When It Blooms: Although technically a winter plant, the winter gem boxwood can bloom at any time of year. Like witch hazel, it makes an excellent boundary marker for a bed or property.

The boxwoods are planted in patterns, creating interior spaces that are perfect nooks for pops of color. During the winter, these beds often host pansies and bulbs, like tulips or daffodils.

Recommended cultivars, hardy to Southeastern Michigan, include Green Velvet, Green Mountain, Buxus microphylla koreana and Winter Gem.

A few evergreens that can grow in the shade are the boxwood, Mahonia, aucuba and nandina. I have all in my yard and use them for flower arrangements as well as focal points.

Boxwoods are valuable in the garden all year long, but their evergreen leaves of rich green and dense shapes — whether trimmed in formal designs or left to grow naturally — take center stage ...

Boxwoods are well suited to meet regional landscaping demands because they are slow- growing, cold-hardy in Kentucky and favor just a bit of daily mottled shade; they do need well-drained soil.