Just because winter is just around the corner doesn’t mean that the garden season is over. Several flowers are winter hardy and will brighten the landscape during the winter with colorful blooms.
Check out these 5 winter hardy flowers that you can grow in your home garden and keep your landscape looking good year-round.
Cyclamen
This cold-hardy plant will brighten up a winter garden with showy mounds of silvery-white foliage and heart-shaped leaves that appear in fall/autumn and last until the plant goes dormant in late spring.
Cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum) is a woodland native that is ideal for planting in shady areas in loose soil. This winter flower produces rosy pink blooms in late winter and will reach a mature size of 6 inches (15 cm) .
Heather
Heather (Calluna vulgaris) is easy to grow and will thrive in almost any climate. Heather should be planted in the fall in a full sun location. It’s a low growing spreading plant that will change colors with the seasons and provide an interesting plant in your garden year-round.
Heather will reach a mature height of around 2 feet (60cm) and be equally as wide. Spikes of tiny purple, white or pink blooms will appear in late winter.
Mahonia
This is an evergreen shrub that will provide garden interest year-round. Mahonia (Mahonia aquifolium) has dark green leathery-like leaves and produces fragrant yellow flowers in mid-winter and showy blue colored berries in the summer.
Mahonia will grow in almost any soil and is cold hardy to -20F (-28C). The mature shrub will be between 8-12 feet (2.4 – 3.6 m) tall and equally as wide.
Winter Aconites
This small, fragile-looking flower is very winter hardy and will push its way up through the snow to produce a bright yellow bloom. Winter aconites (Eranthus hyemalis) are perennial plants that bloom in late winter. Bulbs (tubers) for this plant should be planted in fall 5 inches deep into compost-rich soil. The deep planting depth is needed to prevent bulbs from freezing or being heaved out of the soil by freeze/thaw cycles.
Witch Hazel
Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is a large deciduous shrub that produces fragrant yellow flowers in mid-winter. Plant shrub in full sun where it will have plenty of space to grow. A mature witch hazel shrub will be 20 feet (6m) tall and 10 feet (3m) wide but it can be pruned immediately after blooming to keep it a desired size and shape.
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