Best plants and flowers for winter colour

Garden in the winter with cornus and other winter-flowering plants and shrubs

There’s a huge choice of plants to bring your winter garden to life
Image: Andrew Fletcher/shutterstock

Create a garden full of colour, scent and interest this winter! Here’s our pick of the flowers, climbers, winter bedding plants and shrubs to help you to enjoy an all-year-round display and raise your spirits through the colder months. Looking for a little drama once the leaves have dropped? Here’s what to plant for a bright and colourful winter wonderland…

Best winter flowers

Winter pansies

Purple pansy flowering in the winter

Pansies continue flowering even in the depths of winter!
Image: Botamochy/Shutterstock

Pansies are a staple of the winter garden and they thrive in cold, icy weather. Pansy ‘Matrix™ Mixed’ is easy-to-grow – and extra strong. Specially bred for their branching habit and super-size flowers, the compact, sturdy stems hold their flower heads high, whatever the temperature. Plant them in hanging baskets, window boxes, containers and borders to ensure your garden is filled with vibrant colour throughout the coldest months.

Primroses

Primrose 'Husky' Mixed from T&M

Primrose ‘Husky’ Mixed provide a welcome riot of colour in winter
Image: T&M

Primroses are another ‘toughie’ for winter and spring colour, and will even push their brightly coloured blooms through coverings of snow. Primrose ‘Husky’ Mixed offers a vibrant rainbow of flowers that brighten the gloomiest of winter days.

While primroses feature single bloom stems, polyanthus produces a cluster of 15 or more flowers at the tip of a stem. Polyanthus ‘Firecracker’ is an eye-catching plant bearing yellow blooms edged with a fiery orange-red. Or try Polyanthus ‘Most Scented Mix’ for a bright and fragrant addition to your winter beds.

Cyclamen

Purple, pink and white cyclamen

Cyclamen hederifolium is striking planted on masse
Image: Konmac/Shutterstock

Cyclamen are the perfect ground cover plant for rockeries and woodland gardens and provide a stunning winter display. Cyclamen hederifolium will self-seed freely to create carpets of foliage and flowers from autumn to spring, before the foliage dies back in summer.

Hellebores

Hellebore 'Winterbells' from T&M

Hellebore ‘Winterbells’ flowers from December to April
Image: T&M

Winter-flowering perennials like hellebores, prized for their elegant, cup-shaped flowers, brighten up tricky shady corners and winter containers from December right through to the first signs of early spring. They’re also a popular choice for evergreen ground cover beneath deciduous trees and shrubs. Hellebore x hybridus ‘Mixed’ brings welcome shades of white, red, pink and purple to the garden. Meanwhile, the new ‘Winterbells’ variety – a unique hybrid of H. niger x H. foetidus that was once thought impossible – has a delicate pale green bloom with a pink flush.

Snowdrops

Closeup of snowdrops flowering

Delicate snowdrops flower in February and March
Image: Visions BV, Netherlands

With a gentle nod, snowdrops usher in the first signs of spring into your garden. A lover of dappled shade, these winter bulbs add colour in the most unexpected places. They’re also happy in containers and window boxes, should you want to get closer to the delicate honey scent of these cheerful little blooms.

Best winter climbers

Clematis

Clematis 'Winter Beauty' from T&M

Clematis ‘Winter Beauty’ flowers from December until February
Image: T&M 

For winter climbers, nothing beats a clematis. Evergreen, winter varieties will appreciate a sheltered site which offers protection from wind. Plant them against a warm house wall so you can appreciate their winter flowers from your window. Clematis urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’ is a beautiful, evergreen clematis with lush foliage and delicate, white, waxy, bell-shaped flowers that bloom from December to March.

Or try Clematis ‘Advent Bells’, a winter-flowering climber that has dainty blooms from November to the end of January. Its nodding, cup-shaped flowers are creamy-white outside, with showy, red-speckled markings inside and a prominent cluster of stamens. It will happily tolerate temperatures down to -10°C.

Winter jasmine

Winter flowering jasmine

Canary yellow jasmine flowers brighten up the darkest months
Image: Nova-Photo-Graphik GmbH

Unscented, canary yellow blooms smother the bare stems of Jasmine nudiflorum from February onwards – a sure sign that spring is on its way. This vigorous winter jasmine has a loose sprawling habit that can be trained with wires, but is equally happy to scramble over walls in a cascade of stiff, bright green stems. Fantastically hardy and easy to grow, this versatile climber requires little aftercare – but does benefit from regular pruning.

Winter honeysuckle

Winter honeysuckle flowers

Winter honeysuckle can produce tiny red berries as well as pretty white blooms.
Image: T&M

Wonderfully seasonal, creamy white flowers and red berries vie for attention on Lonicera fragrantissima (winter honeysuckle). But, as with many honeysuckle varieties, it’s the heady fragrance that’s the real heavy hitter. Whether you’d prefer it as a climber or a shrub, make sure to plant it somewhere you can get up close (even if it’s in semi-shade) to really appreciate its scent.

