By Robin Haglund, CPH

In the Pacific Northwest we are blessed with weather that allows us to create colorful, fragrant, multi-textured year-round gardens. Unfortunately, many who garden here are unaware of the bounty of plants that create sometimes subtle, sometimes striking colors, fragrances and textures throughout the year.

Parney cotoneaster

Many of my clients’ gardens evolved through a series spring and summer nursery trips. They readily admit they garden during the spring and summer but don’t consider the garden "when everything is dead" in the winter. So, their purchases reflect the warm season nursery display "eye-catchers". These seasonal shoppers tend to ignore the "off-season" plants in "boring parts of the nursery". Hence, their gardens may be filled with floriferous geranium, bleeding hearts, Echinacea, and day lily.  But winter bloomers, evergreens, and plants with striking winter bark and berries are mostly absent. Usually, the addition of a few striking winter specimens increases the homeowner’s interest in year-round gardening.  By providing every winter garden with colorful blossoms, fragrant surprises, bird-attracting berries or even simple evergreen foundation ensures an interesting garden even the shortest, darkest winter solstice day.

Before you add winter interest to your garden, remember each garden is different. Each plant should be selected to fit the aesthetics of the homeowner as well as the environmental requirements of the plant. Proper pruning is critical to ensure that these plants perform as expected. That said, following are some plant options - certainly not the only ones - that will provide color to the winter garden as well as interest throughout the year: (* = fragrant)

Garrya eliptica

Whites: White flowers, bark and berries add brightness on dark winter days. Also, they can brighten up dark corners of the garden. Options include: Birch, Snowberry, Hellebore, Camellia sasanqua ‘White Doves’, Flowering Quince, Sarcococca*, Silk Tassel Bush, Star Magnolia and Pieris.

Reds: Red is striking against green boughs and white snow. Options include: Red Twig dogwood, Coral Bark Maples, Parney cotoneaster, Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’, Nandina, and Holly

Pinks: Pink offers a bright reminder that spring is on the way. Pink winter bloomers include: Camellia sasanqua ‘Apple Blossom’, Dawn Viburnum*, Hellebore, Kaffir Lily, Flowering Quince, Winter Daphne*, and Euonymus fortuneii ‘Emerald Gaiety’

Winter Hazel

Yellow: There’s nothing like the brilliant fire of yellow when the sun hasn’t shone in weeks. Add a hint of fire to your winter garden with: Witch Hazel*, Winter Hazel, Yellow Twig dogwood, Forsythia, Edgeworthia*, Hellebore and Mahonia.

Variegated evergreen shrubs: Variegated shrubs have foliage that mixes white or yellow with green. Adding evergreen variegated shrubs like Euonymus, Eleaeganus, Fatsia, Aucuba, Pieris, Forsythia, and Holly to the garden can not only add backdrops to highlight striking specimen planting throughout the year, but they also provide colorful interest in the winter brightening up dark corners and dreary days.

Be sure to consider the variety of benefits beyond color that your selections will make to the garden. Many of these selections will attract nectar-seeking hummingbirds and berry-hunting robins to the winter garden. And, a plant like Parney Cotoneaster offers red berries and evergreen leaves in winter while it also provides important pollinating bees an abundance of white flowers in late spring.  Adding plants that shine colorfully in winter will not only expand your gardening season, but also help you realize that life goes on even in the dead of winter.

Robin Haglund, founder of Garden Mentors, is a garden coach and designer in the greater Seattle area. For more information or to contact Robin visit gardenmentors.com.