The shortest day of the year (the winter solstice) is past, holiday bustle is dying down, so with a little more time and light in the day, I ventured out into the winter garden. 

While you might think there’s not much to see right now, I relished the small surprises you can find:  a splash of nandina berries, textures of birch and crape myrtle bark, surprising colors like the brilliant branches of red-twig dogwood (Cornus sericea and C. sanguinea), including the ones in the West Island Garden and one you see if you park in the east parking lot—it’s a fabulous coral color.  Hellebores are starting to emerge, and red hips dot our gray and thorny rose bushes in the Grace Arents Garden.

Author and photographer Karen Bussolini is a fan of gardens in winter, too.  She’ll be speaking on “Gardens in Winter” on January 18.  I’m looking to this lecture to re-inspire me, right when our gray and rainy southern winters start to get me down.

Karen will also speak the next day, on “Designing with Elegant Silvers.” Another one of my winter pastimes is planning the next spring’s garden—or continuing to work on my (imaginary) perfect garden.  I don’t know much about ‘silver’ plants (gray-green to blue-green), so I’m looking forward to exploring this color family with her and going beyond dusty miller and lamb’s ears.

For details of those lectures, visit http://www.lewisginter.org, select ‘Calendar,’ then ‘Education for Adults’ and click on January. 

Phyllis Laslett is adult education manager at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

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