Shrubs that Produce Year Round Interest

Saturday, November 06, 2010 03:56 AM

Centre Glow Ninebark offers varying shades of colour

Over the summer we planted a new flower bed filled with shrubs, and perennials. Two of the shrubs we planted were 'Centre Glow Ninebark' and 'Darts Gold Ninebark'.

These shrubs looked good all summer and added beautiful bright colour to the landscape and still continue to do so as they have not yet lost their vibrant fall coloured foliage.

The 'Dart's Glow' ninebark has golden yellow foliage throughout the summer and in the fall the foliage gets an orange tint to it. It has a nice compact rounded shape that fills out to the ground and grows 1.5 m tall and wide. In spring there are small white clusters of flowers that develop into red fruit capsules.

'Centre Glow' has yellow/green emerging foliage that becomes burgundy from the outside edge inward giving the centre of the leaf a glowing affect and as the older leaf continues to mature throughout the season the leaf becomes darker red giving the shrub an array of colour as the darker matured foliage mixes with the younger yellow/red foliage. In the fall the foliage is a dark burgundy red. The shrub also produces small white flowers that develop into bright red seed pods. It is larger than the Darts Gold as it can grow 2.7 meters tall and wide.

Ninebarks (physocarpus opulifolius)are deciduous multi stemmed flowering shrubs that add year round interest to the landscape. These tough, hardy zone 3, shrubs are easy to grow and do not require a lot of maintenance and upkeep, and are rarely bothered by pests or disease. They are very adaptable to soil types, and growing conditions but do best in full sun as this brings out the colours and prevents the plant from becoming spindly. They can also tolerate some drought after they have become established.

Ninebark gets its common name because of its peeling bark in the winter which comes off in vertical strips and is said to shred in 9 layers.

When the plant is mature the soft peeling bark reveals different shades underneath as in the Darts Gold where the brown strips reveal a creamy white bark underneath. This adds winter interest to the landscape.

In the spring and early summer the plant produces clusters of white flowers that attract butterflies, bees, wasps, etc and in late summer the flowers mature into clusters of bright red seedpods.

These features along with the brightly coloured foliage makes the Ninebark an excellent year round shrub. They can be used as an accent plant, border, background, or in a foundation planting. We have them mixed in with perennials, shrubs, grasses and just recently we planted spring flowering bulbs in the bed so the dying foliage of the bulbs will be hidden by the emerging foliage of the shrubs as well as the perennials.

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Home and Garden Centres in Prince George: