Tom Karwin, On Gardening | The garden in winter – Santa Cruz Sentinel

Dormancy prevails in my garden. Roses and fruit trees trimmed back to encourage new growth, shrubs hard-pruned for restoration, bulbs still hidden under the soil, and stately trees without their cloak of leaves. The garden sleeps.

Even now, two overgrown Fuchsia boliviana shrubs await a session of hard-pruning, a gaggle of gingers (Hedychium coronaria) stands ready to be cut to the ground, and the towering Giant Cabuya (Furcraea foetida) still leans, poised to distribute plantlets widely.

Still, the evergreens maintain their lively looks. Most succulents grow during summers and rest at this time, while looking very much as they did in the summer. Some winter-growing succulents, notably a collection of Aeonium varieties, are adding height and their unique rosettes.

Two plants command the winter landscape.

One is an architectural Milk-flower Cotoneaster (C. lacteus), a member the Rose Family (Rosaceae), native to China, that began as a volunteer and grew to dominate its setting.

At this time of the year, it is covered with masses of small, globose, red fruits (pomes). Online reports indicate that birds avoid the fruits, so the plant rarely escapes the garden. Few birds visit this plant, but I have seen flocks of American Robins (Turdus migratorius) dive into its branches and gorge on the fruits. They wait for the fruit to ferment for the experience of change from their usual diet of seeds.

The majestic shrub benefits from annual shaping, but that must wait until after summer flowering and before autumn fruit-set. Timing is important.

Another winter-blooming presence in the garden is the Big Mexican Scarlet Sage (Salvia gesnerifolia ‘Tequila’). I once installed one of these plants, attracted by an online description of its “crazy vivid fire-engine red, velvety blooms, striking black stems and calyces.” I was also impressed by its potential to reach rise to 25 feet at maturity and its vigorous growth habit. What’s not to like, given enough space in the garden?

Like all Salvias, this plant can be cut to the ground in the early spring to control its size, but benign neglect in a compatible environment enables it to occupy its territory with a vengeance. It also develops runners to generate new plants. A single plant becomes a grove.

When such a grove sprung up in my garden about two years ago, I removed the plant, dug up its roots, and reclaimed the space for new plants. My neighbor’s grove, already in progress along their back fence, became 20 feet high and 50 feet wide. I admired its spectacular display of bright red flowers from a comfortable distance.

Eventually, however, that Big Mexican Scarlet Sage invaded an irregular storage space behind my greenhouse and overwhelmed a Rose Mallow (Lavatera assurgentifolia) that had been growing peacefully there.

This winter’s new garden project is to whack the invader and reclaim the space.

In the midst of this drama, the early signs of spring are already appearing. Roses are sprouting tiny buds, daffodil leaves are penetrating the mulch, and hyacinths, convinced of seasonal change, are blossoming.

Our winter months have proven again that gardens are about anticipation.

Tom Karwin is past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, and Monterey Bay Iris Society, and a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 1999–2009). Visit ongardening.com for previous columns. Send comments or questions to gardening@karwin.com.