Natalie, It really is hard to get significant stunning mag picture color all year. Take a look at my garden in the Happy frozen day post. I have several things blooming right now, but the overall look is dead winter. However, for winter, there are red twig dogwood, wintersweet, oakleaf hydrangea, daphne, flowering quince, nandina, violets, hellebores, various berry bearing bushes, and more. You should probably get a few books and read up.

Debbieca,
do your oakleaf hydrangeas bloom/have leaves in winter? I have one of those, and it is naked now.
I have planted lots of violets in containers mostly. Those in the ground served as lunch for my rabbits.
Book research is a great idea. Will do just that.
Thanks!
~Natalie

Ditto on Debbie's very good suggestions.

In addition to winter annuals - violas, pansies, snapdragons- for winter blooming color, I love crape myrtles for year round interest.

They provide beautiful flowers for the spring and summer, nice leaf coloring in the fall, and in the winter you can appreciate the smooth, flowing lines of the tree itself. I also enjoy the evergreen of Carolina Jessamine, and the bright orangey-red of Possumhaw holly during the winter.

Dusty Miller and Lambs Ear also do well for me in the winter.

Marilyn

Natalie, Yes, my oakleaf hydragea is in a protected place and does not turn color until Christmas. The red leaves stay on until the new on pushes them off. One of my favorite pictures is of the new leaves and old. I do not know if the difference would be zone or variety of plant.
Look here in my photo album down near the bottom.

Here is a link that might be useful: Debbie's pics

Debbie,
your garden looks awesome even in winter. Viva California! Your butterflies must have a time of their lives visiting your beautiful and colorful paradise.
Love your Rose - it looks so healthy and spotless.

Marilyn,
I like the idea of Carolina Jessamine. It sounds fragrant - love the fragrant type.

Thank you both for responding and sharing your pictures. I love to peak in other people's gardens :-).

Natalie, have you planted "both" kinds of camellia? They both extend bloom. Also try
Jasminum nudifolium
native honeysuckles, mine bloom almost all year long!!
quince shrubs: there are several dwarf varieties
Black pussy willow, or any pussy willows. These are super fanastic in the vase with forced blooms, and are so interesting in the garden
Paperwhites are hardy here in a well drained, open area! They are blooming now as are jonquills
wintersweet shrub

Also consider berries. YELLOW berry nandina (not invasive!), hollies with red, orange or yellow berries. At church we have three small all green acuba. They have lovely narrow leaves and get the most RED, very showy HUGE berries on them.

Fatsia Japonica blooms late, very late in shade and has these crazy space-creature like orbs with the seeds in them. These bloom white and keep the white color (until they freeze!).

I am excited now! So many possibilities and plants to experiment with. Can't wait to dig in a dirt again.
The reason I have planted camellia sasanqua is because I have read the regular kind (japonica) grows up to be huge, and blocks the house, so it becomes a tree with a house, not the house with a tree.

It's real challenge to have a blooming garden all year long. Sometimes in the worst of winter you have to cheat a little and have forced blooms inside, like hyacinths and amaryllis and paperwhites. The false spring we had brought out hyacinths and Erlicheer daffodils in my garden. Tea olive is smelling delicious, but the blooms are small -- not a show plant! I even found a tiny larkspur blooming yesterday!

Watch your yard for micro climates where things might survive under an overhang or on the south side of a well drained slope.

Evergreens will keep your garden from looking dreary in the winter. Boxwood, hollies, dwarf arbor vitae and junipers; even nandinas will add color and berries.

Nell

Here is a link that might be useful: Foxesearth

I have some oakleaf hydrangea and they are leafless now. I think it is a function of the colder zone. I have a mahonia that is nice even in winter. I've noticed different varieties of nandina in the neighborhood (I'm new to zone 7, from zone 9) with red color and/or red berries. I've noticed a stunning (I think) pyracantha covered with bright red berries. The hollies and yaupons are great too. I have leucothoe that is evergreen. Forsythia starting to bloom right now, also quince, I guess because it was 71 degrees last week. Magnolia, like "little gem" is evergreen too. I do want to add more evergreens up here, I'm used to year round blooms.

