Despite overnight lows down into the teens and snow flurries a number of times last month, my garden is surprisingly green for December 1st. Of course, my conifers are the green mainstay once serious snow arrives. For now, however, quite a few plants are still providing bursts of greenery.
Many of my Carexes retain their color, but none looks better than C. plantaginea. I have it growing in ground cover swaths as well as specimen plants like this one along the stone steps up into the front garden.

At the top of the steps is one of many Christmas ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides), all looking good. This fern takes a while to attain a decent size; but once there, it is an instant garden treasure.

Not far from the Christmas fern is this big patch of Epimedium perralchicum 'Weihenstephan'. This is one variety that retains good looking green foliage longer than any other Epimedium variety in my garden.

This Helleborus foetidus functions as a shrub in the back garden.

Luzula sylvatica 'Solar Flare' is interspersed among Hellebores and spring snowdrops. It keeps its bright yellow green color until the snow covers it.

Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' is a Zone 6 plant that has survived for three years in my Z5 garden. It always looks good but the plant is shrinking rather than growing.

Last spring I moved and divided my Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance'). It has taken a long time for me to finally find the right home for this fern but all of them settled in beautifully and are still looking sprightly.

I keep adding interesting ferns when I see them. Polystichum makinoi is from a PNW nursery but has done well here.

The deceptively delicate-looking Adiantum venustum aka the Himalayan maidenhair fern. When this fern is happy it can be a bit of a monster. Another clump of it is currently eating an Epimedium that may not survive the process.

There are a number of Digitalis seedlings in the garden which make it look like spring is almost here!
