Even though the weather has turned cold in Knoxville, Tenn. There are still plenty of beautiful plants that add winter interest to landscaping beds across the city. Here are five of our favorites:

Winter Jasmine

This shrub will spread, mound and vine around, through or over the top of most anything. It’s known for its yellow blooms that burst open in late winter or early spring. It’s tenacious growth makes it perfect for covering slopes or draping over walls or rocks. In the summer, the foliage of this shrub becomes very dense and slightly stringy with green foliage.

Lenten Rose

This evergreen perennial is the cousin to Hostas (although it’s commonly thought to be related to Roses due to its name). It blooms near the religious season of Lent (which is where it gets its name). Lenten Rose spreads well and grows in very shady areas. This plant also produces beautiful buttercup-shaped flowers in a wide variety of colors such as yellow and metallic blue (or pink as you can see from this photo!).

Sango Kaku Japanese Maple

This deciduous tree is small but will pack a beautiful punch as an accent or showpiece in your landscaping. This time of year it’s known for its bark which is vibrantly red. There’s nothing more beautiful in a winter landscaping than the red bark of a Japanese Maple set off by freshly fallen snow. For a recent Carex Design Group landscaping lighting design in the Farragut area of Knoxville, we lit this Sango Kaku (or Coralbark) Japanese Maple with low-voltage landscape lighting made by Kichler. In the summer, this tree will shoot out new growth of lime green that will gradually change to dark green throughout the summer. In the fall it will turn brilliantly orange.

Camellia

This large evergreen shrub has glossy dark green foliage that stays consistent all year round. You can choose from a variety of bloom colors. The Camellia picture below is Coral Delight but it also comes in other pinks, whites and reds. In the Knoxville area, the Camellia generally blooms in January or February (although we got a special treat from the Camellia we have at the Carex Design Group world headquarters in November with the cold snap of weather we saw during that time!).

Angelina Sedum

This spreading, succulent perennial can persist throughout the winter when it’s planted in the right location. This particular plant receives southwest exposure so it receives plenty of sunlight throughout the winter. Its new growth pops out boasting a lime green color and turns orange in the fall before taking on a reddish color in the winter. It’s one of the plants that I commonly refer to as landscaping caulk because it’s great for cleaning up landscaping bed edges and hiding rough corners or awkward leftover spaces.

For help choosing the right plants that will give you an interesting landscaping year round, call us at 865-765-5550 or fill out our contact form.