Today’s photo, our 2nd runner-up in the Garden in Winter photo contest, is from finegardening.com member Janek15, who says, “These ‘Karl Foerster’ grasses are the perfect plant for Colorado winter winds! This photo reminds me of Monet’s impressionistic painting of haystacks.” Beautiful! FYI, the grasses are ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grasses (Calamagrostis X acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, USDA Hardiness Zones 5-9). Stay tuned for the 1st runner-up in tomorrow’s post!

Even while a garden is sleeping, it has joy to share, even though you might have to look a little harder to find it. Back in December, we asked our website visitors to show us the best of their winter gardens in our Garden in Winter photo contest. Since then we’ve received dozens of gorgeous photos. This week we’re featuring the best of the best, leading up to the overall winning photo on Friday. We know you’re winter-weary. Travel along with us this week while we remind ourselves that winter can be a beautiful time in our gardens.

Welcome to the Fine Gardening GARDEN PHOTO OF THE DAY blog! Every weekday we post a new photo of a great garden, a spectacular plant, a stunning plant combination, or any number of other subjects. Think of it as your morning jolt of green.

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READER PHOTOS: We love featuring your photos, too. If you think you have a photo that we should share on the Garden Photo of the day, email us. Send hi-res images if possible. We’ll only respond if we plan to use your photo.