Winter

I really enjoy changing seasons. Yes, I enjoy winter landscapes, too. While I like to incorporate a few evergreen accents, evergreen is not my focus to create winter interest. It is all about creating textures and richness of foliage color.  

The photos above were taken in late December 2024/early January 2025. Of course, every winter is different here in North Texas, and so the winter landscape looks different depending on the weather pattern that particular year. This was a mild winter with a week and we did not have any major dips in temperatures until second part of February 2025 when we dipped to about 12 degrees Fahrenheit a couple of times.

There is beauty in plants going dormant, being dormant or going to seed. It is a different kind of beauty. More subdued, more intricate. Sometimes needing to be appreciated up-close.

Seedheads on Lindheimer's Senna (Senna lindheimeriana) remind me of jewels - they really stand out in the garden.  Resembling nature's earrings. 

Bushy Bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus) provides outstanding color and texture in the garden. It is a strong vertical accent in the garden with cinnamon colored seedheads and foliage in the winter.

You might be familiar with Frostweed's (Verbesina virginica) winter magic trick that gives us ice sculptures come first hard freeze.

Typically, freezing rain is not exactly good news. But there is a silver lining in most things - ice covered branches and seedheads can be very attractive. Photo above shows off Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) in winter.

And sometimes you even get to enjoy blooms in the winter. Both the photo above and below were taken in January 2025 about a week apart. Four-nerve Daisy seems to have it all if you can give it the right conditions - it is evergreen, compact and has very long blooming period.