Still looking good

Here in Michigan, we spend a lot of time with it being winter. I'm not opposed to that -- it is a quiet, restful time, and I like the break. But I still want the garden to look good. So the other day I took the camera out and walked around the Arrowhead Gardens to see what was still gorgeous despite the dark, gray time of year.

First up, Daphnes!

The wonderful 'Audrey Vochins' is STILL flowering. Which is a bit crazy.We've had weather, but still, dropped well into the low 20s. But still flowering. Daphnes are amazing.

Even without flowers, 'Lawrence Crocker' looks great

As does this collection of Daphne xhendersonii varieties, combines with a Thymus 'Lemon Variegated' and the spectacular bark of Pinus bungeana.

In the rock garden, all the dianthus look wonderful

Globularia nana is a green carpet creeping between rocks... can't wait for the lavender flowers come spring. Also can't wait for the cuttings I stuck to get big enough that we can list this gem in the catalog again...

I can't get enough of the spreading silver gorgeousness that is Teucrium 'Mrs. Milstead'

Moving into the shade gardens, Paxistima is a wonderful, underused evergreen ground cover. It takes heat, dry, and cold without complaint and always looks precisely perfect.

Helleborus foetidus is my very favorite of the genus... Admittedly, the flowers aren't that showy, but that FOLIAGE! This is 'Wester Flisk' which has a lovely reddish flush to the leaves in the winter that contrasts to perfection with the chartreuse of the emerging flower spike. We're busy propagating it, people... stand by.

You know by now that I'm obsessed with Cyclamen hederifolium... Can't get enough of them!

Acorus gramineus 'Minima Aurea' is a new obsession of mine. A tiny little grass-like plant with bright gold foliage that can take partial shade... This is a little one I just put in the gardens by the parking lot, hasn't filled in yet, so it looks a bit ratty, but I LOVE the color. And love that it is still that color now.

Finally, a promise of spring... knobby little flower buds on the witch hazel!