Winter Landscape: Brown Is a Color Too …

Charlotte Weidner | February 14, 2026

For many parts of the country, winter can seem bleak or boring and well ... brown. But remember… brown is a color too! When looking at your plants beneath drifts of snow, you can forget that brown is one of our favorite colors! And there are so many different shades, each accenting other colors in the winter landscape for some truly beautiful results!

Brownies, Café au lait, Tea, Cinnamon, Ginger, Chocolate, Pecan, Walnut, Mocha, Caramel, and Coffee. Is your mouth watering yet? Other hues like Sand, Russet, Tawny, Umber, Taupe, Faun, and Khaki and conjure feelings of warmth and comfort! Sable, Gold, Copper, Penny, Brass, and Bronze all sound rich and luxurious!

Landscaping with brown in mind is as important to the landscape palette as other colors throughout the year, if not more! Because it only shines when the snow flies!

Beautiful Brassy Grasses

The most common winter browns are native and Ornamental Grasses. Ranging from tan, sable, blond and brown, they’ve become standard winter interest throughout the coldest seasons!

Those sandy, creamy beiges add fine texture and form, are an obvious choice all year.

Wildly popular because of the dimension and motion they add to the dormant garden, combined with their dramatic fall colors, Grasses can be wildly showy! The attractive feathery seed heads dry and wave in the wind. They’re just amazing when backlit by the setting sun, or landscape lighting all year long!

Earthy Branches & Bark

Deciduous shrubs, like colorful Red Twig Dogwoods and Burning Bush, really show their stuff once their stems are laid bare! The unique twisted branches of Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick are revealed only when the leaves fall. While Pussywillow and Corkscrew Willow glow with brassy yellow, contorted stems!

The blushed trunks of Coral Bark Japanese Maples shine and Cherry trees show off gorgeous chestnut-red bark and dramatic lenticels in winter. Or add texture with peeling Paperbark Maples or uniquely bumpy Hackberry Trees. The gray flakey bark of Ironwood trees or the ghostly white and burnished gold of Birch and Aspen stands out among the snow.

Bronzed Winter Accents

Some Evergreen shrubs and trees celebrate by taking on bronzed winter hues! The Fernspray False Cypress retains its unique foliage but becomes a lovely chestnut brown. Arborvitae and Eastern Red Cedars flush burnt umber, ochre, and bronze. Russian Arborvitae transforms into beautiful taupe-brown shades during the colder months.

Broadleaf Evergreens such as Abelia, Oregon Grape Holly, and Rhododendrons go through a color change in the cold to break up the dreary winter views! And the unique purple-brown winter tones of some Encore Azaleas stand out against the white snow!

But don’t worry, that winter Sepia returns to its verdant green once temperatures warm and the chlorophyll reactivates in the warmth of early spring.

Comforting Brown Botanicals

Hydrangeas add immensely to the dormant landscape with flower heads that dry and persist, turning an antique brown! Those dormant flower heads make bold statements and last forever! Useful for decoration and crafts while catching and sculpting the snow beautifully.

Don’t be in such a hurry to cut all the beautiful seed heads off in your Perennial borders! Offering different shades of tan, sienna, mahogany, almond, and taupe. Those Perennial plants and their dormant mounds of leaves, stems, and seedpods in varied hushed tones of tea and latte.

Hypericum St. John’s Wort has colorful seed pods and Coral Bells feature semi-evergreen foliage adding to a truly remarkable winter landscape! Coneflowers and Blackeyed Susan are not only attractive dried seed heads but nature’s bird feeders!

Brown Backdrops!

Mixing Broadleaved Evergreens, such as Boxwood and Hollies, seems to set off your dormant plants and grass combinations. A backdrop for others, Evergreens like Pines, Fir, and Spruce, and Japanese Yews, Distylium, and the vast array of Junipers, create harmony among your winter garden beds.

