Though woody plants are the heart and soul of my winter garden, I make use of a wide range of perennials. But I chose them for the way they look in winter, even if they're dormant during the coldest months of the year. A plant's structure and foliage are far more important in the winter garden. Whatever perennials I use, they are almost always planted near the outer boundary of a border or bed. To me, they're edging plants. All the woodies give the winter garden a bigger-than-life feel, and in that scale, the perennials, even big ones, seem rather small and decorative by comparison.
Few gardeners grow perennials for the way they look in winter, but there are many plants with terrific presence that time of year. The bright bayonets of a golden sword yucca (Yucca filamentosa 'Golden Sword') make a fine foil for a pine (Pinus sylvestris 'Aurea') with a bronze color in winter, or a stand of red-twig dogwoods.
Eu-phorbias are also an effective winter perennial - many varieties have an excellent aboveground display throughout the year. I like the deep purple leaves of spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea') in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6 ( - 10ºF) garden; they look especially striking next to the honey-colored, winter-blooming flowers of witch-hazel (Hamamelis X intermedia 'Arnold Promise'). Witch-hazel provides its own garden intrigue in winter, when snows coat its yellow blossoms. Then of course, there are the grasses. Nearly all the perennial grasses have good winter interest, with soft textures and seed heads that wave in the wind like banners. Nearly any miscanthus (Miscanthus spp.) or fountain grass (Pennisetum spp.) can find useful employment in a planting scheme. Heaths (Erica spp.) and heathers (Calluna spp.) are other good choices, especially any of the brightly colored cultivars. When snow flies, the dried stalks of Sedum 'Autumn Joy' create a silhouette that looks especially intriguing, even more so if the composition includes the graceful shapes created by the trunk and branches of a Japanese maple.
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