Winter Flowers in the Garden

Some garden aficionados think that winter is the "off season", but we can have winter flowers in the garden all winter long. This is true for the gardener who enjoys flowers. A true flower gardener also knows that winter flowers in the garden are hardy and will bloom in our gardens periodically from October through March.

It is true that winter flowers are rare in very cold climates. There are only a few flowers that are hardy enough to find their way through frozen soil and snow. However there are many species of flower that can survive in cool conditions, and a just few can live in cold ones.

The important question is how cold is too cold? If your ground is frozen then the answer to that question is yes, it is too cold. Next is a tougher question, will the ground freeze again? If you answered a firm 'no' then there are flowers you can plant. It is really hard to say when the freezing will stop.

The easiest way to get started having a winter flower garden is by planting some hardy shrubs. In mid-winter we will be very lucky to have much color. So the recommended winter shrubs should have vividly colored berries and some of them you will find will also have flowers.

Witch hazel is a very common flowering shrub. These shrubs are very hardy and their winter flowers will usually bloom during December and January. They are so hardy that they will usually keep their flowers through snow and ice. Their blooms can be red or yellow and they have a spicy aroma. The classic winter roses such as the Christmas Rose, Lantern Rose and Ivory Prince will range in color from creamy ivory and burgundy to pale green. These roses will bloom during January and February. Pink Dawn Vibernum flowers have an almond scent and will bloom October through March.

Holly is always a wonderful dark green foliage bush that has bright red berries and will add some color to any winter garden. A different bush is the Gauthier bush, which is also know as wintergreen, their berries are burgundy and are also edible and taste like wintergreen. Two related shrubs: the callicarpa with its bright purple berries, and photinia with dark red berries, can last all through the winter. In the milder climates, rosemary has been known to bloom during the winter months. Planting ornamental cabbages, even though they do not flower, come in different colors, depths and textures. Their foliage colors range from the greens to a soft yellow, lilac and purples. A heath is probably the hardiest winter flower; they can thrive down to a temperature of minus 25 F. They are gorgeous evergreens with tiny bell shaped flowers in light pink, purple, red, and magenta and bloom from fall all the way to spring. Those gardeners who are looking for a larger variety of blossoms should probably stick to the summer months or invest in a greenhouse.

Those berries and blooms are working very hard out in the cold in order to brighten our day. Seeing flowers while the snow is falling is quite a thrill and sometimes we might see them popping through the snow. What makes winter flowers in the garden so special is the fact that there are not a variety of species that will survive in those conditions.