Bones of the Winter Landscape Nature Hike

Sunday afternoon, January 15 provided an unseasonably mild day for our Bones of the Winter Landscape Hike on the Byron Shutz Nature Trail.  Betsy Betros, local naturalist and butterfly book author, took the following pictures of our hike and I thought I would share this "nature of" Powell Gardens experience here.



We began our tour at the Visitor Center and talked about the beautiful evergreen Southern Magnolias at Powell Gardens and that the Gardens has been designated an official magnolia collection of the North American Plant Collection Consortium by the American Public Gardens Association. 

We looked at the tapestry of deciduous and evergreen shrubs along with winter grasses left standing and how they are all excellent examples of the "bones" of the winter landscape.

The sky was beautifully blue and the temperature approaching 60F.  You can tell by our long shadows that we are not quite a month past the winter solstice.  It is amazing how this backlit landscape looks entirely different than the picture above.

We stopped to talk about one of our fallen giant tree: a Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata) that we are allowing to decompose in place.  The tree fell right across the trail and we made a cut at that point so visitors could count the rings of the tree ( approximately 92) and see all the interesting fungi that are returning the tree back to Earth.

We talked about the Osage Orange or Hedge Trees (Maclura pomifera) along the trail.  It was a rare tree when settlers arrived in the Midwest -- first brought back to the East by the Lewis & Clark Expedition.  The tree was on its way to extinction when we discovered a use for it beyond the Native Americans premier wood source for bows (The French explorers called it Bos'd Arc).  The tree was soon widely planted as a living fence throughout the Midwest before the invention of barbed wire and old hedgerows of it can still be experienced along the trail.

We found this abandoned American Goldfinch nest with 2 eggs still intact.  Goldfinches are one our last birds to nest and we pondered why this one still had unbroken and unpierced eggs in it.  Bird and Squirrel nests, cocoons of moths and even a butterfly chrysalis shell were discovered along the walk in the January bare and dormant landscape.

The trail crosses areas we have restored the remnant native prairie in with help from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation.  The wintertime native, warm-season grasses were in beautiful hues from brunette to blond.

Cattails (Typha latifolia) with their fluffy seed heads and Lotus (Nelumbo lutea) frozen in ice grace the Clay Pond along the high ridge of the trail.  What an odd place for a pond!  It is simply spectacular when the lotus are in bloom from mid to late summer.

The trail passes through an old orchard that now has become a naturalized pine woods complete with the scents and sounds so indicative of such a place.   

Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana) makes up most of our pine grove.  It is a bushy pine with short needles and abundant prickly cones whose seeds are great for winter birds.  This pine is somewhat susceptible to pine wilt that is killing all our Scotch pines in the landscape.

Here's one of the old Loblolly Pines (Pinus taeda) admired by the hike participants.  This pine has very long needles and is very tolerant of our wet or dry clay soils and has also naturalized extensively in our "pine woods."  This is one of the farthest north places this normally Southern tree grows on its own. (see the little pine seedlings in the foreground and larger "teenager" pines behind it)  It's only problem is that the long needles collect ice and make it susceptible to ice storm damage.
The final leg of the hike returned to the Visitor Center while admiring emerging blooms of Vernal Witchhazel in the Rock & Waterfall Garden and Snowdrops blooming on the Island Garden.  Everyone got a good workout and I hope learned more about our winter landscape.  February's hike will focus on birds and the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Powell Gardens staff lead walks and hikes at the Garden's trails each month from January through April.  Stephanie Acers, Youth Education Coordinator leads a Family Fun Walk on our mile-long short loop nature trail while Alan Branhagen, Director of Horticulture, leads a Season Highlights hike on the 3.25 mile Byron Shutz Nature Trail that transverses the wilds of our 970 acre site.  If you are interested in learning more about the "nature" of Powell Gardens, attend one of these hikes -- see our Garden Culture or visit our website www.powellgardens.org or call Linda Burton at 816-697-2600 x209 to register.

A Sample of Colorful Evergreens from Powell Gardens

Plants with evergreen foliage are a mainstay of the winter garden.  But how many of these plants are truly green?  The term evergreen means they hold their foliage through the winter but the wintertime foliage can be in almost any hue!  Here's a look at some of the evergreen plants around the Visitor Center which offers an exceptional collection of evergreens as it was designed to be a sort of winter garden for folks who didn't want to walk to far to see the beauty of the gardens on a cold winter's day.

Nandina domestica 'Blush Pink' offers about the wildest color one can have this season on a dwarf or compact shrub.  The winter color of this shrub is fiery fall red -- its pink in the summertime. 

Nandina domestica 'Obsession' also offers a wonderful blend of winter color with red-bronze-purple hued foliage.



 Nandina domestica 'Flirt' is a very compact grower with a more overall purple hue now.  All three of these mini-shrub Nandinas are part of the Southern Living Shrub Collection's zone 6 hardy varieties which were all donated to Powell Gardens for trial.  So far these are tough shrubs surviving last summer's ferocious heat and drought just fine.  These 3 varieties can be seen around the Visitor Center trolley stop.

Here's a grouping of native Eastern Redcedars (Juniperus virginiana) that were dug from the wild and planted as a screen to the Visitor Center's parking lot.  Native male Eastern Redcedars like these three have orange-colored pollen cones on them in winter that will release dusty yellow pollen in spring.  Many gardeners don't care for this color of evergreen in the wintertime but we feel it is part of the natural color scheme to our local landscape -- the "Spirit of Place" we try to capture at Powell Gardens.

These are a grouping of a 'Oxford' Eastern Redcedars which is a cultivar selected in southern Kansas for its greener foliage in winter.  It is a female cultivar so has some of the blue, berry-like cones that are so nice to adorn the plant in wintertime and ofter a major food source to wildlife.  You can eat these cones too, sometimes they have a sweet burst of flavor to begin with but always end with a strong gin aftertaste.  Yep, gin is flavored with juniper "berries."

