Color for all seasons

[homealone]

We all have started demanding more and more out of our landscapes to help improve the appeal of our homes as well as value. Here are some ideas to help keep the curb appeal through out all four seasons of the year. I mean we al use our properties year round, so there should be something to catch the eye even in the dead of winter.
Conifers are the most common for they keep their appearance all year round, though there are several others as well.
The idea behind four seasons appeal is that as one plant has finished putting on its show, others will pick up keeping the appeal alive in your yard. Two rules to keep in mind are knowing when plants are at their best, and the other is to aim for a plan of planting which staggeres to continue the yard performance.
Of course if your yard is not large you will not be able to haphazardly. You will need to allocate space for trees and shrubs, so that later they wont be causing you problems instead of beauty.
By the time spring comes around we all want color as soon as possible so you will want to plant early blooming shrubs such as Forsythia. Forsythia's bloom in early spring usally well before other flowering shrubs or trees.
Now for the summer season it is difficult to find trees or shrubs which will bloom for a good amount of time during the summer. For those in the North I suggest long blooming rose of sharon and for those in the Southeastern I suggest crape myrtle trees.
Next up Fall season I have to suggest maple trees. I also suggest sumac shrubs. Sumac shrubs will bridge the gap between the maples and your sharon bloom. Oak trees are another great idea to plant for they will carry color alot closer to the cold winter months ahead.
Now for the final and most important season, Winter. Winter gives everyone the most trouble when it comes to adding appeal to your home. Winter is usally dominated with the colors of white, brown and grey. These colors are not all that appealing, so here are some conciderations for you. Red osier dogwood for the reddish colored bark,corkscrew filbert as well as contorted hazelnut.

Having beauty outside of the home is just as important as having inside the home.

[missmanors]

Thanks for the advice, it's good to have color year around in our yards, and I'm slowly trying to achieve this with different plantings, sometimes it's difficult trying to decide what is going to bloom when and for how long. I've found that even different colors of foliage helps to bring some interest even if I have nothing blooming in my yard at a particular time.

[badmomma]

I have seen some plants that keep there foliage and it just turns to a different color through the winter. I love all the options and isn't it great to keep a little color in the yard for those all white blinding winter days.

[homealone]

Ensuring that your yard has color all year round, especially in those winter months, really helps to rid yourself of all that depressing white.