Favorite Winter Combinations

This summer we had a wonderful thread showing favorite summer combinations.

This fall we also had a new thread discussing good plants for fall and winter gardens here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/792535/

I'd like to see some of these now that it's winter and everything looks totally different.

What are your favorite combinations for this season?

What are your biggest challenges? Things you're most excited about? Prettiest berries? Earliest bulbs?

Okay! I'm first! How about Hellebore and witch hazel?

I have a great combination in a container. Back of the container winterfire red twig dogwood the leucothoe scarletta then solarflair berginia and the red leaves astelia. The berginia is just wrong it looks great. Great new thread. Heidi and Dragonfly

Pixy,
How long did it take for your hellebores to bloom after you planted them? I got some baby seedling ones this fall based on everyone liking them so much and now I'm impatient.

Heidi, I'd love to see a picture of your container. Is it one you built?

It's going to take a couple of years before yours will be blooming, very likely. Depends on how well developed they were when you got them. I bought some wholesale last spring and they came with 3-4 mature leaves apiece and a well developed root system, but I'm not seeing any blooms yet. Hope springs eternal. I'm out looking for buds every day.
I like the snowdrops with them as well. I'll look for more combinations tomorrow.

Pix
is that blooming now?
I bought one in a 5 gal pot in Sept. and have not seen any buds yet.

Pix, gorgeous photo - it has a slightly soft hazyiness to it - just right for a hellebore (whose seed capsules make great Pixy hats!) Like the idea of the witchhazel with it.

I'm going to have to really look to find winter combinations - I don't think I have progressed that far yet.

Maybe winter combinations can also be those serendipitous things that are there in the summer but you don't notice as much? Plus the sense of a moment, a small thing. A moss with a twig, those fairy wood mushrooms with the rhumba stage. The shape of a branch?

I'm chuckling - excellent idea SB! Now I have to regain my countenance and earn a living (to pay for my plant desires!)

Laurie, how kindly you reframe that out-of-focus part of the photo! So poetic!

Nice picture ! My hellebores don't bloom until Feb, yours are lovely with the witch hazel very nice combo.

I don't think I've evolved either, everything looks good covered in the frost, tho lol - the school bus broke down and I was out there with the girls for a while !! brrrrrr

Well, Pixy, guess the ball's in your court! Sounds like most of us really need to see some more inspiring winter combinations.

RTP, I'm surprised-your yard is so lovely. There must be some things out there that make you happy at this time of year?

tee hee - is this cheating? This pot looks nice?

here's my other combo that still looks alive & breathing - ty Susybell, you are too kind. The new parking strip is still looking fairly decent - it's the backyard that I see the most and where I have gone perennial flower crazy, so it doesn't look so hot... hmmm, that seems to be how I learn, I could've really done some better planning in the back. : )

Yes you cheated, But those are great, always love the Bonsai look but they don't like me. What is the white one? I thinks its to cool.

Love bonsai! I have a few, but I don't spend enough time grooming them. It's very calming when I get around to it. I have some special Kingswood Boxwoods that I've been growing just for the bonsai value they have, but I still haven't done it yet. I think I'm waiting until I make a nice cement planter for them, which will likely be around the year 2015 at the rate I'm going. Also love the dwarf evergreens. That looks like a nice little hebe you have, is that right? The silver looks like an artemesia from the photo, or maybe a santolina?

Tilly, sorry I missed your post asking about the Hellebore. That photo was from last year, actually. Here is one from today. The blooms are going to be better next week. And I think I may be getting blooms on some of the younger plants I put in last spring. They are double flowers so I am very anxious to see them bloom.
I had about 10 minutes to call my own today, and the sun was out, so I took some photos. Brrrr!

Here's my other one. This one has a less mature hellebore just opening up behind it. I can see from the photo that I have room for many more hellebores! YIppee!

Last hellebore, one of my favorites. I can't get enough of the dark ones. I think it is Terra Nova nurseries that has one they are offering called 'London Fog'. It is a lovely dark blue-grey.

Right. Onward to the Mexican feather grass, which is lovely in form and color no matter what time of year. This one was a volunteer in this placement and I decided I liked it there. They are so soft and silky!

A tiny little combination of a recumbant form of cotoneaster with bright red berries, surrounding a small nest of nice stones.

Some of the heucheras apparently are evergreen. I think this one is 'caramel', but don't quote me. It mingles with a native deer fern and Corydalis 'Blue Panda', getting ready for its spring bloom.

Okay, last but not least is an unidentified woody perennial that just continues to put out blooms no matter what the weather. I got this plant at Fred Meyer, believe it or not, sometime in early December. It was among two or three leftover plants back in the nursery section. I generally shy away from the plants there because many of their shrubs are potted in pure clay and are particularly unhealthy once planted in the garden. But I've bought several nice perennials there over the years. I have no idea what this is so if anyone knows, please post. I'll put it on the plant ID forum if no one here can ID it.

Basically my biggest difficulty is getting good garden 'bones' that will continue to add structure and color all year. I'm working on putting in more evergreen shrubs that flower or that have interesting shape and color so that my perennial borders will be less boring in the winter. Thus I though this plant would be a good addition. I've also added a number of hebe's in cultivars that stay rather small and tidy. I would appreciate any other suggestions people have. I want things that will not outgrow the space and that mix well with perennials, roses, annuals and bulbs. I guess I am trying to make these areas more of a 'mixed border'. The areas I have are full sun, whatever that means up here. Heidi, chime in anytime!