Cannaertii Eastern Redcedars are another Kansas selection of our only native evergreen.  Canaertii Junipers are also female and have wonderful open branching patterns that are so striking in the winter landscape.  The trees on the right side of this shot are a bit lopsided because of severe deer browse on their leeward side.   

This evergreen (but yellow-leaved at all seasons) is the Golden Japanese Sweetflag (Acorus gramineus 'Ogon').  It is a very underutilized perennial groundcover that really does add a bright spot in the landscape throughout the year.  This mass is just northeast of the Visitor Center right along the main path.

Here's one of the greenest evergreens I could find: a Southern Magnolia (M. grandiflora) grown from a cutting off the Greater Kansas City champion.  This is certainly one of the hardiest Southern Magnolias anywhere and does grow as a sturdy, relatively compact plant despite its unsheltered site south of the Visitor Center.

The wonderful red-purple hues and rugose texture of this Leatherleaf Viburnum (V. x rhitidophylloides) make it one of our favorite huge shrubs for winter interest.  The foliage holds well through mild winters but this shrub can become more deciduous after a harder winter like last year.  Look for these big shrubs below the Visitor Center's Conservatory.

Rhododendron 'PJM' has some of the nicest dark, almost chocolate purple leaves of any hardy shrub that grows well here.  On cold, sub-freezing days the leaves roll up -- rolling up tightly during severe cold and giving the plant an entirely different look.  I think of it as a living thermometer in winter as the leaves unfurl as the temperature returns to above freezing.

This is the fabulous foliage of the Redboor Kale (Brassica oleracea) which holds beautifully down to temperatures around 10F or above.  It is naturally a biennial where completely hardy but since we are usually colder than zone 8, it often dies or the foliage is killed by our winters.  We would love to see this mild winter continue as all the kale look great right now.  We also have blooming pansies and a few spring bulbs already out!

Come out to Powell Gardens for a New Years hike and enjoy some of the beautiful evergreens that adorn the grounds.  The biggest collection is around the Visitor Center but there are marvelous varieties to be seen from the Heartland Harvest Garden to the Perennial Garden and even  a plethora of winter colors along the Byron Shutz Nature Trail.  Consider staying fit by walking outdoors as often as you can this winter, and may our mild winter continue!

The Holiday Season's Garden

Powell Gardens is brimming with flowers, foliage and fruit that make this season bright.

The Conservatory and its Victorian-themed palate is full of unique Poinsettias and companion plants in a beautiful design by Horticulturist Anne Wildeboor. Here Poinsettia 'Winter Rose Marble' & 'Premium White' is set off by Diamond Frost Euphorbia and Pink Polka-dot Plant. If you are in the market for unique poinsettias, Perennial Gifts (our gift shop) will have these for sale for you to take home.

Outside the last of the season greens are part of our masterful foliage display playing off their leave's beautiful colors and textures. This marvelous array of edibles was designed by Horticulturist Matt Bunch in the Heartland Harvest Garden's Villandry Quilt Garden in front of the barn. From left to right the mustard greens varieites are: 'Golden Frill', 'Purple Rain', 'Green Wave' and 'Garnet Giant.'

No, the gardening season does not end with a freeze! Many of the "greens" of the fall garden hold well into December with some kale hardy to near 10F. Make sure to walk to the barn on your Powell Gardens visit to see some of these beautiful compositions and be sure and hike (or ride on the elevator) up to the top of the silo for a bird's eye overview of the landscape.

No, this is not a "beached" starfish but a gorgeous bed of greens (purple 'Garnet Giant' mustard and green tops of radishes)

in the Villandry Garden. The unique fringed edge are 'Chinese Ornamental' peppers which, though killed by a freeze, create a gorgeous border in the winter landscape.

The screaming red berries of the Possumhaw or Deciduous Holly (Ilex decidua) always warm the soul on a winter garden walk. All berried hollies are female and require a male pollinator -- when we planted this fruiting plant in the Perennial Garden we forgot to plant a pollinator and it still fruited! I thought we might have the first self-fruitful possumhaw but then we discovered a wild male plant in the woods nearby.

This Prairie Rose (Rosa setigera) in the Apple Celebration Court is also loaded with beautiful deep red hips. It is a companion planting to the apples and makes the garden beautiful all through winter.

Prickly-pears like this wild Bigroot Prickly Pear (Opuntia macrorhiza) draping over the living wall on the Island Garden are great for winter interest in the garden. The companion reddish foliage is from the Hardy Plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) used as a colorful companion plant.

The Island Garden is choc full of neat foliage plant treats like this Angelina Sedum (Sedum reflexum) which in winter has orange hi-lights.

Angelina Sedum combines well with other evergreen plants like silver Santolina (back left), Candytuft (back right) and fine forest green creeping thyme (front left) and rich green six-sided sedum (front right). All these grow on top of the Island Garden's living wall.

Snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii) have already made their appearance on the Island Garden! Perhaps the severe drought of fall followed by copious rains fooled them into thinking it was spring. At any rate we sure enjoy these cold hardy, floral gems whenever they appear.

Sweet Violets (Viola odorata) are also in bloom with their intensely sweet perfume. They are awesome edible flowers with a sweet floral taste that can really make a salad sing in this season.
These were photographed on the east side of the Island Garden but they are also sweetening up the Kitchen Garden south of the barn in the Heartland Harvest Garden and a few other secret locations around the garden--your nose will find them before your eyes.

These flowers, foliage and fruit await your discovery on a holiday walk at Powell Gardens. Take a break from the hustle and bustle and discover the beauties of our winter garden.