If you are like me and love red foliage in the winter, there are two plants I can recommend that will add color to your garden during the cold season. One is a euphorbia succulent and the second is a barberry shrub. Both plants will put on a gorgeous display of vivid shades of red color during the winter months.
The Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire,’ a South African native succulent, is my first pick. Its amazing resilience to handle negligence really well makes it ideal for amateur gardeners. This plant unique structural appearance looks like a shrub of leafless sticks, hence its common name. Under full sun growing conditions, the sticks are, for the most part, yellow in the summer. But in the winter, this euphorbia attains a vivid red color. So whether being yellow in the summer or red in the winter, its sticks like foliage have the appearance of being on fire. But if green is your color, give it full shade and tirucalli will eventually turn green.
If succulents are not your thing, the Nandina domestica ‘Nana,’ a dwarf cultivar and broader-leaf form of the Nandina shrub is my second choice. Like the tirucalli described above, given full sun, its almost chartreuse summer color turns into a dazzling red in the winter. At this time of year, I enjoy making trips to my local grocery store where I can appreciate it in the parking lot landscape. It’s absolutely gorgeous, especially when planted in mass. Unlike its more popular cousin that was massively planted in the 70s and 80s, this short cultivar stays tightly compacted and under two feet tall. It’s a slow grower, and it does not produce blooms or berries as it is primarily grown for its foliage alone. As a result, it hardly ever needs any maintenance. My type of plant.
Amazingly, both plants exhibit strikingly similar characteristics in color versatility and growing conditions. Both will thrive under full sun and will do well on very little water. But be warned, unless you have the space I would advise against planting a tirucalli in the ground, keep it contained in a pot otherwise it will outgrow its space. On the other hand, the N. domestica will perform and look at its best when planted in the ground.
Happy planting everyone.