Instead of barren trees, empty beds, and a few evergreen shrubs, why not improve your winter garden with rich, layered textures and beautiful, bright plants? Plan now for a winterscape filled with color and golden cheer is a sure way to cure the winter blues. Pretty pops of color among sprinkles of snow or vibrant, golden-green hues nestled in fallen leaves makes your garden a pleasure year-round.
Create Bright Borders with Golden, Evergreen Groundcovers
For an easy, colorful burst of winter brightness, EverColor® Carex plants are perfect for year-round lovely landscapes. These easy-to-grow sedges provide the perfect spark of color to your garden and landscape.
- Height: 20″
- Width: 20″
- Sun needs: sun, semi-shade to full shade
- Hardy to: zone 5b
- Location: groundcover, living wall, perennial and annual borders, combination containers
EverColor® ‘Everglow’ distinctive green foliage with orange margins glows beautifully in the garden, with spring’s hint of orange maturing into a fiery sunset blaze in fall—lasting all winter.
‘Everillo’ sports lime-green leaves that become golden-yellow when mature. The low-maintenance carex forms neat, controlled mounds that gleam even in full shade.
‘Everoro’ boasts deeper color with its distinctive rich golden striped foliage. This deer-resistant beauty works well in borders and balcony containers.
Create Bright Winter Garden Borders with Golden, Evergreen Groundcovers
Euonymus fortunei Summer Runner looks lovely in warm weather, but wait until you see its variegated foliage and spreading habit in the winter garden!
- Height: 20″
- Width: 12″
- Sun needs: sun to semi-shade
- Hardy to: zone 4a
- Location: hedges, a focal point in garden or container, low maintenance ground cover
When snow blankets the garden and grey skies make moods gloomy, we all need a bit of ‘Happiness’—especially of the Euonymus japonicus variety. Bright golden foliage lights up the garden.
- Height: 24″
- Width: 10″
- Sun needs: sun to semi-shade
- Hardy to: zone 6b
- Location: low maintenance borders, containers
If you need to turn up the volume in your landscape during quiet, wintery days, add Ilex aquifolium ‘Golden DJ’ to planting plans.
- Height: 47″
- Width: 20″
- Sun needs: sun, part-shade to full shade
- Hardy to: zone 6a
- Location: mass plantings, borders, hedge, container, or combination planting
Juniperus Lemon Pfizz’s lovely lemon color remains true all year on this densely branched, low-spreading plant.
- Height: 47″ after 10 years
- Width: 28″ after 10 years
- Sun needs: full sun to semi-shade
- Hardy to: zone 5b
- Location: mass planting
Another conifer offering a golden glow for the winter garden is Thuja plicata Golden Spire. This spectacular yellow conifer doesn’t suffer from sunburn.
- Hardy to: zone 6a
- Location: mass planting or single in landscape or container
For the perfect bright pyramid, Thuja occidentalis Sunny Smaragd stands out. The gorgeous bright yellow color and upright habit can stand alone.
- Sun needs: full sun to semi-shade
- Hardy to: zone 4a
- Location: mass planting or single in landscape or container
Plant Perennials for Golden, Winter Charm
Whether you’re looking for a great burst of garden brightness or want to create movement and texture in the landscape, perennials offer the perfect garden addition. Plant once, and enjoy these golden beauties for years.
Hakonechloa macra Sunflare™ is a new introduction to the popular Japanese forest grass. Sunflare’s vibrant chartreuse leaves become intense golden yellow, accented with deep crimson, randomly-appearing highlights.
- Height: 12-18″
- Width: 18-24″
- Sun needs: partial sun
- Hardy to: zone 5a
- Location: woodland, waterside, slope, perennial border, mixed container, mass planting, edging, or container specimen.
Fern lovers, rejoice! You’re no longer limited to green in the garden! Dryopteris wallichiana Jurassic Gold creates a gorgeous golden spark in the garden. Young golden-orange spring shoots fade to bright golden-yellow and green as they mature.
- Height: 24″
- Width: 18″
- Sun needs: shade
- Hardy to: zones 5-9
- Location: beds, borders, or containers
For creating both interesting texture and movement in the winter garden, add Miscanthus sinensis Alligator. Not only unique leaf markings, the low maintenance plant flowers in September, with the silvery plumes providing gorgeous color and movement throughout winter.
- Sun needs: sun to partial shade
- Hardy to: zone 6a
- Location: mass plantings, containers, or to create a wind or privacy screen.
Pennisetum alopecuroides Lumen Gold™ provides golden spring foliage that turns lime green in summer, but in colder climates and placed in full sun, the foliage becomes more yellow than green. In summer, brown flowers add interest, lasting throughout winter.
- Height: 10″
- Width: 12″
- Sun needs: sun to partial shade
- Hardy to: zone 5a
- Location: solitary, borders, mass plantings, or containers.
While golden plants dress up your winter landscape, remember that winter offers the perfect opportunity to assess the bones of your garden, too.
Evaluate the structures that give your garden definition and interest, even when there’s not a bloom in sight. Good garden bones provide the foundation for creating a welcoming, interesting landscape that thrives throughout the four seasons—and golden plants add the perfect sparkle to brighten your mood throughout the chilly months.
“This post on creating your own winter garden with golden plants is provided as an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. Please credit and link to National Garden Bureau when using all or parts of this article.”
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2 comments. Leave new
Many colored-foliage plants revert to green in the hot, humid summers of Piedmont NC. Will the plants cited in this article retain their yellow and gold colors through the summer?
Hi Marty – We checked with the breeder of these plants who said that “The only one that doesn’t really retain the color is Jurassic Gold. The gold is part of the new flush and then turns green. All the rest will stay the yellow and gold.”