• Choose evergreen ferns for a touch of green in your winter garden.Comstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  The most familiar plants growing in your yard that don't produce seeds are mosses and ferns, both of which reproduce through spores. While most of your garden plants die back with the arrival of cold weather and frosts, many of these ancient plants remain green throughout the winter, livening up an otherwise dormant garden bed.
  
  

Mosses

• Many gardeners think of mosses more as weeds -- pests that creep in to mar otherwise attractive lawns and gardens. Mosses can enhance a garden, however, particularly in hard-to-grow spots among rocks or in the deep shade under trees. Because mosses don't have to draw water from the frozen Earth but, instead, absorb it directly into their leaves, many mosses remain green throughout the winter as long as they receive a steady source of water. Pillowy clumping mosses can add green accents to a garden or occupy the spaces between pavers or stones. Spreading mosses create vast sheets of low, delicately textured green. Mosses used in gardening include Polytrichum juniperinum, Leucobrynum glaucum and Brachythecium oxycladon.
  
  

Maidenhair Spleenwort

• The maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) is an evergreen fern with wiry, scraggly purplish stems that spring asymmetrically from the Earth, reaching heights up to 6 inches. Small, round leaves adorn the stems in a much simpler pattern than the typical fern frond. The maidenhair spleenwort grows naturally on limestone and rocky outcroppings. If you try it in your garden, it prefers to grow in the shade.
  
  

Champion's Wood Fern

• Unlike many winter-hardy fern species, the champion's wood fern (Dryopteris championii) not only stays green throughout the winter but its triangle-shaped foliage also remains upright. The champion's wood fern can withstand winter weather through USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5. Unlike many fern species, it doesn't mind direct sunlight or dry soil, although you can grow it alongside other ferns in moist, partial-shade sites as well.
  
  

Holly and Christmas Ferns

• Just like its namesake, holly ferns (Cyrtomium species) remain green throughout the year and provide winter interest in your garden. Their coarse-textured, dense foliage can reach almost 3 feet in height in some species. A tough plant, holly ferns can survive in full sun to shade, although they will require supplemental watering during dry spells. The holly fern also appreciates rich, well-drained soil, liquid fertilizer and occasional grooming to remove brown foliage.
  
  The Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) earns its name from its evergreen foliage, which enlivens the garden through the holidays and beyond. An easy-to-grow fern, it thrives in moist, well-drained soil and a shady site and can survive through Zone 5. Too much sun will cause its foliage to become pale. Its rugged foliage grows in clumps and makes it well-suited as an accent or a border plant.