Echinacea purpurea: winter

Echinacea purpurea, known in English as eastern purple coneflower and in French as echinacée pourpre or rudbeckie pourpre, is a perennial native to eastern North America. It is used as a herbal medicine and is becoming popular as an ornamental plant. The flowers are like big purplish-pink daisies with conical brown centres.

The seedheads, which are like spiky dark brown balls, remain ornamental in winter (until the snow gets too deep).

Verbascum thapsus: winter

Don't plant this—it's invasive! Verbascum thapsus, known in English as great mullein or common mullein, and in French as molène thapsus, molène Bouillon-blanc, Bouillon-blanc or Bouillon jaune is a biennial native to Eurasia and north Africa. In Canada it is generally considered a weed, and a number of sources call it invasive, but this gardener has included it, presumably as a vertical accent. (You can't see it now, but the plants are mulched, so their presence here is deliberate.) In the first year, the plants are low rosettes of fuzzy greyish leaves about 25 long; in the second year, a striking 2-metre tall spire of yellow flowers appears, with the resulting seedheads persisting well into winter.

There are lots of showier plants that would provide a vertical accent without being invasive, for example, Penstemon digitalis. Hopefully this gardener will switch to one of these alternatives.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy': winter

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is a hybrid of different Sedum (stonecrop) species popular in Toronto gardens for providing true four-season interest with minimal care. Here is a clump of Autumn Joy seedheads, persisting well into winter despite heavy snowfall. I find it amazing that such slender stems can support such large clumps of snow.