist throughout contrasts with the deep the winter and green leaves beautifully. are commonly used to make Also known for their bayberry candles. all-season appeal, M. pensylvanica viburnums are excellent reaches around shrubs especially for their 5‒12 feet tall and is fall and winter fruits. a wonderful plant Native to the Northeast to grow in tough United States, Viburnum sites subject to trilobum has coarsely winter road salting. toothed, three-lobed Robin on Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Gold’. leaves similar to red Photo: Rick Darke Inspiration maples. The leaves turn abounds in the shades of yellow, orange, winter garden, red, and purple during you just have the fall. September to look closely. yields clusters of bright Although winter red berries that provide may not be the interest until they drop most vibrant, in late winter. In May, the exhilarating dark green leaves contrast season in the white lacecap flowers. garden, it offers The common name a peaceful American cranberrybush subtlety that viburnum refers to the Myrica pensylvanica berries that are used Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Gold’. other seasons do tart berries which taste in bayberry candles. Photo: John Frett Photo: Rick Darke not. Ornamental similar to cranberries. fruiting shrubs and trees are an excellent way to bring more interest and color back into your garden during the coldest The shiny purple berries that decorate the branches in part of the year. Plan for a beautiful winter garden, and, clusters on this small, native shrub give it the common if you are lucky, you will be able to reap the fruits of your name, American beautyberry. To be fair, the berries of labor. Callicarpa americana are most stunning in the fall, but often persist into early winter. The flowers C.of americana are a light lavender shade, lining the stems in summer before slowly maturing in to the fruit. C. americana grows to around 3‒8 feet tall, and has sprawling, arching branches. 4 Gleanings from Green Matters Symposium: Practical Solutions for Ecologically Sustainable Landscapes Rebecca McMakin, Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park, an 85-acre organic park in the middle of New York City (if you haven’t been, it’s worth a visit), spoke at last year’s Green Matters Symposium.