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This week, Ken Lain, the Mountain Gardener, invites you into the quiet magic of December gardens, where evergreens shine, winter bloomers surprise, and structure becomes the season’s true beauty. Explore the top plants that thrive in cold mountain weather, from stately spruces and vibrant manzanitas to the rare flowers that dare to open when everything else sleeps. You’ll also discover holiday inspirations, from relaxing Sip & Shop moments to the perfect digital gifts for gardeners. A cozy, winter-ready guide for anyone who loves nurturing beauty even in the coldest months.
December brings a unique magic to the garden. While many plants are dormant, this is the perfect time to establish hardy evergreens and add essential structure and color that will carry your landscape through the winter months and into the spring.
Here are the Top 10 Essential Plants that thrive when planted in the mountainous December weather, providing year-round beauty and holiday cheer:
Majestic Evergreens for Structure
These backbone plants give your landscape shape, texture, and reliable color, even under a dusting of snow.
Colorado Spruce (Picea pungens)
Known for its stately, pyramidal form and beautiful silvery-blue to green needles. It’s tough, deer-resistant, and an iconic symbol of the high country.
Austrian Pine (Pinus nigra)
A dense, rugged, and fast-growing pine with long, dark-green needles. It’s incredibly resilient, tolerates poor soils, and provides fantastic winter screening and windbreak.
Calgary Carpet Juniper (Juniperus sabina)
A superb groundcover that stays low and spreads beautifully. Its rich green foliage handles cold well, making it ideal for rock gardens or draping over walls.
Colorful Conifers & Broadleaf Beauties
Add pops of striking, seasonal color that last all winter long.
Sunset Manzanita (Arctostaphylos densiflora)
Features beautiful, reddish-brown peeling bark and dense, glossy, olive-green foliage. It offers a stunning structure and is very drought-tolerant.
Gulf Stream Nandina (Nandina domestica)
This compact shrub offers phenomenal winter interest, with its fine-textured green leaves transforming into brilliant hues of red, burgundy, and orange as the weather cools.
Red Diamond Photinia (Photinia fraseri)
A bold shrub famous for its brilliant new, glossy red growth. Planting in December allows its roots to settle before it bursts with color in the spring.
The Essential Boxwood and Groundcover
These foundational plants create borders and fill in spaces with rich, evergreen texture.
Winter Gem Boxwood (Buxus microphylla)
The quintessential hedging plant, famous for its dense, deep-green foliage. Plant it now to define borders or shape formal garden beds.
Vinca Minor (Vinca minor)
An excellent, fast-spreading groundcover known for its dark, glossy evergreen leaves and charming, lavender-blue flowers. Perfect for erosion control or covering bare spots.
The Winter Bloomers
These gems defy the cold, offering exquisite flowers when the rest of the garden sleeps.
Ice N Roses Helleborus (Helleborus glandorfensis)
Also known as the Lenten Rose, this plant blooms when little else does. It produces stunning, large, upward-facing flowers in shades of pink, red, or white, adding vital color to shady spots.
Watters Snowman Ice Angles Camellia (Camellia sasanqua)
Enjoy beautiful, clean white blooms against glossy dark green leaves, bringing a sophisticated, romantic touch to the December garden. A truly special winter bloomer!
Garden Fun after the Chaos of Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Sip & Shop the Holiday shop at Watters Garden Center and this year’s Christmas plant highlights. It’s a time to grab a glass of wine and enjoy the company of other gardeners while strolling through the plants. It’s truly relaxing. Come solo, bring a friend, or make it a unique date night.
RSVP Date: December 3rd Time: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
New! Deliver the Garden Gift Digitally
The Watters team has been digitally busy creating the perfect gift cards for the gardeners in your life!
Pick their style and pick your amount.
Personalize your message
Schedule the gift card to be mailed exactly when you’d like—perfect for Christmas morning delivery!
To the gardeners in your life, a gift card is like frosting on the coming garden season. In spring, she can pick exactly what she was hoping for. We all know it’s not the same as a giant flower basket or fragrant rose, but hey, it’s winter. Gardeners understand.
New digital gift cards can, of course, be used in-store. Plus, we’ve given you direct access to our farm, so the gift cards can also be used toward Watters online exclusives with shipping from the farm directly to their door anywhere in the continental United States. Give the gift of green this year!
Until next week, I’ll be helping gardeners with December plants here at Watters Garden Center.
Ken Lain can be found throughout the week at Watters Garden Center, 1815 Iron Springs Rd in Prescott, or contacted through his websites at WattersGardenCenter.com or Top10Plants.com.
Get more gardening tips from Watters Garden Center in the Mountain Gardener Column on Signals A Z.com.
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