A Winter Garden

Plants For A Winter Garden

Evergreen

• Ilex crenata ‘Dwarf Pagoda’ is a slow growing, dense holly with small leaves that look like boxwood and black berries.

• Euonymus japonicus ‘Microphyllus’ is a dwarf shrub with glossy green leaves.

• Taxus xmedia, a cross between the English yew and the Japanese yew, has soft, almost feathery, green needles with a slight yellowish tinge underneath. Yews can grow fairly large if left unchecked, but pruning them will keep them a manageable size for a container.

Ornamental Grasses

• Blue oat grass, Helictotrichon sempervirens, has graceful 2-3 foot spikes and grows in clumps.

• Miscanthus spp. is a beautiful addition to the garden with its tall plumes which can be silvery, pinkish or bronze.

Flowers and Berries

• Heaths and heathers are among the loveliest winter plants, with their dense, low shape and profuse flowering. Leaves resemble tiny needles and the flowers are bell shaped in shades of pink, white, purple and magenta.

• Nandina domestica or heavenly bamboo has many varieties and most bear large bunches of berries throughout the winter. ‘Alba’ is striking because of its white berries; ‘San Gabriel’ has delicate, lacy foliage and ‘Woods Dwarf’ has orange-scarlet leaves.

No matter what zone you live in, there is some plant that will grow happily through your winter, providing berries, color, texture, flowers or all of the above.

This article is part of the Suite101 "Container Gardening" topic area. For the other Suite101 articles and discussion forums on Container Gardening, see the Welcome Page on Suite101.

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