Mild Winters

• If you live in an area where the winters are mild and only experience light frosts occasionally, then you have many choices for your winter window garden. Pansies or primrose planted close together give a touch of color to an overcast day. Evergreen grasses and vines inter-mixed can add to the display. Plant hardy geraniums (they come in fabulous colors), or early spring bulbs such as narcissus, snowdrops, crocus, miniature daffodils or hyacinth. Because plants grow slowly, if at all, during winter, your window garden will look more attractive if it is full or tightly packed with plants. Ivy, silvery dusty miller, or flowering kale or cabbage make great filler plants in a winter window box. Many herbs also winter well such as rosemary, sage and lavender.
  Lily of China has dark green clusters of leaves with a center cluster of bright red berries in the winter. Sedum planted in the summer will bloom pink then gradually fade to copper but then turn red for over-winter color (see resource 3).
  
  

Cold Winters

• You can use evergreen branches to spruce up your winter window boxes if you live in colder areas. Just do not simply pile them into the box. Think of it as if you were doing a large flower arrangement. Have variation in the height, use several different types of evergreen, or mix in deciduous evergreen branches to create visual appeal with a variety of textures. Add pine cones, holly, mistletoe or berry branches. Tie pomegranates in among the needles or add magnolias.
  There are also some live plants that do well over a cold winter. Heather, ivy, miniature shrubs such as boxwood, dwarf spruce or Leyland cypress, and dwarf holly mixed with early blooming bulbs will make a striking display. Fill in and add color with perennial grasses.