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Has anyone managed to successfully winter over any of their floating pond plants?

Just curious -- it's not like I have a place indoors to put 50 water hyacinths, but it galls me that every year I have to shell out more money for a new batch.

You could try it, but they really need very high light levels. Unless you have a greenhouse, your electric bill would probably increase more than the cost of new plants in the spring.

I live in southern California. I have water hyacinths in my pond (operating since April-ish), and about 1-2 months ago, I noticed their growth and reproduction had started to slow down, and they'd even started to die off a little once the temps dipped into the 70's-60's. So, apparently, they like warmer temperatures (water temps in the 70's). The roots and decaying bulby-leaf thingies have been clogging my filter a lot. I may remove them completely very soon if I see more die-off.
But I got these hyacinths from a friend who lives nearby, and has had them growing year-round in her smaller pond. She has never had to throw them out.
I guess it depends on what your water temp dips to in the winter time. You could probably get away with keeping them the whole year if you live in a place that's warm like Southern California.