In The Garden Now….. Wintergreen

Wintergreen in the garden

Checkerberry or Teaberry

Text and photo by Victoria Gilleland

Our rainiest days are brighter with Wintergreen in the garden! With its colorful red berries this low growing evergreen will brighten a shady spot in your woodland or rock garden through the cold dark days of winter. Green leathery leaves even take on a reddish tint when temperatures drop. Both foliage and berries produce an intense minty scent. Small waxy, fragrant white or pale pink flowers bloom in summer and are followed by scarlet fruit that stays on the plants into winter. This is a real year round performer.

This is a low growing ground cover type shrub reaching about 6 inches high by 24 inches wide.  It’s related to our native ‘Salal’ that grows in our forests and home gardens. Native Americans are said to have used wintergreen oil for pain in muscles and joints and colonists made a tea from the leaves of wintergreen during the American Revolutionary War when traditional tea was hard to come by.

Plants need moist acid soil with good organic content. They complement azaleas and rhododendrons and make a fine cover for shadier areas in the garden. In our northwest gardens it seems to grow better in open shade than in heavy shade. I’ve noticed that Wintergreen does not like to be crowded and can be easily swamped by other more vigorous plants, resulting in the sudden demise of this little beauty - so give it some space.  

Wintergreen makes a terrific, low ground cover for shady garden beds. Watch for those scarlet berries in northwest gardens this winter.  

(Botanical Name: Gaultheria procumbens )

Victoria Gilleland is the owner of Cottage Garden Designs, a Garden Design company specializing in Redesign of Residential Gardens, Garden Consultation and Coaching. She has been designing gardens in the northwest for over 20 years.