Ah, the mixed border--love them!

I try to match up the shrubs/conifers with the plants they're growing near, paying attention to growth rate/mature size, shape, texture, color etc.--just as you would with all perennials. Try to site the plant in conditions as close to its native habitat as possible.

For example, a small leaved evergreen shrub contrasted with a plant that has strappy foliage (grass or daylily) or a light feathery plant mingling with something that has a strong, upright growth habit and on it goes.

There are lots of ways to proceed. Go with what pleases your eye!

In zone 7, quite a few perennials are evergreen. I have hellebores, bergenia, lamb's ear, a couple of ferns, and lirope. The short nandinas are classed as shrubs but resemble perennials as well. Several of the groundcover sedums are also evergreen for me. Look around the gardens in your area and see what evergreen perennials do well there.

There are lots of books out there on combination plantings (been reading up myself). Here are a few I like that were available at my library. I found many, many suggestions in these books for combining herbaceous perennials or annuals with evergreen trees and shrubs. Unless you're aiming to be a cottage garden purist, I see nothing wrong with combining traditional cottage garden plants with those that wouldn't be considered as such. As catkin mentioned, it's about what satisfies your personal taste and growing environment.

Choosing Plant Combinations (1999) by Cathy Wilkinson Barash - lots of suggestions and photos for combos of 2 or 3 kinds of plants to complement each other as well as suggestions for alternate choices.

The Encyclopedia of Planting Combinations (2008) by Tony Lord

The Layered Garden Design Lessons for Year-round Beauty From Brandywine Cottage (2012) by David L Culp

Another way to think of the winter garden is that the bare bones structure is revealed. Paths, borders, stonework, sundials, birdbaths, and trellises add to the structure of trees and evergreen shrubs to hold the space together in the absence of herbaceous plants.

Photos of European gardens, especially old ones, really show this. There's a lot there besides the plants, but in the summer the plants dominate the scene and you don't notice the structure as much. In the winter, the plants recede and the structure takes over.

So you have lots of options - well beyond plant material - to make the garden interesting in the winter.

Being from a colder hardiness zone,

==>> this MI boy finds this statement funny ... lol

you dont know what cold is ...

i can tell you are a 'planner' .... and that is the base problem ... most plans are destroyed.. when the shovel meets the soil .....

most of us... would go full bore.. and plant a bed ... and then.. watch in winter... and note spots where we need to change things out.. or add things... [do not confuse yourself.. into thinking that a garden is a plant it once, forever type of thing .....]

and over the course of a decade or two ... it would all come together ...

trying to build.. as a novice.. from scratch ... is a mind bending project.. and can have the potential to drive you insane ....

your words.. imply to me.. there is no current bed... that you are researching how to do it ...

and if i am right.. you ought to be researching how to build a bed itself.. and improve the soil ... so that by planting time ... you are ready to get at it all ...

visit all local nurseries.. and buy whatever pleases you ... visit all local labeled gardens.. take pix ... and even go so far.. as to join a local garden club .... all these suggestions are so much better.. than spending endless hours.. in a dark room.. on your computer.. trying to plan it all out ...

i wish you luck .... i am encouraging you to look outside the box you are already in.. and come at it from the other side ...

ken

Ornamental grasses--small or large, short or tall, arching/fountain-shaped or upright--often keep the garden beds from looking empty through the cold months as do some deciduous shrubs. As mentioned above, some perennials retain their form through the cold season. Hellebore/Lenten rose is hardy to Zone 4. I have at least a half dozen growing in my various beds.

I would second the suggestion to add hardscaping. My garden beds include a brass sundial, a carved stone owl, an iron nautical cleat large enough to secure a super-tanker, bird baths, painted rocks, a ceramic lighthouse, a granite garden bench. an old planter tipped on its side, even an ancient biker boot. All but the granite bench were gifts/donations from my kids.

Trees also add winter structure--I have a magnolia tree growing in one bed and a Harry Lauter Walkingstick tree (see link) in another. Both provide the "bones" of the winter garden landscape, especially the latter (also known as demented witch hazel).

I designed my garden beds by visualizing how they'd look to someone passing by, either on foot or on wheels.

Here is a link that might be useful: Harry Lauter Walkingstick tree

Spend this 'winter' looking at plants and landscapes to pick up ideas. There is a *lot* of stuff the either grows or stays green during a zone 7 winter. So basically, I consider this a trick question.

The best winter bloomer for zone 7 is by far Erica X darleyensis. I have many times seen them continue to bloom through single digits down to 3F. However, this winter was too cold even for them. See various old posts in the Heaths & Heathers forum for cultivation advice. Mahonia X intermedia and Witch Hazels are second best.