I do have an Edgeworthia chrysantha by the front door that is getting ready to bloom. I'll post when it does, probably a couple more weeks.

Well I know what to look for now, have nothing yet and its bigger than yours, well I just keep waiting ####.
Which one is the Blue Panda? the one one the right? wanta know I want one.
So far all the plants you gave me are doing fine in the GH. I think can't wait till it warms up so they can grow.
One Q tho does the Sedum die all the way back in winter? I have never growen it before.
Will be asking more Qs later
Thanks
Tills

Betcha Heidi will know

Hey Tilly. I'll bet you do get blooms on that hellebore this winter. I think some of mine are a little ahead of other folks for some reason, so you'll probably get yours.
The blue panda is to the right of the heuchera in the photo. It pretty much goes dormant in the summer when the weather gets hot. If you remind me, I'll bring you some when we meet up for dragonfly again in the spring. It's a perfect plant for your woodland garden and it spreads slowly and gradually.
The sedum should not die all the way back in the winter. It stops growing, but it does not lose its leaves. Mine is already putting up new growth at the bottom. Let me know if that didn't make it. There is more where it came from.

Its lost all its leaves, it was the big leaf one. I brought the little ones in the house they where not looking good out there I also brought in the "Blushing Bride" I bought, in was not doing well. all's doing well now

Love the photos Pixy! Blue Panda is a beauty, I have the yellow corydalis it's one of my all time favorites.

Now sometimes there are just some bizarre combinations - here is my winter one, and it makes no sense at all - I just googled euonymous - thinking I might find the answer to Pix's mystery plant, and this came up under euonymous alata - surprised me, but also made me laugh

http://whisperingcraneinstitute.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/bush-umbrella.jpg

roflmbo...thanks Laurie I needed that!

That's funny Laurie!

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !

** Beautiful pictures Pixy, wow, I just look how your garden looks!!

Oh, nice! RTP, I don't think it's cheating to post a container-it's a winter combination, right? Besides, all the magazines have them. I like Bonsai, too. I used to have quite a lot of them and still have lots of pots.

Pixy, I like your new witch hazel pictures. And, I think you're right, I've got years before I see a hellebore bloom. I don't know if this helps, but your maybe-Caramel Heuchera looks just like MY maybe-Caramel heuchera... :) I'd like to see your Hebe combinations.I've got one that I just put in.

I think I've seen your mystery shrub, but I don't know what it is. Are the leaves slightly rough and lighter colored on the back?

I'm chimming in the blue panda is the frilly plant next to the heuchera. Great plant and I have a new one this year I think it is called berry exciting. The little plant blooming all winter is correa. Or duskey bells I have maybe 4 varieties sao I will check which one you have. I was at H_____ getting tables today and I learned that the workers there would buy boxes of chalk like what you right on the blackboard with and stuff one in the ground next too each plant. Interesting. Got to go eat. Heidi and Dragonfly

what does the chalk do? ....inquiring minds

Hellebores like alkaline soil and this I guess neutrilizes the soil. Allen said we would all get a box of chalk and all the new workers would get this confused look on their face. Last year some of mine were looking poor in the containers and I gave them a little dolomite lime and they perked up. I also have the new hellebors kingston cardinal. snow bunting green heron and a yellow one I can't remember the name but a new one. I also have some doubles which should bloom this year so we will see if they are a double.
Tillys the blushing bride will go dormant to the ground and will come up again. But if it is in a pot it will be happy in your house. You can pinch off some of the tips and root them in water for more next year.

I use chalk. It basically limes the soil. But you have to make sure you buy pure chalk, not the fake stuff. I use it in the ground next to the roots of any plant that prefers a higher PH in the soil. I keep a little box of chalk in my gardening 'bucket' that I carry around with me, along with slug bait, etc. So, Heidi, the correa needs the chalk?

Heidi, while you are at H_____, could you get cuttings from that gorgeous peach leaved viburnum that is in the front? It's got those absolutely glorious deep peach colored flowers in the spring, and the foliage is a reddish peach color as well. I've been longing for that plant for going on 2 years now. I know it's the wrong time of year, but sometimes things will take anyway. The one I'm talking about is in the perennial border at the front of the property, close to the driveway. That bed backs onto the outdoor staging area where they put the retail plants on the ground. Maybe, if you continue to have access, you could get cuttings in the early spring?

If you have Corydalis 'berry exciting', I'm going to need one when we visit. Thanks for the ID on that shrub. It just blooms its little heart out.

Laurie, don't even get me started on that photograph! LOL!

Whoops! We posted at the same time! Great minds think alike, you know!

OMG!! You have Kingston Cardinal???Are you propogating for sale?

Yes I bought them from heronswood last fall and have potted them up . They look great and are 18.00. Sorry about the viburnum but I don't feel right getiing anything in there they have been nice enought to sell me tables and some plants. I know I miss it too. Did you check their new catalog?

yes, their new catalog is wet with my drool