Cold wet weather doesn't mean the landscape has to be drab: There is a surprising variety of plants, trees and shrubs that flourish in cool temperatures while adding interesting form, texture and color to the garden.
Although soggy weather keeps most gardeners indoor, a few hours of dry weather provides the opportunity to get instant winter color from bedding plants like pansies and violas.
The California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers (Web site www.CANGC.org) suggests planting these fresh-faced winter bloomers because they produce vivid flowers, in solid colors or mixed tones, throughout most of the cold-weather season.
Regular feeding strengthens pansies and violas, enabling them to generate larger flowers. Removing dead blooms and pinching back the plants once a month helps the plants keep a bushy, compact shape. Pinching also encourages new growth while lengthening the growing season.
Because they require good drainage, pansies and violas do especially well in raised beds and containers. They also work well as attractive cover plantings over bare bulb beds that will erupt in spring.
Cyndi Davis of Eisley Nursery in Auburn also recommends introducing snapdragons to winter gardens.
"Although they are not as tough as pansies in cold weather, snapdragons perform better this time of year than they do in the heat of summer," she explained.
Some plants are chill specialists - such as primroses and their taller more elegant siblings, Primula Obconica - that do best in cool temperatures. Primroses come in a wide variety of dramatic hues and have a subtle scent that gives off a sweet aroma, even in the rain.
Cyclamen is another plant that prefers low temperatures. This hardy specimen has white, pink or brilliant red buds that reach up through rounded dark-green leaves on spindly stems to daintily unfurl.
"Cyclamen actually are bulbs that die back in summer and go dormant in the heat," Davis said. "So this is their time of year to be happy."
It's also the time when the small green leaves of the Nandina - commonly known as Heavenly Bamboo - turn a fiery reddish-orange. Planted in a row along a driveway, fence or wall - or grouped among shorter plantings - these bushy shrubs look lush in the landscape all year through.
For all plants, trees and shrubs, elevation plays a key role in their climate adaptability. Derek and Heidi Gilliland, owners of Bella Fiore Nursery and Gardens near Colfax, know that gardeners in higher elevations need to pay closer attention to suggested planting zones.
"This time of year, we don't even see any gardeners from Alta and Dutch Flat," Derek said, laughing.
But even above the snow line, the Heuchera Palace Purple - a variety of coral bell with purple foliage and pink spiked flowers - Sasanqua and Japonica camellias, and aromatic winter-blooming Daphne Odora can survive.
"The daphne just needs to be closer to the house or in a more sheltered location," he cautioned.
Gilliland also suggests planting the ever-green Erysimum for winter color. It produces tall spears of lavender florets. The flowers will keep blooming into late spring, if dead blooms are cut back routinely.
For complementary splashes of tint in a winter garden, he likes to mix Loropetalum - or Chinese Fringe Flower - with the Breath of Heaven Coloneum.
"The Loropetalum has deep reddish-purple foliage, with pinkish-red Tinkerbelle flowers," he described. "And the 'Sunset Gold' Coloneum is a beautiful color. When you put Loropetalum in front of Coloneum, they really stand out in the garden."
Cotoneaster is another winter staple in many parts of Placer County.
"It is deciduous, so you don't see any leaves this time of year, but you do see the vines and red berries," he said.
Color is not the only aim of a winter garden; form is an important part of the landscape, too.
Gilliland believes the Acer Palmatum - or Coral Bark Maple - is an excellent specimen for the off-season environment.
"The dark-red trunk is outstandingly beautiful and it has an artistically branching form. It looks really good in a green garden."
In the lower elevations of South Placer, there is even more variety in form for winter gardening, said Jeannie Ross, a horticulturist at Bushnell Gardens Nursery in Granite Bay. Some of her favorites include shrubby dogwoods, such as Cornus Stolonifera and Cornus Sanguinea "Midnight Fire." The former has intense yellow or red stems; the latter has bright orange bark
"With these shrubs, it's not the flowers or the leaves that are so great," she opined. "The twigs are what is so exciting."
The deciduous early-flowering apricot trees that are blooming now also have unique attributes: Although it sometimes bears apricots, "this tree is not grown for its fruit; it's grown for its flowers," Ross said. "The Prunus 'Mume' Bonita variety sports beautiful, bright red five-petal blossoms in late winter."
Some varieties of heather also are blooming now, she noted, such as Erica Cross Darleyensis "Furzey," and Erica Canaliculata "Rosea."
No matter where you live in Placer County, there is something artful, colorful or fragrant that can liven up even the grayest gardening day.