Having chatted over a few winter flowers in yesterdays blog here are a few examples of some lovely plants sporting striking bark colours, especially welcome in the dark grey light of winter.
I have mentioned the Cornus family in a previous blog so it doesnt need rementioning, so lets have a look at some Acers [Maples] Excuse the slightly out of focus pic but i thought the bark of this Acer x conspicuum Phoenix was quite striking as is the bark of Acer pennsylvanicum Erythrocladum. The pink stemmed Acer , photographed at Wisley looks fantastic, but I need someone to confirm the variety I think it is ! -Acer x consp. 'Silver Cardinal' .
Not that I'm very taken by white anything, especially in the winter, but I do think the white stems of these Rubus look pretty good, espicially if something like yellow crocuses could be planted en masse under them. Double bonus.. no bird damage of the Crocus blooms and a fabulous background to the white stems. The yellow stems behind are Cornus sericea Flaviramea. This particular variety of Rubus is R. biflorus and appears to be a more manageable sprawl than the more well known R. cockburnianus.
Finally, who can resist the lovely papery shreds of bark that peel from the Paper bark maple-Acer griseum. It is so extraordinarily tactile.
2 comments:
Lovely photographs - and significant that they are all bark+something (evergreen foliage etc). Without the 'something' bark can be too-strong a symbol of the Bleak Midwinter.
Interesting blog Adam. I'm recording the restoration of the walled garden at Holkham Hall in Norfolk as part of my artist residency. You might care to have a look at the blog on http:/www.holkhamwalledgarden.blogspot.com
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