There is still beauty to be found after winter has set in, and grey, brown, black, and white are the prominent colors in the landscape.

When designing a garden or adding plants to an established one, it's important to consider how the garden will look in winter because in our climate, we will spend about four months looking at a dormant garden while waiting for spring and warmer weather.

Evergreens are the first group of plants that come to mind. Their greenery persists through winter and continues to create stability and structure during the growing season. There is a variety of foliage colours available in plants like blue spruce, golden false cypress, and grey lavender. A few like hollies and yews will also retain showy berries through the winter. Topiary and trimmed evergreens like boxwood look great with a frosting of snow outlining their shape.

Many trees and shrubs display beautiful dendritic patterns in their bare branches. Their snaking outlines are especially pleasing when they're covered with a frosting of snow, and shining in bright winter sunlight, or tastefully lit at night. Some of these woody architectural elements can have colourful stems like those of dogwoods and kerrias, or textural peeling bark like paperbark and Japanese maples, birches, or the winged growths on burning bush branches.

Herbaceous perennials leave behind dried seedheads (black eyed susans, coneflowers, sedums) that provide a valuable food source for birds. The flowing shapes of dried ornamental grasses and round dried flower heads of hydrangeas can persist through winter and add to the display, if they survive being squished by heavy snow. Some roses have colourful hips if the flowers had not been deadheaded and left to grow.

Right now during winter is a great time to look out at your garden, and consider how to improve it so that next year you can enjoy a beautiful frozen landscape next winter.