Outside our windows, the dull grays and browns of winter make us yearn for the colorful landscapes of spring.
But yards and gardens don't have to be drab and lifeless during the cold months. It's possible to nurture bright color – if you know what to plant.
"If you start with a group of broadleafed evergreens as your first component, you can make a winter landscape come back into life," said Tom Brinda, assistant executive director for horticulture and education at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Va.
Once you have your backdrop of green, add the following:
Hardy flowers - Winter pansies in yellows and purples and flowering cabbages and kale in purples and whites will bloom throughout winter until temperatures drop into single digits. Heath and hellebores are perennials that produce delicate flowers from fall to spring.
Bulbs - Early daffodils, crocus, grape hyacinth, snowdrops and winter aconite, planted in the fall, will pop through the snow as early as January.
Stems - More subtle touches of color come from stems. "Dogwood [shrub] has red and yellow stems," Brinda said. "On a gray day, those red and yellow stems really stand out."
Barks - Plant trees with white, curly bark or cinnamon-colored bark, such as the river birch. White-barked birches usually prefer colder climates than Richmond, but the river birch is well-adapted to our region, Brinda said. Japanese maple, shrub dogwoods, burning bush, bamboo and sycamore also have distinctive bark.
Berries - American holly and nandina, with bright red or orange berries, add color and attract wildlife to your landscape. Winterberry, a holly that loses its leaves each autumn, is at its best in winter because the lack of foliage makes its berry display all the more showy.
Grasses - Ornamental grasses, left unsheared, will last through winter, although their blades might turn from green to a soft tan.
Ornaments - Add garden structures, sun catchers, statuary or twinkle lights to embellish a gray landscape.
As you plan, Brinda recommends visiting public parks, gardens and nurseries to see the characteristics of plants in the winter landscape.
Lewis Ginter and Maymont label plants so visitors can take notes on appealing species. Other sites that make good winter day trips for gardeners include Monticello in Charlottesville, the Norfolk Botanical Garden (http://www.norfolkbotanical garden.org) and the National Arboretum in Washington (http://www.usna.usda.gov/).
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