Silvery artichoke at Dallas Arboretum

Ornamental cabbage & kale at Dallas Arboretum

It’s fall and many gardeners take leave of their garden until spring. Autumn is a great time to create new color schemes that will carry over into the winter garden. It’s just like spring all over again! Frost hardy flowering plants get their turn, such as pansies, violas, snapdragons, and diascias (USDA Hardiness zone 7), a recent addition to this list. Plant them in containers or in ground beds.

Tough winter foliage plants such as Swiss chard, giant red mustard, bull’s blood beets, artichoke, and ornamental cabbage or kale are great garden companions. Add fragrant evergreen herbs around a porch, deck or patio areas such as rosemary, lavender, sage and thyme.

Design with in fall/winter plants in containers or garden beds. A good container assortment contains various plant forms and leaf colors. Spiky narrow evergreen shrubs such as ‘Green Arrow’ Alaskan cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis), ‘DeGroot Spire’ arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis), ‘Sky Pencil’ holly (Ilex crenata), or ‘Dee Runk’ boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) add height to a bed or container design.

Weeping and spreading evergreens make colorful “spillers” such as yellow needled ‘All Gold’ juniper (J. conferta ‘All Gold’), winter bronze-leaf Russian arborvitae (Microbiota decussata), or green needled Prostrata plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Prostrata’).

To insure winter survival, blanket the soil with 2 to 3 inches of organic mulch for root insulation and to conserve soil moisture. Prune off dead blooms and unsightly foliage. Flowering annuals, particularly pansies and violas, benefit from bi-monthly feeding with 10-10-10 or equivalent fertilizer or monthly watering incorporating water-soluble Miracle-Gro™, Jack’s™, or Daniels™.