Ajugas also come in a multitude of colors, from silver to bronze to a fairly bright purple. Pulmoniarias offer white spots like spilled droplets of milk.
For something with more height, there are some wonderful new Japanese maples to try. My favorite (til the deer ate it) was Acer palmatum "Orido Nishiki" with mottled foliage of green, ivory and rose. But you can find foliage in everything from golden orange through yellow through crimson, burgundy--even green! A source for these, and many other great foliage plants is Aesthetic Gardens
Cannas have fabulous foliage. Bengal Tiger, with its bold stripes of green and gold is a real show stopper, but I have a sneaky fondness for red flowered cannas with burgundy leaves mixed with the bold bluish burgundy foliage of the castor bean. I never knew red and purple could look so well together. Aesthetic Gardens has this plant (also known as Praetoria) too.
On a quieter note, consider the old rose. rosa glauca.Mine has never bloomed, and I don't really care. I love it for its leaves, a steely grey blue warmed with a blush of burgundy. You can find it online at Garden Valley Nursery. Underplanted with white-silver stachys with its pettable ears of foliage it presents a study in coolness; partnered with purple opal basil it takes on warmth.
I haven't even begin to scratch the surface, describing foliage which can give a garden color and depth even without bloom. Just take a good look now, as you shop the catalogs, and a better one when you visit the garden centers this spring. You'll see that no garden ever has to be dull just because bloom season isn't here.
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