The Snow Leopard cholla literally glows in late afternoon sunlight. I think it makes the bit of cleaning around it a couple times a year more than worth the risks and yea, its a sharpie. The panicum 'Northwind' and 'Heavy Metal' have really stood up well, I like the soft golden/orange winter color they add. Bluestem 'The Blues' adds deeper orange.

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Sun, Feb 8, 15 at 22:58

Different angle. Yesterday was a perfect 70+ degree windless winter day. We get those quite a bit down here. Desert Spoon center top photo I grew from a seed. Its gotten quite large and is a nice blue, it goes quite nicely with the various short grasses. The cholla really is all a-glow.

The front from different angles. Many new grasses were added in fall, I'm waiting as long as possible to cut them back, it will look so bare when I do.

The 'curb appeal' shot after the third major cleaning out of oak leaves from around cactus and before the grass is cut down. Tongs & thick rubber gloves are the best tools. Its not real colorful but the texture is coming around in this mostly brown in winter state I live in. Lots of hardy annuals are up and ready to take off come spring and the flowering trees are really getting buds up the street.

Pine trees and snow we've got....! Up until this month it was shaping up to be a virtually snowless winter. But Feb. 1 we got a big dump of snow as NE winds down the lake brought 'lake effect' snow conditions like those more normal on the south side of the lake. I don't really bother to do much to explicitly garden for winter interest. During the snowless periods I rely on the path layout, particularly in the backyard, to provide some interest as it highlights the structure of the garden that is largely hidden during the growing season. In the front yard there are a couple of plants with winter berries and the iron structures add interest. When there's lots of snow the plants pretty much vanish other than background old evergreens and the bigger deciduous trees.

From this morning:

north side of backyard from the living room window:

South side of backyard

from the living room window:

arbour in front yard from the front porch:

Chinese wisteria 'tree' (with Henyri clematis growing with it) in front yard

Nice as always TxRanger. Your grasses and cactus are really growing nicely.

Woodyoak, all that snow just scares me silly. At least you are not at creating tunnels to get around yet.

I find that I have two different types of winter interest. There's the time period between autumn and the start of snow where evergreen perennials along with dried foliage and seed-heads provide color and texture, rather like TR's photos but with a different plant palette.

Once the snow starts there are really no herbaceous perennials that are of any interest to anyone except the voles tunneling around under the snow. Here is winter interest right now.

oh tex.. you are so confused what a winter really is.. for most of us ... lol ...

i have two feet of snow out there ...

conifers that are greater than two feet ARE all there is.. when it comes to winter interest...

if i have enough energy.. to slog thru 2 to 3 feet of snow.. to go look at them .... else they look great from the deck

ken

Funny, with CNN reporting ridiculous inches of snow in the east, I was thinking the same thing. Summer keeps us humble, at least thats when the real whining gets started. Wish we could take some of that moisture off your hands. How bout sharing it? You know, you could leave some for the rest of us.

Nice to see all of your winter photos. Sorry, none taken here this year.

After two weeks of vacationing in CO and southern KS amidst an unchanging sea of brown I welcomed the white snow here at home in MN this week. Okay, there was some green in the fields of winter wheat and one tiny patch in a sweep of brown lawn at a settlers' museum.

Their lack of snow gave me a better appreciation of grasses left standing for winter interest. Here I cut my grasses back in the fall as with the first heavy snowfall they are flattened anyway. Last fall my neighbor planted several new grasses and left them all standing. Our snowfall so far has been limited and of the light variety so none of the grasses were flattened and the one large stand I left, as well as hers, have added a nice soft beige to our winter white.

For winter interest I have a large fir tree in front, 3 six foot, dang can't think of the word, you know, roundish type things that vines grow on, a large pot with various lengths of birch trunks, a maple tree, a locust tree, the stand of tall grass and a wooden bench in the front yard. The back yard has a large white pine, several shrubs, a pagoda dogwood tree, echinacea that were left with seed heads for birds, birdbath and bird feeders. The grasses in the back yard were all cut back in the fall.