Nell, I love your camellias! Just gorgeous!
I went to Pike's yesterday to look at flowering shrubs, and camellia japonica really impressed me. The flowers were breathtaking, more impressive then Camellia sasanqua I have planted last fall.

Louisianagal, planting shrubs with berries is a great idea - love that. And it will attract birds as well. We had issue with mice last year, and the pest control man suggested to stay away from bird feeders and such. So, we got rid of lots and lots of feeders we had. I miss birds' company...

Thank you both for a great advice!
~Natalie

I read quickly through the responses and did not see a mention of Witch-hazels (Hamamelis), two of which are in bloom here now, nor Christmas rose or Hellebore, which I have not tried. Also Mahonia, one finishing here now, and Lonicera fragrantissima, purpusii and standishii, Prunus mume varieties and Bergenias. Also Edgeworthia. Some may be suitable only to cool Summer, mild Winter areas like the PNW or zone8 on South. I am especially making an effort to get plants that will color up the Winter scene here.

Natalie, in my opinion, first you have to make up your mind whether what you want is a garden blooming in Winter or a garden which has Winter interest. I believe these are two different things. Some plants may fit the whole bill, others only one of the premises. What I mean is, a garden that has appeal in Winter does not necessarily mean it has a lot of flowers. As I said in another thread, Winter is the time of the year to pay attention to the things which are overshadowed by the flowers - foliage, bark, berries, plumes, etc.

So, decide what is the effect you want to achieve. If the look you want is really flowers, then nothing beats the winter annuals stated above, plus cyclamen, for example. If, on the other hand, you want to get a bit more ambitious, broaden your scope and look at berries, interesting barks, twig color, etc. It's a totally different approach, IMO. Both are valid and can produce beautiful results.

In my personal view of gardening I tend to go for the latter and then use some Winter flowers here and there for a burst of additional color. For Winter interest in my garden I grow viburnum tinus (laurustinus), firethorn, hollies, nandina, dwarf conifers, pieris, dodonea, red twig dogwood (my latest adition), New Zealand tea tree, sweet gum tree (for the bark), prunus trees (ditto), grevilea rosmarinifolia, camellias, mahonia, photinia, hardenbergia violacea (climber), cestrum red, and strawberry tree. In pots or window boxes I grow kalanchoe, cyclamen, solanum capsicum and violas. If I had more room I would add birch trees (especially the Hymalayan birches with the whitest bark), witch hazel, garrya, itea, more dogwoods, including yellow twig ones, Christmas box, daphne, more types of viburnum, winterberry and all types of holly I could get my hands on :-).

Gardening in Winter is a fascinating subject and one that is bound to entice you as you do some research and become more knowleageable. There are quite a few books specifically about Winter interest in the garden, you may wish to have a look at those for more ideas. Barbara Damrosh's "Theme Gardens" book has a Winter garden plan that changed my view of Winter gardening when I first read it, many years ago. Better Homes and Gardens website also features an interesting slide show about Winter garden this week. See the link below.

Have fun planning your Winter garden.
Eduarda

Here is a link that might be useful: BHG's Winter Garden slideshow

Ideally, I would like both: winter interest and winter color (flowers, berries). Have a better idea of the kind of material I can plant. It rarely snows here in Georgia, and my garden looks wet and bare. As far as color, I have some daffs and violas. Need more shrubbery/evergreens for green effect and privacy.
I bought some miniature roses, african violets, and primrose for indoors. Fresh cut gerbera dasies, too.
Life is good even in winter :)!

Yesterday in town, I saw what I believe to be a 'Merrill' decidious magnolia, about 40 feet tall, in full bloom. Lots of the decidious magnolias bloom early and in a cold location will not open all at once so if some blossoms get nipped, more will open later.

On the way home, I noticed one of the neighbors has flowering quince blooming in the middle of a bare front yard, gloriously orange-red. My quinces have not even thought about opening a bud, on the north side of the house.

Those are two -- magnolias and quince -- that I hadn't thought to mention. Another possibility is native sparkleberry.

Nell

Here is a link that might be useful: Blooming Here Now

Winter is also a time for garden structures and art to shine.