It is easy to enjoy a landscape in the spring. Bright green grass, young, soft perennials and old favorite flowering trees and shrubs bring promise of warmth and beauty in the seasons yet to come. When summer arrives, there are so many choices of flowers and plants available you can create any type of garden. Whether your color scheme is monochromatic, hot yellows, reds and purples or cool blues, grays and greens, sun or shade, you can have it all. Then fall rolls around and without even trying the landscape is ablaze with rich color. Red, yellow, gold, orange, you name it you can see it all in a ride down a tree-lined street.

So when winter arrives what happens? Where are all of the beautiful colors that nature has to offer? Many people are unaware of the various plants that don't peak in their performance until the winter months.

Creating yearlong color and interest in the garden will require not just planning for instant gratification, but keeping in mind the long-term goals. The warmer planting season has so much to offer, it's difficult plant something that will be its most beautiful in six months. But try it anyway, so when annuals and perennials die down, your not left with "nothing".

Planting a garden to look beautiful every season means you must plant evergreen trees, deciduous trees, and flowering shrubs. Keep in mind how some plants will look without their leaves. Consider the color of the bark, the shape of their branches and if they produce berries or flowers.

Evergreen structure is going to be the backbone and most important aspect of your winter garden. Hollies come in many different varieties, offering red or yellow berries as well as glossy blue-green leaves all year long. The Colorado spruce illuminates cool blue tones, which seem to glow in the gray days of winter. 'Mop Head' Chamecyparis trees create a weeping haystack effect and remain a golden yellow all year. For your borders and gardens, many trees are available in dwarf sizes so you can achieve the benefit of an evergreen without overtaking your entire garden. Leaf variegation is another way of gaining yellows, whites and greens. Some plants that can provide this interesting foliage are boxwood, hollies, and pieris. When you mix all these trees together they create a kaleidoscope of color.

Deciduous trees and shrubs are the most versatile "must haves" in every landscape. These plants can wow you with their flowers in spring, comfort you with shade in summer, warm you with color in fall, and amaze you with beauty in winter. After their leaves have dropped, these plants may offer vibrant berries, extraordinary bark color, patterns and shapes. Stewartia, a small to mid size tree has beautiful white flowers in spring, and smooth bark that sheds to expose an olive green, tan and gray camouflage pattern. The paperbark maple also has exfoliating bark with rich copper color tones and when paired up with winterberry hollies create a combination that is not short of stunning in the landscape. Harry Lauders Walking stick is probably the best example of branch shape that creates a huge design element. Its contorted branches are awesome alone, add a light layer of white snow and it steals the show for eye-catching interest. What could be better than all of this to attract attention in your winter's garden? Flowers! Witch Hazel is a shrub that blooms in the colder months of winter. Its flowers come in an array of colors from bright yellow to deep magenta. Depending on the variety, it blooms from December to March. For all of you that think that they are restricted with shade, this ones for you! With the help of these plants, your garden can go from evergreen to ever-changing.

So next time you are plant shopping, keep in mind that spot in your garden that could use a little interest in the cold winter months. Purchase a plant that you like now and will love later.