Winter @ Woodlanders

This luminous evergreen groundcover came into gardens through Heronswood Nursery, from a collection the plantsman Dan Hinkley made on the slopes above the Wolong Panda Preserve in western China. The long, dark green, sharply pointed leaves are laced with bold silver-white veins, a ghostly netting that gives the cultivar the second half of the name and lifts a shaded corner out of the gloom.

Hardiness

Zones 6–9

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade / Full Shade

Height

10–12 in.

Spread

3–5 ft.

Bloom

Green

Plant type

Groundcover

Ilex verticillata is the winterberry, the native deciduous holly grown not for evergreen leaves but for the astonishing display that comes after they fall: bare gray stems packed end to end with bright fruit, lit up across the dead of winter. 'Winter Gold' plays that trick in an unexpected color, trading the usual fire-engine red for warm gold blushed with soft orange-pink, a glowing, gentler note against snow.

Hardiness

Zones 4–8

Light

Full Sun / Part Shade

Height

5–8 ft.

Spread

4–6 ft.

Bloom

White

Plant type

Shrub