Native Shrubs Are A Pleasure Year Round

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Rather than worrying about how your shrubs will survive this winter, it's much more fun to just peek out the window and love how they look. Native plants tend to shrug off snow and ice because they already know how to live around here so they're not bothered by our weather extremes.

Like our native red-twig dogwood - Latin name, Cornus sericia, also called red-osier dogwood. It's an easy-to-grow shrub that loves sun and water - so it drank in last spring's flooding rains - but also gets along fine in dry spots or drought years.

White spring flowers are followed by bluish fruits that the birds devour; then, the leaves turn nice colors in fall, but when they drop is best of all. The youngest red-twig branches turn deep scarlet when the temperatures drop; pretty spectacular against the white snow.

Check out the photo here and think about planting some native red-twig dogwoods yourself this spring. So you can smile out your window at them next winter, no matter the weather.