When people in the southern hemisphere say "winter growing", it means the plant is active in their winter (when it is summer for us). So most winter growing species, (from either hemisphere) that are hardy enough to survive our winters, will not perform well in climates like ours where it gets too cold for growth in the winter. When I look for South African Gladiolus species, for instance, I pay particular attention to whether the species is summer or winter growing, and generally stay away from anything that is a winter growing species. Some plants, however, might be tricked into thinking our summers are actually "winters" and you might be able to get them to grow in our summers. Obviously, they would need to be able to tolerate the summer heat you have, which is likely significantly warmer than any of their native winters (in South Africa, for instance). One could conceivably trick them by keeping the plant bulb dry and warm in our winter, and then giving it water in spring.
All that said, Jonna makes a good point that one needs to take into account the natural habitat of the particular plant(s) as an aid for your decisions. Indeed, I am trying a winter growing species of glad (Gladiolus cunonis) from seed. It was just too cool to pass up!
