And just past the children’s garden, she lingered to admire some winterberries, which appeared scarlet and orange against the gray sky, and a Norwegian spruce that seemed to be extending a branch to her.

Now, it is a larger and maturing display that includes towering shrubs of buttonbush and bayberry amid lower drifts of lobelia, aster, swamp mallow, goldenrod and winterberry.

In the heart of the garden, there are towering shrubs of buttonbush and bayberry amid lower drifts of lobelia, aster, swamp mallow, goldenrod and winterberry.

But the winterberries you see at the garden center now may look like little more than a nursery pot of sticks and tiny leaves, as will powerful late-season native perennials like asters and goldenrods.

So look for eucalyptus pods, winterberries, magnolia leaves, lichen-covered branches, blue ice cypress and hemlock to remind you that decorating with nature really is about what grows outside.