If gardening "one-upmanship's" your game, you're going to be energized by the "latest" au courant trend: Winter Landscaping. It used to be called "planting for winter interest," but that apparently, is too dowdy a term for today's avant garde gardener. Winter Landscaping also coincides with the nursery industry's push for autumnal planting mode beyond the post Labor Day flood of pansies, mums, and flowering kale. Now it's trees and shrubs, all chosen for fabulous bark, berries, and even bloom in January when you kick back in front of the fire and gaze out the two-story window overlooking the garden. Last Friday's Wall Street Journal lists plants suitable for winter gardens without bothering with hardiness zones or botanical names. But we all know that Harry Lauder's Walking Stick and Red Twig Dogwood look super against snow and evergreens.

Or you can say katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum). Either way, it's one of our favorite trees. Michael Dirr, professor of horticulture at the University of Georgia, author of the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, reveals his "love affair" with this tree in the fall edition of Nursery Management & Production. Please come over and view our two katsuras. One is an upright form, the other, a weeping form. Both are wonderful. Even non-plant people notice them.

Another of our favorites was "cover tree" in the September issue of Michigan Gardener: Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum). Its exfoliating, cinnamon bark is beautiful, especially when back lighted by morning sun. Stop by and see it sometime. Super candidate for Winter Landscaping.

Running up to Choo Choo's Chocolate in Oxford? Don't miss the two delightful tub plantings flanking the door. The lush pink flowers are Mandevilla Pink 'Alice du Pont' on a topiary form, set off by lime green sweet potato vine and a gray, tiny-leaf helichrysum cascading over the tubs' edges.

Sunny, well-drained sites are best. Daffodils & scilla resist chipmunk predations. Consider ordering unusual hyacinths from Old House Gardens, 536 Third Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, http://www.oldhousegardens.com (734-995-1486), catalog $2. Also check out TulipWorld, catalog only on the Internet, http://www.tulipworld.com .

The attached Ann Raver column from the 24 Sept. New York Times is a lovely essay on gardening. Enjoy it & our beautiful Indian Summer!

Linda Meadors

Horticulture Chair