Best winter plants and shrubs

Sweet box

Sarcocca sweetbox from T&M

Discover the heady, honey fragrance of Christmas box!
Image: T&M

For winter fragrance, plant Sarcococca confusa, an easy to grow shrub also known as sweet box – or, even more seasonally, Christmas box! Its creamy white flowers might be inconspicuous, hidden beneath leathery foliage – but you won’t miss their powerful, honey-like fragrance. The flowers are followed by red, purple or black berries, which may last into the following winter.

Ornamental grass

Ornamental Grasses from T&M

‘Nigrescens’ adds drama and colour to the winter garden.
Image: T&M

For many gardens, flowers are in short supply during the winter, which is why it’s important to make the most of structure and texture. Enter: Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’, a hardy, herbaceous perennial. It adds fantastically black, grass-like foliage – a bold choice that leans into the darkness of the season – and graceful bell-shaped blooms to the space. For the most dramatic impact, interplant it with snowdrops. Visit our grasses hub for more planting advice.

Dogwood

Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Flame’ from T&M

Create a fiery winter display with Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Flame’
Image: T&M

Who needs foliage when you have the ‘Winter Flame’? One of the best shrubs for winter colour, Cornus Sanguinea (also known as dogwood) lights up cold, grey gardens with a shock of fiery red, orange, and yellow stems in the autumn and winter. This deciduous shrub is a year-round showstopper, with the warmer months seeing it produce tiny white flowers, glossy black berries and verdant green leaves.

Viburnum

Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ from T&M

Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ flowers from October to April
Image: T&M

A great addition to borders or wildlife gardens, Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ adds both colour and fragrance to the winter garden. Beautiful by any measure, the flowers bud in the darkest days, offering dark pink blooms on bare stems. While the flowers are remarkably tolerant of frost (and last longer than other winter flowers), should you want to cut a few stems for some indoor colour – go ahead! ‘Dawn’ is pretty prolific so you won’t see any ill effects.

Top tip from our horticulturist Peter Freeman: plant it next to your front door so you can enjoy the sweet, rich fragrance as you pass by.

Mahonia

Mahonia Collection from T&M

Bright yellow flower spikes brighten even the darkest corners of your winter garden
Copyright: John Glover

Commonly known as Oregon Grape, Mahonia x media is a superb hardy shrub for tricky shaded spots. The large yellow flower spikes bloom from November through to March, bringing colour and fragrance to your garden during the cold winter months. As the flowers fade, they’re replaced by bunches of purple berries, and the holly shaped, evergreen leaves look great all year round.

Wintersweet

Wintersweet collection from T&M

Cut a few sprigs of wintersweet to enjoy the exquisite fragrance in your home
Image: T&M

Chimonanthus praecox, or wintersweet, is an elegant, fragrant winter flowering shrub. Grow it in borders, or against a house wall, where you can enjoy its exquisite perfume every time you step into the garden. It bursts into life in the dead of winter, its bare woody stems dripping with pendulous, sulphur-yellow blooms. On the darkest of winter days, Chimonanthus flowers can be seen in full bloom while most other plants lie dormant.

Witch hazel

Witch Hazel from T&M

Enjoy vibrant bursts of yellow through January and February
Image: T&M

There’s nothing like a splash of bright yellow to cheer up a wintry day and Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’ – the recipient of a well-deserved RHS Award of Garden Merit – delivers. The little flowers burst open on the craggy stems, offering up a sweet scent, as well as vibrant colour. Position it somewhere in full sun or semi-shade, and get it in place in time for autumn so you can enjoy the show as its leaves turn brilliant orange and red before January arrives and the bare stems explode into bloom.

Daphne

Winter-flowering daphne shrub

The winter-flowering daphne is scented, compact and evergreen
Image: T&M

Another RHS Award of Garden Merit winner, Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ is an evergreen shrub that adds structure to the garden all year long. But it really comes into its own in late winter, thanks to the blooming of its highly-scented pink flowers. Daphne plants appreciate a little acclimatisation to the outdoors before taking up their final positions; a process that’s made easier by the fact that this plant is perfect for patio containers.

Coronilla

Yellow Coronilla plant

Coronilla can be grown as a shrub or trained up a wall as a striking feature
Image: Alamy

There’s nothing dull about a December day if you have Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Citrina’ in your garden. Its lemon-yellow flowers can appear throughout the year, but it reaches its peak in the winter months with blooms from December to April. With a bit of shelter and sun, this compact evergreen with small blue-green foliage does well even in harsh coastal conditions. For added winter drama, why not train it as a wall shrub for a bit of vertical interest?

Gardens don’t have to be dull in the dark, winter months. With these flowers and plants – and more to inspire you on our winter flowers hub – you really can have all year round colour and interest. Get planning and planting now, and you’ll reap the rewards in the changing seasons to come. What are your favourite winter plants? Let us know over on our Facebook page.

Tidy up

Tidy up - preparation before planting

Today I’ve spent time sorting out the winter bedding from the greenhouse which are in need of transplanting into the herbaceous borders.