Oak trees are one of our favorite winter browns with amazing character. Many varieties of Oak hold their leaves until spring, retaining their honey-hued foliage for interest, screening, rustling sounds, and backdrops in your landscape.

Embrace the Challenge!

Harvest hues, antique golds, sultry sepia, warm wheat, saddle, and sand. The far-reaching palette of the color brown just may have you enjoy seeing the temperatures drop!

Create a garden that’s the envy of the neighborhood (and neighborhood wildlife) today. Now is a great time to find plants that increase the aesthetics of your home and extend your garden enjoyment all winter long!

So when the snow flies, bundle up and let Nature Hills Nursery help you incorporate this vastly underused color into your landscape and embrace beloved brown!

Previous Next

Frequently Asked Questions

Which shrubs, grasses, and perennials hold the most attractive brown stems, seed heads, or bark through winter?

Ornamental grasses are among the best plants for winter interest, with their feathery seed heads drying to sandy, blond, and sable tones that catch the light beautifully from fall through late winter. Red Twig Dogwood and Burning Bush reveal striking bare stems once their leaves drop, while Harry Lauder's Walking Stick offers uniquely twisted branches that become a focal point in the dormant garden. For bark interest, Coral Bark Japanese Maple, Paperbark Maple, and river birch provide rich chestnut, peeling, and burnished tones that stand out dramatically against snow. Plan your winter garden by layering these plants together so that grasses provide soft texture in the foreground while branching shrubs and ornamental bark trees anchor the mid and background.

How do I design a winter garden so brown tones look intentional and structured rather than neglected?

Designing a winter garden with purposeful brown tones comes down to layering texture, form, and contrast so the eye reads structure rather than decay. Pair upright ornamental grasses like Karl Foerster with the twisted branching of Harry Lauder's Walking Stick and the bold bark of Coral Bark Japanese Maple to create distinct visual anchors. Incorporate evergreen backdrops such as Arborvitae or Eastern Red Cedar, which flush bronze and umber in winter, to frame the browns and signal that the composition is deliberate. Start planning your plant combinations in fall so you can evaluate sightlines and spacing before dormancy sets in, ensuring each element has room to be seen and appreciated.

How can I tell whether brown foliage on an evergreen is winter stress, dormancy, or a sign of disease?

Some evergreens naturally bronze or tan up in winter as a protective response to cold and desiccation, which is completely normal and temporary, with color returning in spring as temperatures rise. True winter stress or disease typically shows up as browning that starts from the tips inward, affects only one side of the plant (often the windward or sun-exposed side), or appears in irregular patches rather than as an even overall color shift. If the browning is uniform across the plant and the stems are still flexible and green when scratched, you are most likely looking at seasonal dormancy. Monitor the plant through late spring, and if new growth does not emerge or the stems snap dry and show no green tissue beneath the bark, consult your local cooperative extension office about possible disease or root damage.

Should I cut back brown perennials in fall or leave them standing for winter interest and wildlife habitat?

Leaving perennials standing through winter is almost always the better choice, both for garden beauty and wildlife support. Seed heads feed birds like goldfinches and chickadees, hollow stems shelter native bees, and the dried structure adds genuine texture and movement to the dormant landscape, especially when backlit by low winter sun. Wait until late winter or early spring, just before new growth emerges, typically February or March depending on your zone, to cut stems back to a few inches above the ground. Resist the urge to tidy up in fall and let your garden do double duty as a habitat and a source of visual interest all season long.

How do I layer brown textures in a border or foundation planting so the winter landscape feels cohesive?

To layer brown textures effectively, place tall ornamental grasses like switchgrass or maiden grass at the back for height and movement, mid-border deciduous shrubs like Harry Lauder's Walking Stick or Red Twig Dogwood in the middle for sculptural branching interest, and low evergreen groundcovers or Fernspray False Cypress at the front for a chestnut-brown anchor. Vary the textures deliberately, pairing fine feathery grass seed heads against the bold peeling bark of a Paperbark Maple or the bumpy silhouette of a Hackberry to create contrast that reads as cohesive rather than chaotic. Backlit plantings near a walkway or foundation wall become especially dramatic when landscape lighting is added, turning tan and sable tones into rich gold. Shop Nature Hills for ornamental grasses, specimen shrubs, and deciduous trees that provide layered winter interest suited to your hardiness zone.

