Heuchera 'Tiramisu' and Euphorbia 'Glacier Blue' are the best looking cultivars from the genus collections I have of these after the frozen snow. My husband who usually doesn't care about plants commented about the colorful heuchera.

If you have good enough drainage for Penstemon cardwellii you could expand into more alpines or succulents. Some other ideas might include Veronica whiteyi, Euphorbia rigida, Raoulia australis, and smaller/lower Hebes.

I'd expand that list to include a variety of Euphorbia species and hybrids and leading my list would be any of the x martinii hybrids: 'Rudolph', 'Blackbird', 'Red Martin', 'Efanthia', 'Helena's Blush'. I can't believe how much bad weather abuse these plants can take and still look great. Bergenia is another tough customer. Other perennials that are still looking very good are Campanula 'Dickson's Gold', Parahebe catarractae and lyallii, Hebe mckeanii, various epimediums and of course, hellebores.

My experience with heucheras and their winter performance is mixed - some do very well and others look pretty sad. Some of the best for me are 'Ginger Ale', 'Georgia Peach', 'Caramel', 'Frosted Violet', 'Rave On' and 'Midnight Rose'. 'Mahogany', 'Obsidian' and 'Green Spice' look only so-so.

Hm, Parahebes look great! I wasn't familiar with them. I love the blue or purple flowers. I will definitely try those.

Heucheras: 'Frosted Violet' has done very well for me too, both in general, and through the storm. The other purple one I tried was 'Obsidian', and it has basically never looked good, though it was planted in the same conditions.

Euphorbias: I have always loved the foliage, but I can't handle the flowers. The pea-soup green seems to clash with everything else in the garden. Are there any that have more blending flowers? I searched on Plant Files (davesgarden.com) and they all seem to have that color.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Thane, there IS some variation in euphorbia flower color. Or to be more precise, in the bracts, as the flowers are really tiny little nubbins that often are so inconspicuous as to not appear readily at all. Selections of Euphorbia griffithii typically have rather orange flowers/bracts, but this species is herbaceous rather than evergreen and can spread rampantly. The bracts on 'Blackbird' tend to be a mottled purple/maroon color and the variegated characias species ('Tasmanian Tiger', 'Silver Swan', 'Glacier Blue') all have creamy, almost white bracts, as are the bracts of the annual E. marginata or "snow on the mountain". Personally, I'd describe the 'flower' color of most hardy euphorbias to be more of a chrome or sulphur yellow rather than pea soup green, but I guess it depends on one's perception :-)

At any rate, I find euphorbias blend in the garden quite well, both in foliage and in flower.....as you might have determined, I really like these plants and grow a pretty good variety of them.

You can find a list of evergreen perennials near the back of Thomas, PERENNIAL GARDEN PLANTS.

Does he say which ones look nice in the winter? :)

It's easy to find a list of evergreen perennials. A lot of them are not very appealing during in the winter.

Oh, I have five cultivars of Phygelius, and the only one that looks at all decent in the winter is 'Cherry Ripe'. (I also have all of the Prince and Princess cultivars, plus Devil's Tears.)

Yes, I wouldn't ordinarily include phygelius as an evergreen perennial. It does have an ability to retain its foliage during milder winters, but IME, if gets much below freezing for very long it will lose most, if not all, of its foliage. I'd describe it as semi-evergreen at best :-)

Some of the species iris look pretty good over winter - I. douglasiana, the Pacific coast hybrids, Iris foetidissima all hold their foliage well and look pretty clean through the winter months. And I saw a Cyclamen coum in full bloom yesterday (very nice, Klark!) that looked great.

I tend to cut Cape fuchsias back in spring. Even when they aren't damaged. When I've left the old tops I've ended up cutting them back later, after the first wave of bloom.

Thanks Pam, Yes the Cyclamen coum didn't miss a beat and looks even better today. The coldest temp here in Edmonds was 16.3 at an elevation of 130 ft. The Euphorbias really are amazing winter performers (as long as they aren't flattened by heavy snow) I've always been impressed with the nearly native sedums, S. spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco' and 'Carnea' and S. oreganum, just flawless all winter. Veronica 'Georgia Blue' also seems to be almost completely evergreen and blooms off and on in winter for me.