Winter Wonderland Tour - Interest in the Winter Garden

A tour of the grounds, showcasing areas and plants with a winter interest.  Resceduled from earlier in the month due to too much snow along with ice.  Just Kathy M and I showed up for the walk.  Considering both of us are already familiar with roaming the gardens, John Makley was a good sport to take us out tromping through the snow anyway.  Bonnie H would have probably been on the tour as well, but she was hostessing in the house at that time, scheduled to do that before the tour was rescheduled.  The walk took us through the woodland garden, perennial garden and up through the terrace garden.  The terrace garden, close to the fountain, is where I took this paperbark picture.

Kathy M was interested in the winter color of dogwood. 

I found an appreciation for winter willow.  I may not have an opinion on willow in summer, but the reddishness of the branches make it stunning in winter.  Kingwood has nice clusters of willow.  Is it called a cluster?  Maybe grouping?  Anyway this is an eye catching patch of willow.  It is cut down to the ground every year and regrows to this height

Among other things, we noticed oak trees keep some of their leaves, although brown and dead on their branches.  Blue Spruce can easily be overlooked in summer, but stands out in a winter scape. Grasses can be left standing to give visual interest.  Also learned why the rhododendron curls its leaves in winter.  It is to conserve water by reducing the leave surface exposed for evaporation.  Huh.

At the end of the tour, John let me view a book by Rosemary Verey titled The Garden in Winter for some additional reading.  It also has gorgeous pictures.