The winter flower garden: 10 plants for all colors

After the bright colors of autumn, the darkest days invite you to revitalize balconies and windowsills, replacing petunias and other withered summer seasonal plants. The warmth of the cities, moreover, allows you to enjoy various blooms even in winter. We offer you ten, with advice on how to best combine them in the most capacious vases.

The hellebores, ready to last for years in the shade

Protagonists of walks in the mountains (harvesting is strictly forbidden!), hellebores are found in great variety in nurseries. the earliest, Helleborus niger, white, are up to 15 centimeters tall; interspecific hybrids Helleborus x glandorfensis, with dense bouquets of upturned flowers in colors ranging from green to red, they are up to 50 centimeters tall; the Helleborus orientalis, 25-40 cm tall, they bloom from February to May in shades from yellow to purple-black and also have double corollas like small dahlias, but pointing downwards. All perennials, they require partial shade or shade and tolerate sub-zero temperatures and calcareous water. To make them last for years, we do not bury the root ball too much at the time of transplanting, but leave it flush with the ground, wet the soil but not the leaves (advice also valid for the following plants) and do not overdo the summer irrigations because hellebores love dry summers. For a planter under trees, pair them with fern Dryopteris erythrosora, copper-colored, and to a bush like Sarcococca ruscifoliawith fragrant winter flowering.

Hebe, yellow leaves and blue flowers from Australia

Hybrids between several species from Australia and New Zealand, the Hebe they are small evergreen bushes grown both for the foliage, which is dark green to variegated with creamy yellow, and for the panicles of autumn flowers in colors from lilac to pure blue. Their leaves, depending on the variety, measure from 1 to 7 centimeters; all the Hebe they love locations close to a sheltered and sunny wallbut those with small leaves resist the cold better, in the company of small conifers and herbaceous perennials with broad leaves such as Bergenia.

The elegance of winter camellias

The winter flowering camellias – hybrids of Camellia sasanqua – they are less known but no less beautiful than the spring ones, camellia japonica, and have a very natural bearing. Among the most interesting, ‘Plantation Pink’, with five intense pink petals and showy yellow stamens, ‘Hina Yuki’, with semi-double white corollas, ‘Yuletide’, red, splendid for Christmas. Let’s cultivate them in partial shade or in the shade in the warmest areas, in a large pot filled with a specific soil for acidophilic plants or under the cedars and pines, because the needles of conifers acidify the earth. At the foot of a camellia, small-leaved ivies such as ‘White Ripple’ and outdoor ferns with curly fronds such as Dryopteris ‘Cristata The King’.

The company-loving winter clematis

To dress a visible wall in front of the French windows in green, Clematis cirrhosa it is an evergreen climber that clings to nets and treillage and blooms from autumn to late winter. The flowers, shaped like bells, are creamy white or yellow, but also red or spotted in some varieties. He loves partial shade and the company of other climbers how Jasminum primulinum, Rose ‘Alberic Barbier’, Chrysojasminum floridum.

The heather, a flower that evokes the heath

With tiny white to pink flowers and needles reminiscent of conifers, heathers evoke northern moors, although Tree heath, very high, is the protagonist in the Mediterranean maquis. In nurseries both true heathers, with autumn and spring buds, and callunas, which are very similar but bloom in winter, are sold under this name. All love sun and acidic loam and, as perennial shrubs, they are perfect for creating the green “backbone” of vases and flowerbeds around which to rotate other blooms. On the ground they can be approached Skimmia japonica it’s at Daphne x transatlanticica ‘Eternal Fragrance’, small shrubs with the same needs. In small boxes, they go perfectly with mini bulbous plants such as crocuses and snowdrops.

Iberis, white clouds in the middle of winter

Typical grandmother’s plant today back in vogue, Iberis sempervirens (whose name recalls its origin from the Iberian peninsula) blooms from December to February, covered with white flowers. Small bush up to 30 centimeters high, it is ideal for giving an evergreen tree to the planters of second country houses, combined with succulents such as Sedum palmeri and to small perennials such as daisies. In winter flower beds, let’s put it around Nandina domestica And mahonia ‘Soft Caress’.

The cheerfulness of pansies and horned violets

Large-flowered pansy and horned pansies (identical to the former, but in mini format) bloom from autumn to early summer in every color except pure red, and for some years have also been available in hanging varieties that protrude from windowsills covering the boxes. All require sun, good soil for flowering plants and regular watering during the hot hours of the day. Don’t worry if they look frozen after a freezing night: they will be perfect again in the first sun, but let’s not touch them because they break. Let’s combine them in two contrasting colors, such as yellow and blue, or focus on harmonies by using several nearby shades, for example lilac, pink and purple. A bush to approach him? Winter Daisies Euryops.

The primroses that anticipate spring

They are already in bud on Christmas Eve and with their bouquets among the leaves they need no introduction. The nurserymen, however, amaze us with ever new primroses. The ‘Silver Lace’ varieties, for example, have a very natural look with small flowers whose petals are edged in white: ‘Silver Lace Black’ is yellow-black. Hybrids called ‘Belarina’, by contrast, have sumptuous corollas like small roses that can also be cut for micro bouquets and in some cases they are perfumed. ‘Zebra Blue’, on the other hand, has zebra petals. There is no need to repot the primroses after purchase, just water them regularly and remove the withered holes by pulling them apart with two fingers. Once flowering is over, we can transfer them to a meadow or to the foot of a hedge, where they will keep us company for years. The ideal position is under deciduous trees, in the sun in winter and in the shade in summer, perhaps next to small partially shaded grasses such as Carex.

Star-shaped and butterfly-shaped cyclamen

From woodland cyclamens to those with flowers of 8 centimeters in diameter, you can choose from an infinite number of intermediate colours, shapes and sizes, bearing in mind that the more compact hybrids resist the cold better and the large ones, conversely, tolerate the heat. Among the trendy varieties, those with fringed petals; cyclamen with very open flowers such as ‘Djix’ which, observed from above, in bowls on the floor, they look like little stars; the ‘Indiaka’ hybrids, bicoloured and open like butterflies in flight. Transplanting is not necessary, but if we want to arrange them in boxes, we leave the tuber flush with the ground so as not to let it rot. We water from the saucer and once a month we fertilize with a liquid fertilizer for flowers at half the dilution suggested on the label. Let’s not cut the withered flowers, but let’s tear them off with the entire petiole, exerting a slight twist on the stem, so as not to leave pieces of stem attached to the tuber. When the summer heat arrives and the cyclamens lose their leaves, we stop watering and leave the pots in the shade, to start watering again in September. Let’s combine them with leafy perennials like the Heuchera.

What the hell!

Have you ever seen purple cauliflower before it blooms or curly kale leaves? Even the cabbages from the garden are beautiful, but here we are talking about the ornamental varieties, which look like large caps with a white or pink heart (attention and those blue, fluorescent yellow or orange, instead, painted with spray paints) and with whole or fringed leaves. They are perfect plants in the leading role, in the center of a large vase or in geometric gardens. The only precaution, let’s not put them on the windowsill, but in containers to be admired from afar, because their leaves, if touched, give off the typical smell of the vegetable. In spring, before completing their cycle, they will bloom yellow.