Conifers, tree, shrubs, especially those with interesting bark or fruit. Suggestions would be rugosa roses (I think the stems are cool with those super-spikey thorns), virburnums, deciduous hollies, red- or yellow-twigged dogwoods, and of course there are more - I wish I could afford a paperbark maple!

Mad_Gallica makes an excellent suggestion. Go to places that are local that have gardens and look at what is there for winter interest. Then visit again in the spring and summer to see how they look then. Even as a long-term gardener I still have neighborhoods and parks that I enjoy visiting to watch how the gardens progress and change over the seasons.

You can also visit your local public library and find books on cottage gardens, English gardens, and mixed borders. The individual plants may or may not apply (I wouldn't try to advise you on plant selection since my garden is so much colder than yours), but you'll get a mental vocabulary of the types of appearances that appeal to you.

As others have mentioned, classic English gardens often had structure that was camouflaged in the growing season by a riot of flowers, but during the winter the hedges (both evergreen and deciduous) used as backdrops or divisions within the garden came to the fore along with sculpture, rock and brick walls, and the silhouettes of individual trees and shrubs.

And give yourself a pat on the back for even thinking about winter interest when you are still in the planning stages. I'd gardened for quite a few years before it occurred to me that many of the gardens I liked most had great year-round interest.

In our growing conditions, I'd personally rather squeeze all the flower colour I can get from a perennial garden (herbaceous, alpines and the like) for the full length of the growing season.

Winter here is frequently too cold to be outside unless one's doing something. With frozen ground and snow cover, gardening outdoors is not an option.

Looking out from the kitchen, the cedar hedge does look nice in winter with the snow infront. It sets off seasonal arrangements on the deck.

Extending the time of flower colour means lots of spring bulbs for later March and especially April. Even after the fall perennials, notably asters, monkshood, mums, fleeceflowers and joe-pye weed have been cut down, there's still spring perennials putting on growth.

In the latter case and though not flower colour, I find variegated perennials, notably brunnera and lungworts very attractive. Even the light green new growth of primulas adds colour. The leaves of barrenworts and hellebores, with light early snow on them, are similarly attractive. I cut back low plants like astilbes which add nothing to the later fall detail.

Re winter plant architecture: cutting perennials back in spring just wouldn't work with our close plantings and intensive perennial gardening. The view of the smaller and earlier spring bulbs would be impeded as would that of the low-flowering spring perennials of April and especially May.

For us, there's lots to do in winter; like resting up from gardening labour in Florida.

A cold beer goes down well after gardening in season. Margaritas go down well after the gardening season ends.

This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Sat, Nov 15, 14 at 12:01

Desiring a pleasing Winter garden, I have discovered those plants that will come and grow in all but the worst of Winter Zone 7A weather. Arum italicum has not been invasive, here. Bergenia stays green or colors brilliantly. Hardy Cyclamen come in a variety of foliage designs and shades. Autumn Fern, some Carex and Galax, Helleborus and others all stay green.
And many a perennial dies back into a ground clinging rosette, as in C. perscifolia and Lychnis coronaria.

Well being a good lil football fanatic, I naturally recognize clemson.edu in your e-mail address. More than 1 campus? Clemson, SC, midway betw Charlotte, NC & Atlanta? Used wiki & googlemaps. Are you in the mts? Wish I could grow bergenia but it says z8 as hottest & I am heat zone 9. Jealous, looks like a great plant.

This post was edited by river_crossroads on Tue, Nov 18, 14 at 2:24

double post, sorry

This post was edited by river_crossroads on Tue, Nov 18, 14 at 2:11

hrigsby: I live about 10 minutes from Clemson and work in Clemson.

Think of how much better things will be in spring.
Picture: a May 21.

Oh, what a gorgeous garden you have, Sunnyborders. What tree are those beautiful lavender pink flowers cascading from?

Thanks, Kousa.

It's a small lilac, the only thing here in the back garden when we moved in.

Each year's now a bit different. That's 2013. Fall 2014, I tried to use those (economical) yellow and red tulips to tie things together.

They were replaced with different bulbs for this year, in part because the voles (meadow mice) thin out the edible spring bulb (for us crocuses and tulips) by the following year.

Still don't really care.
Think it's nice to have change.
The spring perennial plants are definitely survivors here.
Thank goodness our voles don't eat primulas.

Sunnyborders…your garden makes my heart sing! I honestly would love to create something just like it. I love my garden, but I am a color freak!!! Love lots of color. I grow so many roses that are not always in bloom, so perennials are vital. I have had no luck with phlox and voles eat every lily bulb and more. Gardening is a passion that takes patience…I`m working on it! Just wanted you to know how much I and others enjoy your garden.Winter is a time for reflection and planning for the next garden season. I am going to study your pictures and others to create my garden. Thanks to all. lesley

The garden in winter with ice. Softer colors but I like the way it looks in many regards this time of year. Its more about the textures, subtle colors and the grasses really stand out in winter. Blues turn purple and green turns wheat colored. The evergreen perennials stand out and the structure of the stems adds interest.

