Top Seven Plants for Winter Colour.

Plants for winter colour – are your window boxes looking a bit drab? Is your garden feeling unloved? Is your patio or balcony in need of a makeover? Christmas is past and it’s the middle of winter and life seems a bit, well mehhhh. This is when we all need a lift and adding dash of colour can do wonders in raising your spirits.

Here are our top plants for winter colour and for adding life back into your outdoor spaces.

Cyclamen.

This is a great pant for winter colour and is so very versatile. It can be planted into hanging baskets, tubs, window boxes and directly into the ground. It comes in many different colours and shades from pure white to pale pinks, reds and purples. It’s leaves are beautiful too – heart shaped, two tone and variegated. It thrives in cold and frosty conditions flowering throughout the winter but if planted in a pot make sure it doesn’t become waterlogged or the roots will rot and the plant will die.

Primula or Primrose.

Primulas add a bright flash of colour to any display. They are great for hanging baskets, tub and window boxes. They bloom throughout winter and into late spring and are happiest in partially shaded areas. Primula flowers come in a wide range of colours including yellows, pinks, reds through to bluish-purple. They are a perennial plant so will flower again next year. One good tip is, at the end of the flowering season, plant them into a boarder so the can grow larger – you can then split them in autumn and replant them for a bigger and brighter display the following winter.

Hellebores.

Hellebores or The Christmas Rose is another great plant for winter colour. It can cope well with cold and icy conditions and still provide colour over the winter months. It’s colours are usually more subtle than the flowers above – pure white, white-green, dusky pink, soft apricot but some varieties do have stronger shades like dark purple. Flowering from mid-winter to early spring they are best planted directly into the ground or into a larger container. A shade loving perennial so will bloom year after year.

Skimmia.

Skimmia is really a type of bush as opposed to a flowering plant. Our favourite is Skimmia Japonica which has dark red flowers surrounded by a dark green foliage. Other varieties have beautiful red berries which last through autumn and winter. They are slow growing so are great for containers and boarders. They do best in partial shade but can do well in almost total shade too. To make a great display plant in containers of various heights.

Heucheras.

Heuchera is a multi-purpose plant that produces lovely spiked shaped flowers in the summer but it is their beautiful vibrant foliage that makes them such fantastic plants for winter colour. They like to be planted in well drained pots in shade or semi-shade. Their winter foliage ranges in colour from black pearl right through the colour spectrum to sugar frosting and are great planted alongside dark red winter Violas.

Pansies & Violas

These are everybody’s favourite winter flowers for adding a pop of winter colour. Again, ideally suited to plant in containers and directly into the garden. Available in a vast array of colours but we think the best way to plant these for most impact is to pack your container with loads of Pansies of one single colour.

Silverbush

A species of flowering evergreen bush native to Australia but one that is great in our harsher winter environment. It’s textural shape and silvery colour compliment other flowers in containers and add a frosty wintery feel to your displays. We love mixing them with white heather, green flowering skimmia and white cyclamen to give the classic creams, greens and whites colour palette . They will happily tolerate even the hottest summer conditions but do like a regular pruning to keep the shape and to make the look their best.

Our top tip to keep your winter flower plants flowering- regularly dead head them. Removing older flower heads will encourage new flower growth. It keeps your plant’s energy directed towards flower growth which will mean you flower will produce more flowers and over a longer time period.

 

Blooming Amazing Flower Company stock a variety of plants for winter colour including flowering plants and winter shrubs. For our most up to date information please call into our flower shop in Ranelagh – you can find our full contact details here