Ninebark Adds Colour to Winter Landscape
Saturday, December 8, 2012 @ 3:45 AM
As I look over the landscape at home I couldn’t help but notice how the ‘Ninebarks’ (Physocarpus) stand out against the white snow.
Ninebark is a deciduous ornamental shrub native to North America that has become very popular over the past few years. The native Ninebark has toothed oval green foliage that turns yellow in the fall, and in the spring the plant produces clusters of small pinkish white flowers. Ninebark gained its popularity when the new cultivars were developed.
There are several different varieties of Ninebark. Some have different shades of golden foliage and others have various shades of purple foliage.
- ‘Diabolo’ Ninebark was developed in the 90’s and it has dark purple foliage that turns bronze in the fall. It is quite large growing 2 meters tall and wide.
- ‘Summer Wine’ is another dark foliage variety, with deeply cut, crimson red leaves. It has a neat, compact form and grows 2meters tall and wide.
- ‘Coppertina’ is a new hybrid that comes out in a copper colour that darkens to red over the summer.
- ‘Centre Glow’ foliage emerges as yellow-green and darkens to a bright deep red.
- ‘Dart’s Gold’ has golden lobed leaves. It is a compact rounded shrub that grows 1.5 meters tall and wide.
- ‘Nugget’ is another golden Ninebark with new yellow-bronze foliage that ages to a lime green.
- If space is limited, and you want to grow a Ninebark, the ‘Little Devil’ is smaller sized, only growing between 90- 125 cm tall and wide. It has deep burgundy foliage.
The name Ninebark comes from the splitting and peeling bark which adds to the winter interest. The coloured bark peels away in layers and is said to have nine layers. An added interest is the clusters of pinkish white flowers that appear in the spring that later produce colourful berries in the fall which birds enjoy. The flowers attract butterflies and on some varieties such as Summer Wine the flowers are used as cut flowers.
Another selling feature for Ninebark is how easy it is to grow. It tolerates many different soil conditions, and is low maintenance. Once established it can tolerate dry conditions, however it does best in average to moist soil conditions. It grows best in full sun but will tolerate some shade. It is very hardy (zone 3) and is rarely bothered by pests, disease or deer It can go without pruning but it can also be pruned in the spring if it becomes leggy after it has finished blooming.
These versatile plants are fast growing and are used in mass plantings, hedges, as well as growing as a feature plant. Some varieties such as Dart’s Gold and Centre Glow can be trained to become a small tree.
Ninebarks are a shrub that has it all giving year round beauty to the landscape and easy to care for. I’m sure that as more people find out and see the newer Ninebark cultivars they will become even more popular.
-Jos
Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Home and Garden Centres in Prince George:
-Highway 16 West at Kimball Road
-Highway 97 North at Northwood Pulpmill Road
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