Wintertime can be bleak but it doesn’t have to be! There are lots of wonderful flowers you can have in the garden as well as your home.
Here are the 11 Best Winter Flowers to have around this year:
Crocus
Small pretty delicate blossoms that pack a punch of pollen! Did you know that the pollen from crocus is actually more expensive than gold? Another name for the pollen of crocus is Saffron.
Crocus flower mid-winter right through to spring they are available in white, deep purple, yellow and some bi-colours. Extremely easy to grow and look great in the garden, in planters, on the balcony or even simply potted and placed on the kitchen windowsill. Like most corms they will multiply each year.
Brassica
Better known as Ornamental Cabbage or Kale. It is available in white, green, pink and purple, some of the new varieties have a fantastic frilly/fluffy look. These plants are extremely hardy and can be planted from October.
The garden varieties are quite short, so they are great for bedding and borders the cut varieties are an average about 55 cm tall and have great vase life. Try arranging some deep purple cabbage with some pretty pink roses….Wow!
Tulips
Believe it or not, tulips are now available almost all year round. As cut flowers, they are available in many colours, such as red, white yellows, orange and a ton sur ton range from the palest of pink through to the deepest of burgundy
Tulips are also available in dwarf varieties, so perfect to display on the kitchen table. They can be planted outside and will reward you with beautiful blossoms in the garden every year thereafter.
Pieris Japonica
Commonly called – Forest Flame, is an evergreen shrub that looks its best in winter. The colder the temperature, the more vibrant the colour of the Pieris and in late winter/early spring, this plant will give you a wonderful gift of very showy white or pink blossoms
The Lenten rose
Better known as Hellebores are most definitely one of my absolute favourites, they are available in the purest of whites as well as soft pink, dusky pink and almost burgundy.
The garden can be covered in snow and ice and these chirpy chapies will poke their blossoms through to make you say “goooood mooorning” Yes it’s gonna be a great day!
Convalaria
Commonly called Snowdrop, have to be amongst the plants sweetest of blossoms, they might look like a sneeze would blow them away but don’t let their size fool ya! They are very very hardy indeed, in fact they are usually first seen pushing up through the snow. They are best left in the ground but they are also a very popular cut flower for wedding bouquets and button holes.
Viola
Similar to Pansies charming little blossoms yet tough as old boots flower all winter and into mid spring. These pretty little guys are annuals however they self-seed so you should not have to buy them every year, in fact you will probably end up with more plants then you originally purchased. They will surprise you where they show up.
Cyclamen
Quite commonly sold as house plants the cyclamen can also be planted in the garden or kept in pots on the terrace and indeed look fab in hanging baskets.
They are available in a variety of colours like pink, purple, red, white and even some bi-colours have been developed lately.
Jasmin
Winter flowering Jasmin is a really beautiful climbing shrub, its trailing sweet perfumed blossoms are very popular and very much on trend for wedding bouquets and indeed cascading church compositions. I love it even when it’s not in flower.
Its delicate foliage trails bring a certain dreaminess to any display.
Heather
A great little fella for ground cover and rockeries. You will enjoy the flowers on this little guy for months on end. Usually available from November right through to mid spring {there are also some summer varieties} they have oodles of little flowers in white, pale pink, cerise and burgundy.
Salix
A.k.a. Pussy willow, will have bare branches in wintertime but they will reward the gardener or flowers arranger with wonderful little fuzzy buds called catkins. They work extremely well in a vase with pretty much any flowers and I actually love to display the on their own.
