Conifers steal the show: Nina and Lasse’s garden stuns even in winter

Nina and Lasse Rihu’s garden in Kymenlaakso, Finland, has undergone a transformation during the cold night as soft, powdery snow has blanketed the dark ground. Numerous conifers appear as if they’ve been generously dusted with powdered sugar. The early December sun, low in the sky, accentuates their shapes even more. A solitary aster, still blooming in the winter landscape, seems like it’s in the wrong painting.

Luckily, the freshly fallen first snow is light and airy, so it doesn’t harm the woody plants. If heavier snow had fallen, Nina would already be busy touring the garden with a brush.

“It’s quick work when I whisk the snow off the trees and shrubs so they don’t split or break. Clumpy snow is especially bad.”

The fully grown conifers form the foundation of the Rihus’ garden. Nina is holding their Yorkshire Terrier, Martta, and Lasse has their Silky Terrier, Kerttu, in his arms.

A thuja shaped into three balls is an eye-catching ornament in the winter garden.

The delicate, translucent withered blooms of the panicled hydrangeas stay in the garden to adorn it in winter. Some of them last until spring.

Conifers—junipers, thujas, firs, pines, and various spruces—are dear to Nina and Lasse. The oldest of them, the magnificent dwarf white spruces, have been growing on the property since the late 1980s. Nina planted them almost immediately after the family’s new home was completed. For a long time, she worried that the slow-growing seedlings, only a few dozen centimeters tall, would be trampled during their three sons’ roughhousing.

“I probably reminded them ad nauseam that they needed to be careful,” she laughs.

“At first, our dwarf white spruces didn’t look like much, but nowadays they are an important part of the garden’s appearance,” Lasse says.

In front of the dwarf white spruces grows a ‘Little Devil’ ninebark, which retains its decorative dark red leaves well into winter. To the right in the foreground stands the columnar Norway spruce ‘Cupressina.’

These blown glass balls, made in Finland, remain in place year-round. They are completely solid, so they withstand the cold well.

Nina is shaping two small thuja seedlings into topiary trees. The largest “lollipop thuja” was purchased ready-made. The arch is adorned with clematis ‘Charles’ and ‘Huldine.’

Although conifers have been the garden’s main plants from the beginning, Nina and Lasse admit they didn’t initially consider all their benefits, such as providing greenery to the garden even in winter when other colors have faded. They also didn’t realize that the distinctive shapes of conifers stand out in a very special way when everything else is bare.

In addition to the dwarf white spruces, many other conifers in the garden have naturally grown into sleek cones, spheres, or columns. Some, however, have acquired their current appearance under Nina’s skillful hands. With regular trimming, seedlings can become impressive single-stemmed focal points, but it requires time and skill. Nina says she worked on some topiary trees for years before they looked good to her eye because conifers can’t be pruned heavily all at once.

Nina has also pruned the 30-year-old mountain pines to thin them. Japanese spiraeas grow along the path. The small tree in the foreground is the goat willow ‘Kilmarnock.’

The entrance is framed by a row of dwarf white spruces and an archway decorated by the Alpine clematis ‘Willy.’ Small dwarf mountain pines grow at the base of the Baltic pine.

The curly branches of the purple filbert are best showcased in winter. Nina regrets planting this decorative seedling where it can’t be seen from inside.

The flowers of the leopardplant leave behind fun pompoms for the winter. In summer, it’s an excellent butterfly plant.

Generally speaking, the best time to prune conifers is in early spring before they start to grow, but exceptionally well-pruned thujas, junipers, and yews can be shaped at other times as well. Nina only prunes on cool, dry days when sap flow is minimal.

The shears also saved an old yew that the Rihus had received from Nina’s mother as a housewarming gift. The seedling had grown so large that its branches arched over the pathway. In winter, it had the annoying habit of dumping snow on Nina when she left for work early in the morning.

“Eventually, I got fed up and asked Lasse to prune the bush lower. Luckily, he didn’t cut it down because soon after I saw in a gardening magazine a ‘broccoli tree’—a yew whose branches had been pruned bare and the tops shaped into balls. Nowadays, I think the yew is beautiful even in winter.”

Nina has combined shrubs and perennials with the conifers, but in recent years she has gradually begun to reduce them. The aim is to leave growth space for the beloved conifers so that the carefully planned views of the garden don’t become overgrown. The species she will keep are those that look beautiful year-round. The dried flower heads of hydrangeas, the seed balls of clematis, globe thistles, and other upright perennials, as well as ornamental grasses, bring visual delight to the garden even in winter.

The massive stone slabs used to terrace the sloping front of the garden are from the foundation of a house that once stood on the plot. In the front left grows and old yew to which Nina has given a new look through pruning.

‘Purpurascens’ elephant grass grows beautiful flower plumes. This variety has proven hardy in the Rihus’ garden.