Winter has set in where I live in Michigan’s North Woods. The ground is snow covered and the landscape is rather bare and stark. I did some research on what I can add to my garden for a bit of cheer through the winter months and give wildlife additional food and shelter.
Shrubs are really the stars of the winter garden, but trees, vines, and grasses can also add interest and needed food sources. As I am a fan of a layered garden, a garden that mimics a native woodland with upper story trees, lower story trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, I found the following native plants that can be added to large and small gardens alike and give us additional color and structural interest and provide wildlife with food and shelter during the winter months. I focused on plants that shine in winter, but these plants also provide benefits to wildlife throughout the year.
Note: It is important to pay attention to the Latin names, since a few of these plants have non-native species that can be invasive or not provide wildlife benefits.
Winterberry (Ilex verticillate)
Winterberry is a deciduous shrub with bright red berries that provide winter interest for us and food for birds. Winterberries are dioecious, which means there are separate male and female plants. Only fertilized female flowers produce the red berries so you need to plant at least one male winterberry with female winterberry plants to get berries. One male winterberry can pollinate 6-10 female plants. Flowers, and subsequent berries, appear on new growth. Prune to shape in early spring just before new growth appears. Flowers, if properly pollinated, give way to bright red berries in late summer to fall. Berries persist throughout the winter and often into early spring.
Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
Soil: average, acidic, medium to wet soils
Height: 6-10’
USDA Zones: 3-9
Plant Spacing: 3-5′
Wildlife Benefits: The foliage is a larval food source for the Harris’ three-spot and pawpaw sphinx moths. Important winter food source for a variety of birds and mammals.
Landscape Uses: Year-round interest, highlighted by the showy display of red berries in winter. Cut branches are perfect in winter arrangements. Excellent shrub for moist soils in low spots; along streams, ponds, rain gardens, or wetlands; or at the edges of upland forests where the water table approaches the surface.
Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea)
Red Twig Dogwood’s most notable feature is its bark, which remains a satiny-red all year, especially eye-catching in the snow or against an evergreen border. It provides color in the garden after the flowers have faded and the leaves have fallen. Best stem color occurs on young stems so you may want to remove a quarter of the oldest stems in early spring to stimulate growth of new, young stems. Its white umbrella-shaped inflorescences are clustered along the branches and emerge between June and September, giving way to white or pale-blue berries in the fall. Tiny, fragrant, white flowers appear in flat-topped clusters in late spring and give way to clusters of berries in summer.
Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
Soil: Organically rich, fertile, consistently moist soils
Height: 3-10’
USDA Zones: 3-7
Plant Spacing: 2-5′
Wildlife Benefits: Host plant for the Crecopia silkmoth and the spring and summer szure butterflies, and an important food source for bumblebees. Finches, sparrows, kingbirds, catbirds, and woodpeckers like the berries.
Landscape Uses: Excellent massed or as a specimen. Plants perform very well in wet locations such as low spots or along streams or ponds where spreading roots can help combat soil erosion. May also be used as a property line screen.
American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens)
Note: Ensure you plant the native, Celastrus scandens, and not Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus).
American bittersweet is a deciduous woody vine with showy red berries that add color to the winter landscape. American bittersweet is dioecious (separate male and female plants) so female plants need a male pollinator to produce the fruit. Fertilized female flowers give way in summer to orange-yellow fruits that split open in fall to reveal scarlet fleshy berry-like seeds. Vines may be grown on structures or allowed to ramble along the ground but avoid growing vines up small trees or through shrubs because vines grow rapidly and can girdle trunks and branches causing damage and sometimes death. Berry-laden branches are prized for use as indoor decorations, and collection of the branches in the wild has significantly reduced the wild populations in some areas.
Sun Exposure: Full
Soil: Average with regular moisture
Height: Vine up to 20 feet
USDA Zones: 3-8
Plant Spacing: 2-4′
Wildlife Benefits: Provides food for wintering birds
Landscape Uses: Provides quick cover for fences, arbors, trellises, posts, walls or other structures in the landscape. May also be grown along the ground to camouflage rock piles or old tree stumps.
