Winter Container Gardening

I decided to add an evergreen to the containers on my stoop when the summer and fall plants bit the dust. I figured I could move the plant to my perennial border in the spring and start all over again. I found these Dwarf Hinoki Cypress (Chamecyparis obtusa 'Golden Sprite' that were about the right size. They are very compact and do just the trick to bring some green into the otherwise bare containers.

Grasses (miscanthus zebrina)

Ornamental grasses have year round beauty. They come up with new green shoots in the spring, grow tall and striking in the summer, send up beautiful plumes in the fall, give structure to the landscape in the winter. I never cut mine back until early spring, just when the new shoots begin to appear.