These were all shot last winter after an ice storm.

#1 Dianthus which is evergreen & hesperaloe
#2 Gulf Muhly grass looking like its covered in soap suds
#3 Cenizo semi-evergreen shrub with very cold hardy O. englemannii cactus

I love that prickly pear!

Thank you, Lesley.

Very attractive garden yourself:
in a very attractive setting.

Re pictures, I do document seasonal and yearly events in the garden as an aid to determine what works (and for how long) and what needs attention.

Charlie

Hi,

Honestly, I love cottage gardening as well and I believe only plant what you love and like according to your taste! I personally don't like pine trees or alot of evergreens for that matter but have found a few great winter interests for me!

Mind you this is my first year really getting into my gardens but the tons of Sedum heads on my front hill are already looking lovely and a reminder that my gardens are ready to sleep. Plus I've heard they attract birds but I have yet to see a lot of that action.

I also love the coneflower heads which I have seen birds go after many times!(when I am not raiding some of the heads for seeds myself! Lol) To me, I love the feeling of seeing something above all the snow on the ground and I love the idea of attracting wildlife to my garden!

Now, I don't have any grasses in my gardens but I def am thinking of adding a few! They are looking great at my workplace in their beds so I might have to ask to get some seeds.

Finally, I love seeing the actual bones of your gardens like the trellises, the bare trees/shrubs, the rock borders I made myself...I dont know, its just that feeling it gives me of a "sleeping" garden! I would barely notice them over the flowers in Summer but in Winter ,they give me peace! Just don't use anything that you will regret or dislike every year you see it!
~michael
heavenlyfarm

As you indicate, Michael, a big part of mixed perennial gardening is personal taste.

And, of course in gardening, nature can always edit personal taste.

I'm a bit equivocal about the term "cottage garden". To me it implies a bit of this and a bit of that and not enough planning or systematic effort.

I'm not saying that things should always be expected work out, but I do say monitoring outcomes is an important part of mixed perennial gardening (at least, in our sort of perennial growing conditions).

I've done a lot of googling on the subject of winter garden interest. In the last several years I have incorporated many plants based solely on their winter interest which is different than what you would typically plan for a spring/summer which is more about color although browns, tans, whites etc are also colors. Below is a nice blog that stresses the neutral colors and textures of winter and I love the ice features.

I don't think we have had a thread about ideas for keeping the space interesting in winter before. It would be interesting to see other peoples gardens in winter mode if anyone has photos to post. Snow would add a feature itself, its something we don't have much of down here. I can tell you that looking at bare ground or beds is definitely no fun so maybe plants for winter interest and texture is more of an issue further south than it is up north?

Here is a link that might be useful: http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=garden+grasses+winter&img=http%3A//www.susancohangardens.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Grasses-Denver-Botanic.jpg&v_t=na&host=http%3A//www.susancohangardens.com/blog/garden-designers-roundtable-winter-inspiration&width=181&height=135&thumbUrl=https%3A//encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcQlf2OUd3bM5PSre-zwQPXB7-8ZPtWRuQc2-hawZx9J0DIweymc8yrM0gd9%3Awww.susancohangardens.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Grasses-Denver-Botanic.jpg&b=image%3Fpag%3DimageResultsBack%26v_t%3Dna%26q%3Dgarden%2Bgrasses%2Bwinter%26oreq%3Dd1d9a447a4fc4b8a9a04c37163dc1f3a%26oreq%3D0fe98ee01cb14254a36b93c71dc73367&imgHeight=2736&imgWidth=3648&imgTitle=Grasses+Denver+Botanic+Garden&imgSize=631583&hostName=www.susancohangardens.com

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Sun, Nov 23, 14 at 18:41

Here is another showing "a winter wonderland" at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I love the spikey muhly grasses in the first picture, I've been adding a lot of those, they stay very stiff in winter like fireworks.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=garden+grasses+winter+lady+bird+johnson&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.penick.net%2Fdigging%2Fimages%2FGrasses%2520at%2520WC.JPG&v_t=na&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.penick.net%2Fdigging%2F%3Fp%3D173&width=181&height=135&thumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fencrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcTBciS47sjSFbN-_yqSrT7IV15jfcQmClIlZnkoCgAfnHAOHbjYGC922JyVHg%3Awww.penick.net%2Fdigging%2Fimages%2FGrasses%252520at%252520WC.JPG&b=image%3Fv_t%3Dna%26page%3D4%26q%3Dgarden%2Bgrasses%2Bwinter%2Blady%2Bbird%2Bjohnson%26s_it%3DimageResultsBack%26oreq%3Db24fc0d4d6f945308b4f100b081c11c8%26oreq%3D230c0b15af6342c19921479bc099794c&imgHeight=426&imgWidth=568&imgTitle=This+is+what+winter+looks+like&imgSize=109431&hostName=www.penick.net