River Birch (Betula nigra)
River Birch is distinguished by the thick, shaggy, and sometimes cork-like exfoliating layers of bark. River birch often grows as a multi-stemmed tree. The peeling bark provides a unique contrast in the winter months.
River birch is a moisture-loving plant and performs best when situated near water such as a river, creek, or pond. Consider using soaker hoses and bark mulches to keep the root zones cool and moist. Avoid pruning in spring when the sap is running.
Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
Soil: Prefers moist, acidic, fertile soils including semi-aquatic conditions. Adapts well to heavy clay soils and will tolerate poor drainage.
Height: Up to 80’
USDA Zones: 4-9
Plant Spacing: 20-30′
Wildlife Benefits: Many insects, especially moth and butterfly caterpillars, find food and shelter in river birch. These moth and butterfly caterpillars are the ideal food source for growing baby birds as well as parent birds that eat insects. Many adult songbirds feast on the catkins, seeds, or buds, including purple finch, black-capped chickadee, white-winged crossbill, and pine siskin.
Landscape Uses: Specimen or small groupings for lawns or in wet soils along ponds, streams or in low spots.
Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
Little bluestem is valued for its blue-green color in the summer and after the first frost, the foliage turns shades of bronze-orange in the fall. Purplish-bronze flowers appear above the foliage in August. Flowers are followed by clusters of fluffy, silvery-white seed heads, which are attractive and often persist into winter. The rigid clumps can withstand snow and rain, and the grass stems remain upright for most of the winter, which provides necessary overwintering habitat and resources for many insects and birds.
Sun Exposure: Full sun
Soil: Average, dry to medium moisture, well-drained soil. Not recommended for damp sites or heavy clay soils.
Height: 3’
USDA Zones: 3-9
Plant Spacing: 2-3′
Wildlife Benefits: Serves as a larval host plant for numerous skipper butterflies including the cobweb skipper, dusted skipper, Ottoe skipper, Delaware skipper, crossline skipper, and swarthy skipper. Other insects that feed on little bluestem include grasshoppers, prairie walkingsticks, leaf-mining beetles, thrips, spittlebugs, and leafhoppers. The seeds are eaten by songbirds. Female queen bumblebees nest at the base of little bluestem, where they are protected until they emerge in spring.
Landscape Uses: Group or mass. A good low-maintenance selection for sun baked areas.
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)
Switch grass is clump-forming and a prolific self-seeder so it should be used with caution in very small landscapes. Switch grass is a warm-season grass, which means it actively grows during the summer when soil temperatures are warm. Consider not cutting switch grass back in late fall since it holds up well in heavy snow providing winter cover for small mammals and land birds. Birds will also feed on the seeds and the dried foliage adds a splash of pale yellow to the winter landscape. Switch grass has a stiff, columnar form, and typically retains its vertical shape throughout the growing season. The foliage is topped in mid-summer by finely textured, pink-tinged, branched flower clusters that turn beige as the seeds mature in fall with the seed plumes persisting well into winter.
Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
Soil: Prefers moist, sandy or clay soils. May flop in overly rich soils.
Height: 4’
USDA Zones: 3-9
Plant Spacing: 2-4′
Wildlife Benefits: The Delaware skipper, arogos skipper, and the Dakota skipper use switchgrass as a host plant. A stand of s0.witchgrass creates valuable habitat, providing food and shelter for birds and other wildlife. Seeds are a food source for birds in winter.
Landscape Uses: Accent, group or mass. Effective as a screen.
Adding plants to the landscape for primarily winter interest extends our garden enjoyment through the entire year and more importantly provide food and shelter to wildlife. It lifts the spirits to look outside and see red stems or berries against the snow or birds flitting among tree branches or added texture in a dormant landscape. Planting something for specific-winter interest is a gift worth giving ourselves and the wildlife with whom we share our gardens.
