My name is Andy Schenck, and I garden in Malvern, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Philadelphia) in Zone 6B/7 (depending on the winter). My garden is called Look Again Garden (named by my friend David Culp). It is a collector’s garden full of “drifts of one.” Winter is an amazing time for the conifers and broadleaf evergreens to shine. Here is a sampling of plants that were photographed the week of December 12.
Persea palustris (Zones 7–11), which is a hardy relative of the avocado native to the southeastern United States.
Camellia japonica ‘Korean Fire’ (Zones 7–11) is a vigorous selection from Korea that is one of the most cold-hardy varieties of the species.
Sciadopitys verticillata ‘Ossorio Gold’ (Zones 5–9) is a selection of the Japanese umbrella pine with long golden needles. Umbrella pines are never common in the landscape, though they are very beautiful, and this gold form is even rare and possibly even more lovely.
Tsuga seiboldii (southern Japanese hemlock, Zones 6–8) is slow growing and shows great resistance to wooly adelgid, an invasive insect that is doing great damage to our native North American hemlock species.
Cryptomeria japonica ‘Rasen’ (Zones 5–9) is a selection of the Japanese cedar that is an upright open grower with amazing twisted foliage.
Maybe even cooler and more unusual looking is Cryptomeria japonica ‘Cristata’, which is smaller in stature with loads of fasciation or cresting of the foliage
Chimonanthus praecox (Zones 7–9) is a fragrant, winter-blooming shrub that starts blooming in early December. Though the flowers are small and delicate, they have a powerfully delicious aroma.
Thujopsis dolobrata ‘Variegata’ (Zones 5–9) is a great variegated conifer for light shade, and, even better, it shows good resistance to deer browsing.
Pinus palustris (longleaf pine, Zones 7–9) is native to southeastern North America but seems to thrive in Pennsylvania. This is a young plant, about four years old.
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