Which ornamental grasses keep their upright brown structure the longest into winter without flopping or rotting?

Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) is widely regarded as the most structurally reliable ornamental grass through winter, holding its upright form well into late February or even March in Zones 4-9 without flopping. Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is another excellent choice, standing firm at 2 to 4 feet with warm russet and copper tones that persist beautifully through heavy snow and ice loads. Switch Grass varieties like Shenandoah and Northwind also maintain strong vertical structure through winter in Zones 4-9, with Northwind in particular resisting flopping due to its unusually stiff stems. For best results, leave these grasses standing all winter for wildlife habitat and visual interest, then cut them back to about 4 to 6 inches in late February or early March before new growth emerges.

How can I use mulch, fallen leaves, and natural ground textures to make brown look like a deliberate design choice?

Spreading a 2 to 3 inch layer of shredded bark or wood chip mulch around plant beds unifies the ground plane and signals intentional design rather than neglect. Chopped or shredded fallen leaves used as mulch add a rich, layered texture that complements the tawny and sable tones of ornamental grasses and bare branches above. Echo those earth tones by grouping plants with contrasting bark colors and seed heads so the brown palette reads as a cohesive composition rather than an accident. This fall, before the ground freezes, apply fresh mulch and arrange any remaining leaf material to frame your key specimen plants and reinforce the deliberate layered look.

What winter care steps help perennials and shrubs hold their brown seed heads and stems instead of collapsing in wet or icy weather?

Leaving perennial stems and ornamental grasses uncut until late winter or early spring is the first step, as the fibrous structure of intact plants supports itself far better than trimmed stubs. For shrubs like Red Twig Dogwood or grasses prone to flopping under ice load, loosely tie clumps with jute twine in late fall before the first heavy freeze to keep them upright without crushing the seed heads. In Zones 4 and colder, avoid shaking or disturbing ice-laden stems, as the plant material is more brittle and breakage is more likely than in milder climates. Wait until late February or March to cut back grasses and perennials, giving structure all winter while avoiding the wet, heavy snow damage that early pruning invites.

How do I combine brown winter plants with evergreens, berries, or bark color so the overall landscape stays visually interesting?

Pairing warm brown ornamental grasses and dried seed heads against the deep green of arborvitae or Eastern Red Cedar creates instant contrast, especially since conifers like cedar take on rich bronze and umber tones in winter that bridge the two. Add a pop of red by planting Red Twig Dogwood nearby, whose bare stems glow brightest after the leaves drop in fall. Anchor the composition with a multi-season tree like Coral Bark Japanese Maple or a Birch, whose white and gold bark reflects light and ties together the surrounding textures. Layer these plants in groupings of three or five, placing tall grasses and trees at the back, mid-height shrubs with berry or bark interest in the middle, and low broadleaf evergreens at the front for a landscape that holds visual weight all winter long.

Which plants work best for dry brown winter texture in beds and borders across a range of cold hardiness zones?

Ornamental grasses are the top performers for dry brown winter texture across a wide range of hardiness zones, with options suited to zones 3 through 9 depending on the variety. Their feathery seed heads dry beautifully on the plant, holding structure through snow and wind while adding movement and fine texture to beds and borders from late fall well into late winter. Native grasses like Little Bluestem (zones 3-9) and ornamental selections like Maiden Grass (zones 4-9) offer warm tawny, sable, and sandy blond tones that look especially stunning when backlit by low winter sun or landscape lighting. Plant a mix of upright and arching varieties at varying heights throughout your borders this fall to build a layered, textural winter display that requires little to no maintenance until you cut them back in late winter or early spring.