The Stocks ‘Most scented mix’ and the Polyanthus ‘Crescendo’ have been desperate to be planted, out growing their nursery pots so I cleared areas for them and cut back some of the perennial plants.

Our beds are plagued by Bindweed, this weed is a real pain, left to its own devices, it grows quickly, climbing up the nearest plant and choking it.

I try not to use much spray any more, but this time of the year (when not cold and icy) and spring is perfect to dig it out. Even the smallest piece left in will regenerate. I actually find it quite therapeutic and collect as many pieces as I can.

Tidy up - bulb planterIn between planting my plugs, now garden readies, I have put some more Alliums using my trusty Wolf Garten bulb planter.

It’s so easy to use, my general rule of thumb with planted bulbs is, whatever the size of the bulb, the hole needs to be double that size. The bulb planter has measurements on the side. Simply turn the planter into the soil with a twist, lift out the core of soil held inside the planter, then place the bulb in the hole, roots down! and then replace the core by gently squeezing the top.

 

 

The Phlomis russeliana, (Turkish sage) I leave in the borders and cut back in the spring, as the old seed heads look great with a dusting on frost and gives the birds somewhere to perch. The foliage is lovely too.

Tidy up - sage, viburnum, fatsia

 

After going on my walk of the garden, firstly I could smell my favourite winter flowering plant, Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’, it’s a real beauty, it flowers on bare stems and gives that sweet fragrance as you walk past. It is a must for any garden in my opinion, adds height to borders and winter interest.

The Fatsia japonica also was in flower, attracting any little insects that may be around. Its glossy dark green leaves really are something at this time of year, stunning!

Anyway, back to getting outside while the sun is shining and it’s relatively warm!

 

Head-to-head with Firecracker

I think Polyanthus Firecracker is well-named–its’ flowers really create a crackling, fiery red and yellow contrast.  Each plant has flowers with slightly different markings and petal ‘frilliness’.  Firecrackers hail from China and were used to frighten away evil spirits.  Well this exciting and attractive plant must be effective as it has only encouraged positive comments from passers-by.

firecracker

Having a south-facing ‘hot’ border, these sounded like a brilliant plant for the front edge, so in 2014 I dutifully nurtured small plugs of this gem in 7cm pots until they were large enough to inter-plant amongst my Valeriana phu Aurea–in theory to give some colour after the leaves have reverted from bright yellow to green.  However, I didn’t count on the chickens!  Yes, they do tend to cause havoc in the borders, but the golden-leaved valerian has stood the test of time – but not this last year.  To cut a long story short, half of, if not more, the Polyanthus Firecracker never made it to flower, as the chickens scratched them to death whilst shredding the valerian.

firecracker

So it was a bit of a surprise to see some of them coming back up for air this spring 2015, first flowering in February despite Jack Frost … and going all-out head-to-head with the March-flowering Narcissus Tête-a-tête.  Had the Firecracker retreated … or perhaps they were relocated by you know who!  The chickens, well this year they just weeded in between the plants, the novelty clearly having worn off!  The vagaries of our weather patterns are always a wild card, but in my garden … what a beautiful survivor! Polyanthus Firecracker is certainly an explosive harbinger of spring!

firecracker

By Purple Leaf Blackthorn

Primrose – the queen of spring!

Primrose 'Husky' Mixed

Primrose ‘Husky’ Mixed

Hello,

Just a few minutes planning now can make your outdoor space the envy of all once spring arrives! And this is all thanks to the queen of spring, the primrose!

When you think the garden has given up the ghost and you’re cranking up the central heating indoors, primroses are outside flourishing! ‘Husky’ is an especially hardy variety, which shrugs off cold and snow. Great colour mix, as with our new ‘Improved Mix of Alaska’, 20 different colours – wowsers!

Last season we also had some fun putting together the best fragrant types too, ‘World’s Most Scented Mix’ is a hand-selected blend… or rather nose-selected!

Primula Double 'Lipstick'

Primula Double ‘Lipstick’

Or you can go big and blousy with ‘Berryblossom Mixed’, tightly packed rosebud blooms in a Valentine’s style colour mix – grow a pot for your beloved this February maybe!

How’s about a designer blend too? ‘Woodland Dell’ is a true connoisseur’s variety, with blushed pink blooms on dark, nearly black foliage! Or try ‘Double Lipstick’- it’s a bit more pricey but well worth the investment for the fancy buds and blooms!

But when’s a primrose not a primrose? Well, when it’s a polyanthus. Primroses have 1 bloom per stem, but many stems. Polyanthus have just 1 stem with a cluster of blooms piled on top! ‘Crescendo’ is the oldest and still the best, colourful but very hardy too.

Polyanthus 'Crescendo®' Mixed

Polyanthus ‘Crescendo®’ Mixed

So, to get started, order young plants now, pot them on and you’ll have some nicely established plants by late autumn, when you can plant out into borders or patio pots!

Enjoy!

Michael

PS Don’t forget you can follow all the new product developments at T&M by following me on twitter @gardening_greek

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