Maybe You Didn't Know...

Though it's cold and the ground is covered with brittle, dead leaves, your garden can still be colorful from December to March. Here's how:

Camellia blooms from November to March. In my garden, I have four blooming right now. Camellia flowers come in red, pink, white and various combinations of these pastels. The plant likes shade. It offers a glossy, evergreen leaf and comes in differing sizes.

Winter Jasmine blooms in from late January to mid-March. The yellow bloom precedes Forsythia. Jasmine's flowers grow in the sun or shade on long, evergreen strands. Its' leaf is a small oval shape.

Mahonia offers fragrant yellow flowers on the top of its evergreen branches. Due to flower in January-February, blooms have begun appearing in early December.

Daphne offers a fragrant pink and white bloom in December. Its' leaves are variegated and growth habit is like a ground cover (under two feet tall with similar spread).

Hellebores has thick blooms in white and mauve from late February through autumn. Blooms nod beneath the thick, toothed foliage - a beautiful sight when the weather is chilly and little else is flowering.

Quince has a coral, red, pink or white flower with a yellow eye from late February into April. The flower is precocious (showing before the foliage). Blooms are cup-shaped and eye-catching when filling the leafless branches in late winter.