Have been adding more shrubs the last few years. Would like something evergreen that doesn't need to be wrapped in burlap for winter protection. Being wrapped in burlap sorta defeats the purpose of adding winter interest IMO.

I would say we pretty much didn't have a winter here. I broke a very thin skin of ice off the birdbaths once in early December but that was it. 78 here today, so I'm not sure where we are in nature's garden schedule- will we get March winds and some cold or has spring/summer already come? Some optimistic souls in my area are planting tomatos!
Hope I'm not making anyone cry- remember that we will probably pay for this lovely February warmth with no more rain and a blistering summer. Min3

Woody- Nice doggies always interest me, especially black ones! Min3

Squiggly yellow traceries in the snow are so pretty.

wan.. - I thought you were one of the people who like yellow in the garden... :-) I consider it a winter ephemeral color :-)

Yellow and white is very nice. I don't have any dogs but , being in the country and far away from prying neighbors, my husband takes great glee in providing the ephemerals during the rare Texas snow.

Min we always pay in summer-- we pay big $$ in air conditioning bills for one thing not to mention the obvious dangers involved with drought and heat domes. Watching that snow mess on CNN up around Boston has definitely decided me that I would rather suffer in summer than put up with that much hassle & cold in winter, besides I'd miss the sun too much up there. Snow or too many consecutive cloudy days depress me so I will take our hot summers any day, anytime.

The weather was fine today and I got all the smaller grasses which were starting to green up at the base cut back along with several perennials & shrubs. Lots of these are also putting out leaves on the stems or at the base. Next time I will attack the big grasses but cutting back makes it already look and feel more spring-like, winter interest is fast disappearing making way for new growth. Robins were everywhere and the birds were singing.

I always think of SF Bay as foggy and not particularly hot, I am obviously mistaken. We are entering fire season here. Strong winds + dried grasses = Fire season on the plains.

mnwsgal, You made me laugh with the sea of brown comment. Unless you see it, you really cannot appreciate it. But hey, there's always that field of winter wheat to liven up the view like in the photo below.

We haven't had so much as a flake of snow this winter YET. This picture was taken in February around this time last year.

aftermidnight the way those trees are catching the sun (?) is real pretty, probably much prettier than around here, thats a good shot. One thing I notice when I go to places with hills and lots of trees is the sky seems small, it feels closed in because I'm not used to it. If the wind isn't blowing it feels really closed in. I lived in North Carolina once and when I flew back home it was so OPEN and breezy, it felt 'home' and I'd really missed it. I think its a matter of what you are used to.

Here ya go, eat yer heart out. Aren't ya' just dyin' to visit? I shouldn't be so hard on us, we actually do have lakes and other types of landscapes but this is how things are where I live once you drive out of the city.

I hope you don't cut yourself on the edge of that sign.

Very odd year - this year we got tons of rain (after none for 13 months) in Nov and Dec. My plants started coming up and blooming in Jan - way early. I took this picture 20 minutes ago. It has been in the high 70s and low 80s for a few days - gardening in my Summer gardening outfit - all of the flowers are happy.

Jackie

Tex, You have your vision of the CA Bay Area right- it can be nice and warm and foggy up there in San Francisco in the winter and very cold and windy in the SUMMER. Bring a warm jacket! Really! It's the ocean influence causing that.

We are in the South Bay, 50 miles down the coast from S.F. in a wide valley and we roast in summer and we also worry about fires and where will we get enough water?

At the same time, half an hour away over the low western mountain range by the ocean, everyone is cooler and enjoying the beaches so we can escape the heat there. Problem is, we eventually have to come back.

This year we had ZERO rain in December and finally a few days of good downpours but its been sunny 70s and 80s since and I will soon have to begin watering again. Very strange weather. Min

I leave a lot of my perennials dead stems intact over the winter to create some interest. I do this with my sedums, mums, and lantanas. Speaking of lantanas, how are use doing? All of my Sonset Lantanas have returned.