Beautiful Bark for Your Winter Garden
The trees we’re going to learn about today are all deciduous and develop attractive bark on their trunks and limbs as they grow and mature. Yet, even with their beautiful tell-tale bark they are still small enough to fit into average suburban and city gardens. If you have room on your list for only one tree, the trees listed below are great candidates. Some of the trees like the paper-bark maple and parrotia grow so slowly that it’s worth buying the biggest size your budget will allow. Others such as the birch and aspen grow quickly.
Remember to consider the type of soil you have; lean or fertile, moist or well-drained, when choosing a tree get one that is adapted to the area where you will be planting it. When buying them at nurseries, they will often start them as clumps with two or more trunks. Already clumped trees may cost a little more to start with, but they’ll make up for it with their beauty as they mature. The more trunks, the more bark for you to see and admire throughout the cold winter months. It’s important however, to make sure that the trunks are spaced enough apart to where they grow at a wide angle, not fusing together as they mature.
Beautiful Tree Bark Types
Birches - Betula
The white birch is native to New England and the area surrounding the Great Lakes. It grows wild and it will also make a good garden plant, but is susceptible to insect attacks if open to stress by hot dry summer weather. Because of this, many nurseries offer the white-spire birch instead.
It is a Japanese tree and its bark is equal to the white birch in beauty. However, it’s more adaptable to average garden conditions and shows a good resistance to insect attacks. It is a fast growing tree and will reach up to 45 in height having a narrow oval crown. The birch does best in full sun, and well-drained soil. The river birch is a hardy, healthy birch with salmon, pinkish beige, or creamy bark that peels off in large sheets. All forms of river birch are adapted to damp or poorly drained soil, but they will grow well in average soil only if watered during temporary drought seasons.
Quaking Aspen - Populus Tremuloides
The quaking aspen is best known for its fluttering leaves, hence the name quaking that turn bright gold in the fall. This small tree has smooth thin tight bark, that is a pale grey in the fall but turn greenish as the days get longer in late winter and early spring. It needs cool moist soil, and grows best in the northern mountainous climates where it is native in the wild. White poplar also has attractive pale grey green bark with two tone leaves giving it a dramatic look on real windy days. It’s fast growing and will reach heights of 20-50 feet, adapting to most any soil types.
Maples - Acer
Paper-bark maple is a small, very slow growing tree with chocolate or cinnamon colored bark; that will peel into tight thin curls. Full sun, and average soil are required, and it will take many, many years for the tree to reach a height of 15 feet. Another type, the striped maple, also called moosewood, has grey bark on the main trunk and twigs have lengthwise green and white stripes. This tree needs part shade and moist, well-drained soil.
Persian Parrotia - Parrotia Persica
The Persian parrotia is a slow growing tree much like the paper-bark maple that is usually grown in multiple trunks and wide-spreading limbs. The outer bark is grey and flakes off in irregular patches, smooth white inner bark beneath. The deciduous leaves are color-full in the spring and autumn and a rich green in the summer. They grow 15-20 feet or taller taking many, many years to reach such heights. These trees require full or part sun and average soil for best growth.
Chinese Dogwood - Cornus Kousa
The Chinese dogwood is resistant to the anthracnose disease that has killed so many of the dogwood variations in recent years. In early summer and fall, large white flowers and red fruits decorate the tree, as well as multi-colored bark for winter attractions. Older bark flakes off the trunk and larger limbs to make a quilt of grey, tan and brown. All variations of Chinese dogwood need full or part sun and moist, well-drained soil.
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