as the bleakness of winter gets, well, bleaker, these are the plants i wish i had planted to give me a little mid winter color...they are on my list for this year!
red twig dogwood: i like the variety with the variegated leaves so it looks good all year round.
rosa rugosa: lovely large hips! beauty berry: purple berries: need i say more? harry lauder's walking stick:
i love this gnarly plant! i have killed several starter ones, but look forward to giving another one a try soon...
camellias!
my neighbor has a large-obviously very old-camellia shrub adjacent to her house that has huge and wonderful rose-like blooms all winter- just when you're longing for some color. i have been admiring it for many winters now, but every year its beauty continues to surprise me.
variegated holly bush...
i am not a fan of the sharp holly leaves in the summer time, with the bare feet and all. but, come winter its full silhoette is a welcome site! my favorite holly is this variegated variety: it is very festive around the holidays with the lovely red berries. many different types of birds live off of these berries in winter: robins, starlings, a bunch of different tree-clinging, wood-pecker-type birds, wax-wings (love them!) and cardinals to name a few.
hellebores...it took a few years to get my single one established, but now it blooms faithfully every late january and is even beginning to spread a bit, but i need more than one...
heathers and heaths are so pretty, especially on a wnter's day like today! this variety, Calluna vulgaris 'firefly' looks like a cluster of mini red hot pockers!
witch hazel blooms before forsythia, which i like because they signal the start of warmer days.
snow drops are
the first to show up in earliest spring: that's why they're great!
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