TR, I love your ice storm photos. Our winters are quite a contrast from yours. I live in an area with a 6 month active gardening season at most. In a good year I have some early bulbs such as reticulated iris and witch hazel blooming late March or early April, but things don't really start growing until late April into May. By the end of October the autumn color has ended, and sometimes we have snow, though more commonly it arrives late November into early January. Once we have snow on the ground we usually have it until sometime in March or even mid-April. So I definitely garden for winter interest. Many of my winter interest areas are where I see them driving up to the house or looking out of windows from the house. I live on an old farm, so the scale of what I do is larger, but mostly can be scaled down with fewer and smaller plants and decorative items.

For this time of year I mostly rely on evergreen perennials and evergreen shrubs, both broad-leafed and conifers.
Shady bed
{{gwi:283411}}From Winter interest

Full sun, a couple of years apart. 3years after planting:
{{gwi:283412}}From Winter interest

Two years ago
{{gwi:283413}}From Winter interest

There are also some plants whose foliage brightens in winter such as some heathers and rhododenrons.
{{gwi:283415}}From Winter interest

Once we get snow, most of the perennials disappear since it's usual to have several feet of snow accumulated before winter's end. At this point I rely on berried bushes (a two-fer since there are the berries as well as the birds that visit to eat the berries,) taller evergreen shrubs, small trees and shrubs with interesting bark or branching patterns, structures such as fences, trellises, etc, and negative space of blank snow which fills in with shadows and animal tracks.
{{gwi:283416}}From Winter interest

For 6-8 feet in front of this row of evergreens is a long perennial bed which disappears in the winter leaving the hemlocks to shine. during the growing season the roses, clematis, etc are what are noticed and the evergreens are just a neutral backdrop.
{{gwi:283417}}From Winter interest

Winter view from my kitchen window. The dogwood branches, trellises, spruce, fox tracks, and old fence posts all add interest to the view.
{{gwi:283418}}From Winter interest

{{gwi:283419}}From Winter interest

Bright forsythia bark stands out against the grayscale of a snowy day.
{{gwi:283420}}From Winter interest

Early spring before new growth is often the least interesting time since the previous season's perennial foliage has either been cut back or the voles have done a number on it. This was taken during a rare February thaw.
{{gwi:283421}}From Winter interest

Providing bird feeders and a heated water source can also attract birds to add visual interest.

Very nice, nhbabs.

One of the things about perennial gardening which strikes me most of all is the gardening potential for large, maybe rural, properties versus small urban ones.

Obviously, the two present some different challenges as well as some different opportunities.

nabs, those shots are simply fabulous. Personally I am partial to neutral color schemes with a spot of color here and there more so than a riot of color and flowers, thats why the O. grasses and silver plants are so appealing to me. Winter is a good time for that along the roadsides here, to me its prettier with various shades of white, grays, buff, rust and dark browns in the grass lands as opposed to a undefined sea of green. I like fall & winter best because all the various green colors separate and its definitely the only time of the year lawns are appealing with that open area of light cream color contrasting with evergreen plants.

Here is a blog I ran across the other night. I am 99% certain this garden would appeal to me more in fall and winter than spring or summer. I sorely wish I had the amount of space you have, thank you for posting those pictures. I love the berries and the soft colors. Heather is definitely a plant I would grow if I could, that is one of the best understated, neutral plants on the planet in my book, I'm more than a tad jealous of you luckiest of of dogs who can grow it.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=panicum+dallas+blues&img=http%3A%2F%2Ffederaltwist.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F12%2FDSC02966.jpg&v_t=na&host=http%3A%2F%2Ffederaltwist.com%2Fin-praise-of-weather%2F&width=181&height=121&thumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fencrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcToyHJzik0Kfuqnf4M-0mwhra9LdoRoe7sjCWZYqw5thOS4yZ7vTPe6oQHb%3Afederaltwist.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F12%2FDSC02966.jpg&b=image%3Fpag%3DimageResultsBack%26v_t%3Dna%26q%3Dpanicum%2Bdallas%2Bblues%26oreq%3Db5b4f4539ac548f2b1f9c21f6263dfc0%26oreq%3De764074e3d554665a7c2ca37529227f8&imgHeight=467&imgWidth=700&imgTitle=Panicum+%26%2339%3BDallas+Blues%26%2339%3B+turns&imgSize=199686&hostName=federaltwist.com