By David Warner

Lights and wreaths and inflatable snowmen may be the sum of most outdoor holiday decorations, but a landscape designer can give your outdoor decor a makeover you can enjoy all year round.

“We do what I call a seasonal color change,” says St. Petersburg-based landscaper Randy Lee. “Typically in the winter we spend the month of November doing winter flowers — geraniums, begonias, impatiens, snapdragons, alyssum [a low white creeper]. It’s really a multitude of colors. And we’ve got to have good ol’ petunias.”

Red and white is a popular combination, but Lee likes to “mix it up a bit with different color combinations” — because, he reminds clients, by the time January rolls around “red and white gets old — you’re going to have it till May or June.”

Most of these brightly colored flowers and shrubs are annuals, which have to be replanted yearly. “Come the heat of summer,” Lee says, “these all go away and we have a beautiful selection of perennials in their place, like lantana, periwinkle and blue daze.”

If you’d like to plan for a holiday-ready garden, it’s best to start planning in the summer. He’s heard from clients who ask for 20 poinsettias when it’s time for the seasonal changeout.

“But a lot of that is booked out several months in advance.”