Kinnikinnick, a native plant, provides evergreen interest in the winter garden. (photo credit: April O’Meara)
This article originally appeared in the Arizona Daily Sun on January 30, 2025.
During snowless winters like we are having this year, I relish the evergreen plants in my garden as they add a touch of green to an otherwise brown landscape. When I worked as a landscape designer for a number of years, I made sure to include evergreens and other winter interest plants in order to provide subtle beauty during the starkness of winter. When placing plants on their own, I would consider how their individual traits would add to the winter garden. For example, osier dogwood’s (Cornus spp.) leafless stems provide a dark red color and, on frosty mornings, delicate ice crystals will form on dried hardy hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata or H. arborescens) flowers.
When selecting groupings of plants, I would consider how each plant’s texture would complement the others around them over the seasons. The plant combinations were endless! For example, globe blue spruce (Picea pungens ‘Globosa’) and dwarf ash leaf spirea (Sorbaria sorbifolia ‘Sem’) complement each other nicely. During the spring and summer months, the blue foliage provides a cooling effect against the bright chartreuse green while the delicateness of the spirea’s leaves softens the rigidness of the spruce’s needles. Also, the spruce’s compact growth habit contrasts nicely with ash leaf’s free-flowing form. In winter, the spruce provides pale blue evergreen interest next to the ash leaf spirea’s unassuming dormant stems.
For Flagstaff, many of our native plants provide exceptional evergreen foliage and interesting traits which are nice to contemplate while we wait for snow. Here are three of my favorites and associated fun facts.
There’s something charming about kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) also known as bear-berry. In spring, the shiny green leaves conceal urn-shaped pink flowers. These give way in fall to edible (but bland tasting) dark red berries. The reddish brown branchlets have an attractive peeling bark while the whole plant takes on a purple cast in cold weather. As the common name implies, bears relish the berries as do birds and other wildlife. The name kinnikinnick is said to be an Algonquin phrase meaning “smoking mixture” referring to the Native American practice of smoking the dried leaves either alone or mixed with other plants, including tobacco and the dried inner bark of red dogwood (Cornus spp.). Kinnikinnick can be slow growing and prefer a little afternoon shade but planted in a mass they will make beautiful carpets of rich evergreen color, especially in the winter, when little else looks so good. Their hardiness and deer resistance also make them a good candidate for “trailers” in cold season pots.
Another low growing groundcover that sometimes gets a bad reputation due to its prickly leaves is creeping Oregon grape holly (Mahonia repens). Plants grow about one to two feet high and wide making a mound of dark green with hints of purple leaves that really stand out in winter when planted amongst other dormant plants. In spring, the bright yellow cluster flowers are a welcome sight as creeping Oregon grape holly are one of the first native plants to bloom. In fall, this four season plant has chalky blue berries that are relished by wildlife. To prevent winter burn on the evergreen leaves, plants are best grown in a sheltered spot with a bit of afternoon shade.
Finally, Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata), a native to the mountains of Colorado, New Mexico,and Arizona (including the San Francisco Peaks at elevations of 7,500 ft to 12,000 ft) is a tough, slow growing conifer for rock gardens or other sites where you need a unique evergreen specimen. In the wild, trees have been documented to grow for thousands of years. An individual tree in Colorado was dated to 2,435 years old! One of its cousins,Pinus longaeva, known commonly as “Methuselah,” growing in California’s White Mountains is thought to be the oldest living organism on earth at over 4,850 years old. I can’t help but imagine what these trees have seen in their lifetime let alone what my bristlecone may experience if it lives for 1,000 years or more! This takes designing and planting for the future to a whole new level!
Let’s hope we get some snow soon, but in the meantime, take a moment to appreciate the plants that make your winter garden shine.
Nate O’Meara is the Executive Director of The Arboretum at Flagstaff.