Yes, Devon. Here in Northern Michigan there are large round bumps where the roses are buried under 3 feet of snow! Sort of like moguls or clusters of white grapes.

Among roses there's not much. In a mild winter Teas hang on to their foliage and some are quite handsome: 'Archiduc Joseph' for example. The deciduous roses, mostly once-bloomers, sometimes have nice fall color, and then at least aren't ugly in the following winter with their bare stems. Some roses have good hips in fall, perhaps going into winter.

To go beyond roses, I love evergreen shrubs and trees: box, yew, bay laurel, sarcacocca, osmanthus, pittisporum, etc. I value these particularly because the native flora is almost completely deciduous: the first winter I passed here I missed green terribly. Ivy is deliciously green in the winter. Sarcacoccas and Daphne are winter- or early spring-flowering and fragrant as well as evergreen. Hellebores grow and flower in winter; there are hardy cyclamen that bloom in fall and are green through the winter; Iris foetida has insignificant flowers but vivid orange seeds in fall and sheaves of evergreen foliage, and it likes shade. Starting in winter and going through spring there are the bulbs to plant under roses and elsewhere: snowdrops, miniature irises, early crocuses, hepatica, erythronium, early narcissus, then later hyacinths, more narcissus and irises, tulips.

In my garden lavender, thyme, and rosemary are handsome in the winter and add steely and bluish hues to the range of foliage colors. I like the outlines of many deciduous trees and shrubs when they're out of leaf. I'm enchanted by plants that bloom before they leaf out: deciduous magnolias and some azaleas, for example. Japanese persimmons have lovely fall foliage and their fruit is handsome for some weeks after the leaves have fallen, like little orange pumpkins, until the birds (and the people) eat them all.

These are plants I grow in my present garden; a few I had in my last one. There are a great many more, but what you can grow depends of course on your conditions. Other things that occur to me include palms, yuccas, violets. I believe in a garden's having a variety of plants and as near to four season interest as the gardener can get.

Melissa

Some roses have canes that turn a beautiful red color in Autumn -- such as rosa Virginia, Theresa Bugnet. Many roses have lovely hips. As to other plants, I grow many that have winter interest. There are evergreens such as dianthus, rosemary, helleborus, helianthemums, carex, liriope, etc. Some plants have dried flowers or leaves in winter to nice effect -- lavenders, asters, ornamental grasses, etc. There are fall-blooming crocus and cyclamen and early spring-blooming bulbs of many varieties. Winter blooming heather. Camelia.

Hi Devon,
My garden il full of many kind of plants, not only Roses, so it's simple for me to have something interesting all year round. A "mediterranean" garden have also many plants that sprout in fall, growing in winter and flowering early in spring. I must to admit that I prefer to have a "stop" in the garden from december to january, for an easy care of "empty" beds and borders, but there's many plants who shows their beauty just when I'm working like a crazy to prepare the spring show....
Euphorbia arborescens is a beautiful shrubby spurge, widely diffused here on the granitic hills near the coast: she have a lushy, blue-green growth in winter, and a long flowering season from january until april, when the combination with early flowering Roses, like Teas and Giganteas is amazingly beautiful.
Aroids like Arum italicum 'Marmoratum' od A. pictum make thick carpets of shiny foliage under Rose shrubs; Zanthedeschia aethiopica starts to flower here in late january. Also Fragrant Pelargoniums take interest with their foliage: Pelargonium tomentosum really likes the shade provided by the foliage of shrubs in summer. Tulbaghia simmleri (T. fragrans), is a winther flowering, southafrican bulbous plant, bearing little clusters of well scented flowers, pale lilac or white in T.s. 'Alba', from december to march. Her clumps of glaucous foliage make a good contrast with Roses
Hermodactylus tuberosus is another curious bulb: his flowers resemble to little, metallic green Iris, with velvety black-brown mouths. Self seeds freely under deciduous Roses. Freesia do the same.
Viola odorata cultivars are in flower from january, making violet, lavender and lilac-blue fragrant carpets under Roses, but I prefer to choose the less invasive, australian native Viola hederacea, wich resist better to heat and flowers non-stop all year round.

Just a little selection ;o)
Ciao!
Maurizio

Maurizio, buon uomo per tuo messaggio. Tuo giardino e
magnifico. In bocca al lupo sempre! Ciao!

Tuo Amico,

Devon

Yes--SNOW!

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Kate (LOL)

I wish they would take a break -seriously.

PETE, your roses are show-offs like you(lol), but more
power to ya!

Roses with hips are good in the winter garden. I also enjoy the stark architecture of a pruned rose. I strip the leaves off many and enjoy the profile of a large rose in winter.

I think roses (and all their parts) look amazing encased in ice after freezing rain, which is good, since we get plenty of that here.

Darlow's Enigma, new this year, is sporting pretty little hips. Wild Spice, one of J&P's new hybrid rugosas is getting busy making hips-- I'm SOOO sorry I deadheaded it in September. And...surprise! Night Owl is setting hips all over. They're still green but new yet, can't wait to see what they do. One of the Albas-- Mme. Plantier-- is beautiful when leafless in the winter; there's a winter picture in Liz Druitt's book, spectacular! Basye's Purple may be the winner, tho-- those wine-red fuzzy canes are goregous with the light behind them.

My garden is informal (or a tangle, as a friend says). Underneath that mess are evergreen perennials like 'Jack Frost' brunnera. It's a relief to clear things out in the fall - but as soon as there is a bare spot, I'm sprinkling seeds. I like forget-me-nots, love-in-a-mist, California poppy, Cerinthe and sweet peas. In Sacramento, these self-seed and are popping up already. I usually save some seed in the spring, and sprinkle some in those rare bare spots. I tuck in spring bulbs like grape hyacinth, which are already showing foliage, and freesias. I buy some sixpacks of annuals, too. There are so many viola hybrids right now - so pretty. Oh, and my friend Barbara grows lettuces and herbs like parsley and cilantro under her roses. Swiss chard is incredibly beautiful, too, especially the rainbow (Brite Lights) variety.

