The goal is not to bring tidings of comfort and joy, but rather give you a heads-up on several winter plants that add spectacular color during the cold months.

So begin to plan and plant these beauties to perk up the garden.

The Lenten Rose offers beautiful long-lasting flowers in a full range of colors from yellow to white to pink and mint green that complement blue-green leaves. When planted 12 inches apart, these woodland flowers highlight the garden among ferns, hosta and bletilla, their late winter blooms growing up to 24 inches tall. When planted in partial shade, enriched with organic matter and watered weekly, this horticultural beauty blooms from winter to early spring. Lenten Rose makes a colorful winter surprise in a container pot.

While working at a nursery in Carthage I was introduced to goldenrod, a magnificent six-foot plant that glorifies itself with stems producing a yellow splash of spikes that appear to hang like the gardens of Babylon. Mimosa-like blooms appear strong through the months of October and November, remaining for a wintry texture in the garden. Goldenrod can be divided and planted between the months of March and May.

One of my favorites is asters, because they flower late and are a popular winter plant, yielding tiny white, yellow or purple flowers. Once planted, this tiny flower on long stems blooms its heart out, multiplying quickly in shade or sun. Spread fresh mulch for winter protection. The dual purpose of aster is the seed it produces as food for tree sparrows, goldfinch and chipmunks and, if you live in the woods, ruffed grouse and wild turkey. Asters can be planted during the spring or fall season.

Spirea is one of the easiest flowering shrubs to care for. It grows up to 2-1/2 inches tall and requires little, if any, seasonal pruning. The hardy plant produces mounded yellow-bronze foliage, enduring a temperatures from 15 degrees down to -40 degrees. Spirea thrives in full sun or part shade and is suitable for both landscapes and as a container plant, producing masses of white flowers that fade to a feathery purple hue.

Winter cabbage offers a rainbow of colors with both purple and white heads, surrounded with ruffled green leaves which are enhanced by cold night temperatures. The species handles subfreezing temperatures and can be planted during October and November.

Nandina appears lacy, tough and durable. The evergreen offers several tiny flowers and bright-red winter berries that last from fall to spring. Look for "Fire Power," a red-tinted plant grown in full sun with bright red leaves to color the winter garden. Nandina prefers being planted in October, November or December.

Winter daphne offers a unique aroma, with its crowded clusters of flowers exploding in January and February. This winter pick-me-up hates to be moved. Though easy to propagate along its four-foot spread, it remains delicate to the touch. Daphne can be planted in early fall.

Winter jasmine belongs to the olive family and starts flowering the first warm January day, only to be held by the freezes that follow. Blossoms are scattered from January through March with peak bloom. Winter jasmine is a small mounded plant that grows in full sun and blooms when the rest of the garden is deep in hibernation, reaching a couple feet tall with green arching stems that cascade over containers, walls and fences, with small lustrous leaves.

This deciduous plant offers bright yellow trumpets about one-inch long. This easy-to-grow plant is tough, reliable and easily propagated. Rooted cuttings take hold in four-inch pots during the fall season. The plant is insect- and disease-free, and it colonizes over time, requiring a thorough cut-back every three or four years after the blooms finish, but prior to new buds. Jasmine likes to be planted in early fall.

Contact Anita Stone at writer7136@yahoo.com.