Most urban landscapes look pretty good during the spring and summer, and many are adequate into the fall, but winter strips just about everything bare and leaves our yards devastated. However, now and then you'll drive by a house whose owner has taken care to provide what gardeners call "all-season interest." This means shrubs or trees that are beautiful in all seasons -- and particularly in winter.

One of the best such shrubs is the winterberry holly. As you can see in the photographs, it's loaded with bright red or orange-red berries, which begin to form in autumn and continue to ripen after the leaves fall off, providing a dazzling display on the thin, dark branches until they're enjoyed by birds in early spring.

The native plant grows to about 10 feet tall -- but can be kept smaller with pruning -- and makes an oval to rounded-oval shape, with fine, twiggy branches.

It's an upright shrub with multiple stems with deep green leaves that turn yellow in the fall. It creates a striking picture when laden with snow or displayed against a dark, evergreen background. The plant grows in sun or partial shade and a rich, well-drained soil, although it tolerates swampy areas.

Hollies have either all male flowers or all female flowers, so to have fruit, you must have one male to supply the pollen for every five to seven females, which bear the fruit. Male and female plants must be within 100 feet of each other for best fruit production.

Lavalette has many different cultivated varieties available and will have even more in the spring. But now is a great time to plant the shrub, to give it a head start on beautifying your landscape.