I miss the snow, though, being an Ohio girl. Sometimes I'm glad for a rainy day so that I have an excuse not to garden 365 days a year!
Anita

I really look forward to the quietness of winter. I like the look of the bare trees and the pruned roses. I enjoy seeing the bones of the garden without the distraction of blooms and then when spring comes it's more spectacular to me for having gone through this transition.

mendocino rose,

Very well said!!!!
It really is magic isn't it.

Cathy

Dublinbay, there's something beautiful about that snow pic.

Pamela, your right about that. There is something mystical
and mesmerizing about the garden becoming stark.

Thank you for the list of winter blooming plants, Maurizio. I grow as many winter blooming plants that I can find and really appreciate any time someone mentions ones that I don't grow.

I find that it is really easy to make the garden beautiful from April through November. The hard part is retaining some of that beauty from November to Feb, when I need it the most. The long nights come and make it to where I have 0 hours of daylight to enjoy my garden. This is very depressing to me. Maybe it's the lack of sunlight, maybe it's the lack of garden time, maybe it's the holidays, I don't know, but this is a hard time of year.
I try to make it a little bit better by having plants that I can enjoy. I plant some of them far enough away that it is a "hike" to go look at them and I have an excuse to stretch my legs every day, even if I have to walk with a flashlight.
Some of my favorite winter blooming plants are winter honeysuckle, wintersweet, camellias, winter jasmine, and hellebores. There are also violas and arums. Sarcococa waits until almost spring to bloom, as do daphnes, witch hazels, winter hazels, and many of the camellias. Sweet olives bloom on and off throughout the cold weather, and the crisp air seems to carry the fragrance better. There are some berried plants that are interesting, especially when you can look out the window and watch the birds pull them off one by one.
The pond and waterfall are especially beautiful in the winter. We don't get cold enough to freeze it solid since it is 4' deep and gets circulated from the bottom. For some reason, birds frolick in the edge of the pond more during the winter then they do any other time. When everything else is still and cold and brown, the waterfall is the highlight of the garden.
Carrie

Carrie, your description of your winter plants makes me want to grab a flashlight and hike along with you!
Anita

I hibernate like my roses and watch the garden from a window. From my kitchen window I can see the blanda rose 'Betty Bland' with red canes next to Rosa pendulina, with its red flagonshaped hips. Other roses with hips near the house are R. moyesii, alba Suaveolens, R. stellata mirifica, the Portland rose and several rugosas. Pines, junipers, box and yew topiary add evergreen interest. The highlight of my winter garden is the round boxedged bed that looks wonderful powdered with snow while the sides are green. Close to the front door are two large box balls, mahonia, cherry laurel, Christmas roses and a clipped yew with red berries. I have put most evergreens where I can see them from inside or walking up to the house, redleaved bergenia 'Winterglow', rhododendrons, periwinkle, eight small box balls, euonymus 'Emerald'n Gold', cotoneaster 'Coral Beauty' and dwarf conifers like Picaea glauca 'Conica'.

Devon-----
Clair Matin -straight ahead-------MacCartney---to the left---Paul's Himalayan Musk ----and a few others---
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the view from my family room----Viking Queen and New Dawn on arbor
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Come have a seat in my garden
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My friend in the winter--

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these pretty bottles brighten up a winter day---
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Hope you enjoyed my garden in winter.

Florence

FLORENCE, it sure snows a good deal in your garden!
It looks pretty, though. Kind of a winter wonderland. I
like the glass vases on your window sills. The combo of
the glass, the white snow outside, with the blue sky, is
kind of magical. Thank you for sharing these photo's of
winter.

Devon

I miss snow!

Melissa

These pictures are from last year----it is still too early for snow here now-----We are enjoying the fall colors now---Penna. is a beautiful state in the fall.

I do enjoy a good snow storm---

Melissa----I would also miss snow if I lived where it was warm all the time---

I'll try to share some snow pictures this year----if it snows !!1

Florence

I like snow best when it is coming down though the pictures are beautiful. Ice storms are amazing also, with every branch sparkling in the sun. I like the bare trunks of crepe myrtles anytime but they're good in winter. I like transitions also, not everything constant. One plant which is almost constant so looks nice in winter is artemisia Powis Castle. I'm an artemisia salesman I think...it is a billowy puff of lacy silver. I like nandina too...it has a bamboo grace with true red berries in big clusters right at Christmas.
Dusty Miller is another silver that looks pretty good most of the cold weather here. Evergreens always look good.
I am not crazy about cold though and when it's too cold for me I lose interest in gardening for awhile, like losing my leaves.
Linda

Many perennials bit the dust this summer, in the drought. But we've got trailing gardenias and camellias throughout the beds for year-round greenery; bergenia; some germander, dianthus ajuga and creeping jenny for cover green; sometimes lungwort and coral bells hanging in there, if it's a mild winter.

Lila

Native Nootka rose (reddish first year twigs and persisting hips) makes a winter trio with redtwig dogwood (reddish stems) and snowberry (long-lasting white berries) along some country roads east of here.

Florence,

Normally we do have chilly, not cold winters, dark and often wet, and we get some snow. But last year was mild and sunny and dry, and this year it looks may be the same. I wish it would go back to the way it was. If I'd wanted this kind of winter I'd have moved to Rome or someplace like that.

Your house is beautiful.

Melissa