i am not in zone 5., but next best thing. i do have some basal leaves on my penstamon that are still green.

Helleborus
Yuccas
Dwarf conifers (do they count?)

My sedum seedheads & hydrangea seedheads are brown, though. I am cheating here; my red twig dogwoods, yellow/orange/red dogwood, Coral Embers willow and Viburnum opulus 'Compactum' are absolutely beautiful. They look especially nice next to the dwarf conifers and sedum seedheads. And I have a few ornamental grass as well. They are so pretty in the wind & poking up through the snow. :-D

Everything else is under the snow, still.

If it's not a shrub or a tree, it's happily buried under lots of snow this year. Even some shrubs are buried. :-) But some winters I can see my eunymous when there isn't enough snow.

Non-trees/shrubs that are green (or not looking downright dead :) here are: sedum angelina, veronica georgia blue, veronica aztec gold, sedum blue spruce, hens & chicks, sedum tricolor, blue fescue, muscari, euphorbia despina, delosperma cooperi & oriental poppies. Blue oat grass still has some color also but not the brilliant blue of spring/summer.

oriental poppies, columbine, some bits and pieces of parsley, and of course, ground ivy - nothing kills that stuff. Oh yes - my pansies are green and budding - should have 2 or 3 flowers by Sunday. A few tulips points and daffs are poking through. Piegirl

Yep, I've got daffodils and crocus starting to poke through here as well. Also, autumn fern, lamb's ears, liriope, and scabiosa are all nice and green.
And of course, yuccas. I dug them out again last year but the little sprouts are back already. I'm going to try setting a black bucket over them this year to see if I can fry them to death! :-)

A 61 degree day prompted me to take a second tour around the garden revealing - shasta daisies, coral bells, the raspberry bushes needed thinning and low and behold, they had little green leaves. The big weather whammy is coming next week but I am sure they will be fine. Piegirl

i just noticed today that some moss i had relocated from building site is looking quite lovely today. it looked quite dead a few weeks after i moved it last fall. i figured that it wasnt meant to grow there. but today with the warm temperatures, we have had quite a snow melt and that moss has grown and is looking green. very cool.

Are you other Illinoisans working from memory? Because, although I expect this to change with this afternoon's predicted thaw, I haven't seen the ground unblanketed by snow for a few weeks. Although in the little thaw patches that have emerged since yesterday, I do see some primula, heuchera and campanula that are green.

Guess that depends on where in IL you are--I'm 20 miles east of St. Louis and we've had snow off and on, but nothing that lasted more than a few days.

In my yard, I've got a fair amount still green. There's the rosemary plant (which is now so big I think I have to call it a shrub), hellebores, liriope, foxglove, parsley, sweet william, and trollius (Golden Queen). The muscari leaves are still green, and I'm starting to see the tips of the daffodils' leaves.

3 eonymous (sp) 2 yuccas and holly. Toni

I LIVE 40 MILES WEST OF CHICAGO AND I'VE GOT SNOW DROPS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF MY HOUSE BLOOMING!!! I ALSO HAVE A DWARF BAMBOO THAT LOOKS A LITTLE TATTERED BUT IS STILL GREEN.

Isn't it exciting! The snow is completely off one garden and I see my globemaster alliums have multiplied again!!! I've gone from 1 to 3 to 5!, a fall blooming allium shows green too,
I see green on alyssum sax. compactum (gold) lemon lilies= a type of daylily, artemisia 'silver mound', liriope (lilyturf), chives, brunnifolia- ground cover, thyme, hens and chicks, and columbine.

yippeee!!!!!

Karen

Just an update, Southwestern IL here and the Crocus are blooming! Actually, they've been blooming for 3 days but I didn't notice them until yesterday morning....