24 January 2026 Winter Interest

With a big snowstorm on the way, it’s actually a great time to check out your native garden! Am I crazy? Perhaps. What could we possibly be doing in the garden in a snowstorm? We’re looking for winter interest!

A NEORSD site after a snowstorm.

I am a big fan of resisting fall cleanup and cutback for all kinds of reasons. Wildlife need tall grasses and flower stems for habitat. Insects overwinter in leaves and stems left intact. Not only that, those stems you didn’t cut back make geometric patterns in the snow. The seed heads if spent flowers attract birds, whose colors contrast perfectly against the white. Red Winterberries Ilex verticillata call your attention through the snow. The shrubs and trees altogether look like calendar photos…and ohmygoodness if the sun pops out, the sparkles of snow on an evergreen branch blow me away! 

The Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) shows off a cool starburst pattern, 

A Hawthorn tree’s berries are easy for wildlife to see in the snow. (Crataegus sp.)

I’ve had a neighbor or two comment about my insistence on leaving the stems of my dead flowers upright. An untrained eye might see them as “messy”. But they draw your attention after a snowfall so much more powerfully than a flat surface. It’s visually interesting to see a garden asleep and dormant. My mind calms while I imagine the cozy moths cuddled up in their cocoons on Baptisia stems, the rabbits burrowed under my Spicebush, and the birds sheltering under yellow prairie grasses. 

Neighbors talk about my yard because there is something to talk about. 

Dried leaf or moth cocoon?

Even without snow, the Staghorn Sumac shows off. (Rhus typhina)

Native Cattails popping through the snow.(Typha latifolia)

The whole landscape is a winter dream. 

Everyone loves Red Osier Dogwood! (Cornus sericea)

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) dormant for the season.