Katie Spanuello
Special to Home for the Holidays

Jeff Gatewood, president of Allisonville Nursery in Fishers, says that as long as you can still dig into the ground, you can still plant. He recommends mixing colors and textures in ways that really stand out. "Plant items that have appeal during the winter months - beautiful berries, colored and exfoliating bark, conifers. Evergreens are interesting to look at even in winter."

Dana Altum, owner of Altum Gardens in Zionsville, likes anything berried. "Birds leave these berries alone during the winter because they are frozen. So you can enjoy their beauty. Then, the birds eat them in the spring when they thaw."

Altum also recommends:

Crabapples - They hold their berries through the winter.

Hawthorn, Viburnum - They have clusters of berries. Check out the new   
variety called Autumn Jazz.

Ornamental grasses - They look pretty with frost.

Winterberry Holly -They have big berries and come in different varieties  and colors.

Gatewood says that the red-twig dogwood does well in this plant hardiness zone. "This shrub has leaves that drop in fall, leaving branches that are bright red," Gatewood says. "Plant several in a cluster and it creates a gorgeous winter affect when there is snow on the ground. When you look out, there is more to enjoy than just barren nothing."  There also are yellow-twig dogwoods which stand out against the winter landscape.

Gatewood recommends:

Winterberry Holly - This deciduous plant drops its leaves in winter and produces bright red berries.

Holly - This has evergreen foliage.

River Birch - This exfoliating, tan bark is beautiful in a winter landscape.

Pyracantha - This shrub has orange berries through the winter.

Evergreens - Such as box wood, spruce and pine.

And last but not least, don't forget about your container gardens, Gatewood says. Don't greet your visitors with dried up plants from last spring. Replant these sentries with winter beauties. "This is something that people don't think about enough," Gatewood says. "Specifically those concrete containers at the end of driveways. They look ugly in winter. Plant them with miniature Christmas trees, holly shrubs. Decorate them with pine cones and evergreen and hawthorn branches stuck into the soil."