Southampton - The trees are bare, and summer flowers are a distant memory. But the pots and window boxes in front of your house don't have to be empty and dreary just because the weather's cold. Small evergreen trees and shrubs can fill those pots with their rich tones of green and gold to welcome you home from work each day. Or you can dress up those empty pots for the holidays without actually planting anything. Here's what to do.

Live Trees And Shrubs
A host of small trees and shrubs are hardy enough to survive winter in a pot on the East End. But you need to choose a frost-proof container, and plant in the biggest one you can get. Fiberglass, resin, metal, or concrete containers will work, but terra cotta and glazed ceramic pots are likely to crack and break in freezing weather. Even clay pots designated as "frost-proof" don't always stand up to repeated freezing and thawing.

A large pot will give living plants their best odds for survival if the winter turns out to be an especially cold one. The small volume of soil in a container is more readily affected than a garden by falling and rising temperatures. Alternate cycle of freezing and thawing and refreezing are stressful for plant roots. The more soil you can give them the better off they'll be. When the soil freezes, cover it with a layer of wood chips or shredded bark. Also, if you've got live trees or shrubs in outdoor containers, give them a good drink of water whenever a mild spell thaws the soil in the pots. Dehydration is the biggest threat to plants in winter, because winter winds are drying, and when the soil is frozen moisture can't travel from plant roots to the branches. So water when you can.

What To Grow
Small evergreens are good choices for winter containers. Boxwoods are classics, and you can also try small hollies, yew (if the pots are out of reach of deer) and Japanese skimmia. For a bright shot of gold, consider a golden arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis 'Lutea') or Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana Aurea'. For softer blue tones, you could plant Blue Star juniper (Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star') or Koster's blue spruce (Picea pungens 'Koster').

The drooping forms of weeping trees can provide interesting sculptural accents in front of the house. Weeping blue Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca Pendula') and Sargent's weeping hemlock (Tsuga canadensis 'Pendula') are two possibilities.

Topiaries in matched containers make a graceful formal statement by the front door. Try elegant spirals or classic standards - balls of foliage atop tall, straight stems.

Branches of juniper with their bluish berries look good in winter containers.

Beautiful, Carefree Shortcuts
Since winter cold has descended on us early this year, the soil in your pots is probably already frozen. No worries, though. You can still dress up those containers without planting a thing.

All you need to do is put some fresh, moist soil or potting mix on top of what's already there. Then go foraging around your property and cut stems of an assortment of evergreens in a variety of sizes. You can also use bare branches from trees and shrubs, and stems with berries (such as winterberry), if you're lucky enough to have them, add colorful accents. Or, you can cheat and buy your greens and berries from a local florist. You might be able to get white or silver-painted birch twigs, or curly willow or corkscrew hazel boughs.

Arrange your assorted stems in the windowbox or pot in an interesting way, pushing them into the moist soil to hold them in place. Place taller ones in the back and shorter ones in front. If you've got some droopy stems, let them spill over the edge of the container. Intersperse the berried stems to add shots of color. You can finish off the arrangement by adding pine cones, along with tiny lights, unbreakable balls or even a few bows for the holidays. Get yourself a roll of green florist's wire from a garden shop or craft store, and use it to attach cones, ornaments and other embellishments.

Here are some greens and berries to use in your winter pots:

 • Needled conifers - pine, spruce, fir, juniper, yew and arborvitae.
 • Broadleaved evergreens - holly, boxwood, pieris and Southern magnolia.
 • Stems of berries - winterberry, pyracantha, cotoneaster and rose hips.

When the greens dry out and start to turn brown, just pull them out. But they'll last for months - probably until it's time to put in some pansies for spring.