The Mountain Gardener: Make your winter garden a visual feast

Outside my window, there’s a feast going on. The gingko trees are clothed in bright yellow leaves, but soon, they will drop every leaf on almost the same day and cover the ground like carpeting. It’s a feast for the eyes.
Hopping among the branches even as I write this is a tiny, grayish-olive bird with a white eye ring looking for insects. It’s either a kinglet or a vireo — I wish I were a better backyard birder. The Anna’s hummingbird is also here looking for food.
Several plants provide food for winter birds and also give the garden color at the same time.
Why not plant some containers that look great and will supply food for your winged visitors? Grevillea Canberra Gem is blooming now and is a hummingbird favorite. Combine it with winter-blooming annuals, like primroses or pansies and violas.
It’s always amusing to me how much the mail-order catalogs from the East Coast can command for a tiny primrose division, while we here in California find them plentiful and inexpensive.
Mahonia or Oregon grape will bloom soon, and their yellow flowers would look great with golden Iceland poppies. Many of their leaves are purplish or bronze now that the nights have gotten cold, and they are very colorful. Hummingbirds favor their flowers, and many songbirds eat the delicious berries.
Penstemons are a favorite garden perennial and bloom late in the year, attracting hummingbirds. Some are short-lived, but the garnet variety is an exception. Combine it with white cyclamen for a traditional holiday look.
For those really dark places, fragrant sarcococca is perfect combined with red primroses and will bloom very soon. You can smell the perfume from a long distance. Hellebores bloom in the winter, too, and would offer texture in your containers. A variegated osmanthus will hold up even in our harshest weather and would be a showstopper in a Chinese red container.
Dwarf nandina is perfect in winter containers, especially now that the foliage has taken on red and orange tints. Combine it with grass-like orange sedge or reddish-bronze Carex buchananii.
Mexican bush sage pairs beautifully with the deep golden flowers of Mexican marigold. Both of these perennial shrubs grow to 3 feet tall and just as wide and bloom in winter. Hummingbirds love bush sage, and I’ve seen plants bloom right through January, unless we have a hard frost.
If you have room for a small evergreen tree in the garden, consider the strawberry tree. It is easy to grow and has year-round interest. In the fall and winter, clusters of small white or pink urn-shaped flowers attract Anna’s hummingbirds. Fruits resembling strawberries ripen in the fall and attract other birds.
Plant a feast for your eyes and for our feathered friends, too.
• Jan Nelson, a California certified nursery professional at Plant Works in Ben Lomond, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. E-mail her at

ja******@ao*.com











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