A virtually stemless, broadleaf-evergreen native of central and eastern North America: a basal rosette of rigid, sword-shaped, spine-tipped leaves up to 30 inches long, fringed along the margins with the curly white threads that give the species its name. In early summer a flowering stalk shoots from the center to 5-8 feet, carrying nodding, bell-shaped, creamy-white flowers. Tough enough for poor sandy soil, heat, drought, and salt spray, it earns its keep as architectural structure in dry and seaside gardens.

A deciduous shrub grown almost entirely for its explosion of yellow four-lobed flowers that line the bare arching stems in early spring, before the leaves emerge. A garden hybrid of two Asian species (Forsythia suspensa × F. viridissima) — not native to North America. Missouri Botanical Garden describes it as a "one-season wonder" that fades into the background after bloom, so it earns its place as a late-winter color signal rather than a four-season anchor.

The classic broadleaf-evergreen shrub of formal hedges, topiary, and clipped borders — small, glossy dark-green opposite leaves on a dense rounded frame that takes shearing better than almost any other shrub. Native to southern Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa, it carries inconspicuous greenish-cream spring flowers and holds its leaves year-round. All parts are toxic if eaten and the foliage can cause skin irritation, but that same chemistry makes it reliably rabbit- and deer-resistant.

A graceful, long-blooming shrub grown for its hanging, lantern-like flowers — a vivid red tube and sepals around a deep violet-purple skirt of inner petals, dangling on thread-fine stems from early summer until frost. Native to the cool, moist temperate forests and roadsides of southern South America (the Andes of Chile and Argentina south to Tierra del Fuego, and north into Peru), Fuchsia magellanica is the hardiest of the common fuchsias. In its mildest range it builds into an arching, rounded woody shrub 5-10 feet tall and wide; in cold-winter gardens it dies back to the ground each year and regrows as a smaller subshrub. The pendant flowers are built for hummingbirds, and small blue-black berries follow. It is the fuchsia to reach for where ordinary basket fuchsias would never survive the winter.

A dense, upright-to-rounded broadleaf evergreen shrub, 8-10 feet tall and 6-8 feet wide, grown for year-round structure and its long late-winter-to-spring show of drooping panicles of fragrant, urn-shaped white (sometimes pink) flowers. Glossy dark green leaves are joined each spring by a striking flush of bronze-red to coppery new growth, and the chains of greenish-red flower buds form in fall and hold all winter for a second season of interest. Native to southeastern China, central to southern Japan, and Taiwan, it wants acidic, evenly moist but well-drained soil, shelter from harsh winter wind, and protection from hot afternoon sun in warmer zones. All parts are toxic if eaten.

A four-season native shrub of the southeastern United States, where NC State Extension notes it grows wild in moist woods and along stream banks. It is an upright, multi-stemmed deciduous shrub, slow-growing to roughly 4-8 feet tall and 4-10 feet wide, named for its large, oak-shaped, lobed dark-green leaves. Showy pyramidal 4-12 inch panicles of creamy-white flowers open from late spring into summer and fade to pink and then tan, while the bold foliage turns wine, orange, and mahogany in fall over peeling cinnamon bark. Easy and low-maintenance in organically rich, well-drained soil, it is grown as a specimen, in masses, or as an informal hedge.