Winter interest is part of gardening. Color is part of gardening. Green is a color. That said evergreens fill an important role in any landscape. I wish I had more mature ones in mine.

My favorite groundcover evergreen is a conifer. It's juniper 'Blue Pacific'. It will hug the ground growing little more than 10 inches tall. It spreads quickly, easily matching the more commonly planted 'Blue Rug' juniper. Color is on the blue-silver side of green and holds its color better then the other groundcover evergreens.

In a commercial planting, where the gardener must love shears, it was not nearly as interesting as mine that is left alone. Perhaps the cleanup was sloppy and the dead twigs were trimmings and not plant twigs.

If we go a bit taller, I really like Microbiota commonly called Siberian Cyprus. This one will top out at about 24 inches and will tolerate more shade than many conifers. Foliage resembles an arborvitae and will bronze toward purple in the winter.

Recently I have seen a much finer leafed variety. It looks interesting but I haven't grown it.

My third choice is Chamaecyperus obtusa 'Filicoides'. This one will reach 10 feet and seems to grow fairly quickly. They throw out irregular branches and make an architectural statement at a lot of corners near my patio and walk.

To be honest, I like all the Chamaecyperus. To me they seem to put out more controlled growth and have less disease and insect problems than the more common arborvitae, yews and junipers.

There also are good evergreen shrubs that aren't conifers. A good one is Ilex glabra, a native holly with small round leaves. This one forms a nice elliptical ball that is a bit taller than wide. I would plant this one instead of boxwoods or the small-leafed Japanese hollies because hardiness is a big consideration.

If you haven't figured it out, this article is a third shot at my favorite five plants in some grouping. The final selection is rhododendron. I pick them because of the huge diversity that is available.

Let's start with color. Our choices run nearly the whole spectrum. There is a lot more out there than you would think after a brief tour of the neighborhood in the spring. Recently I spotted a small-leafed one that is about as close to blue as any flower I have seen.

Final plant size can run from about a foot tall to nearly the second story of your house. Recently I saw a presentation about a garden in England that included a picture of a 200-year-old rhododendron. It looked like an oak tree. I hope I'm not gullible.

Leaf size and texture is another variation. One of my favorite groups of rhododendrons are dwarfs that have brownish hair on the underside of their leaves. They are beautiful if you know what you are looking at. Otherwise you will wrinkle your nose and walk past those quickly.

As you already know rhododendrons need a wee bit of shade, a bit of protection from the winter wind and a soil on the acidic side. They have lots of pests but in my garden I have not seen many.

Green is one way to liven up the garden especially in winter and fortunately you have lots of choices to use to do it.