Home › Contents › Trees and Shrubs Bearing Coloured Twigs

Trees and Shrubs Bearing Coloured Twigs

THE trees and shrubs in the following list are those whose twigs are coloured sufficiently to make them of value from a landscape standpoint. The colour effect of twigs may be interesting from two points of view: either because of the vivid colouring, such as is seen in the red-twigged dogwood, and in the glossy rose, or of the general tone of colour such as seen in the American olive and the golden-barked willow, in which the colour as a mass is much more effective at a distance than upon close examination. Many of the interesting shrubs included in this group are oftentimes selected because of the sharp contrast between the colour of their twigs and the white background of snow or the green background of evergreens during the winter months. This is especially true of the birches and the dogwoods. In fact, there is equally as much interest during the winter months in a planting of this kind, properly developed, as in the difference of foliage effects during the summer months. It is a feature of landscape plantings to which very little attention has been given and one which demands careful study in order to be successfully worked out.

On extensive lawn areas, in our parks and large private estates, many specimens of these plants can be tucked away in large groups, where during the winter months the colour effect of the twigs will lend an interesting tone and more feeling of life to the otherwise monotonous effect of the background. The development of many vistas is oftentimes emphasized through the careful selection of such plants as the birches, willows, and Russian olive, to give the feeling of greater depth in the landscape picture. Such specimens, planted in the immediate background, with a heavy texture of planting in the foreground, will greatly add to the suggested feeling of distance.

The plants included in this group are those which carry an interesting and vivid colour of the branches and twigs throughout the winter