Brighten Up Your Garden With These Winter Flowers
It’s that time of year when Spring and Summer flowering trees and plants are in dormancy. Barren trees and plants void of flowers and leaves make for a depressing look to gardens over the colder months. However, it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, as there are plenty of ways you can brighten up your garden and add some cheer on dreary days.
Today, I added pansies to the bases of our wine barrels, which have standard roses or miniature fruit trees in them. Both of which I’ll prune later this month. Even though the roses and fruit trees will be dormant and look like sticks, the pansies will add some much-needed colour to our winter garden.
Pansies last for most of the year and are probably the best-value perennial because of their longevity. However, there are plenty of other potted colour varieties you can get this time of year too, such as primulas, snapdragons, alyssum and polyanthus. These potted colours will repeat-flower for months as long as you start them in a good potting mix (I use Osmocote Premium Potting Mix), trim back spent blooms and give them a dash of liquid fertiliser every couple of weeks (Seasol is one of the best treatments on the market).
Of course, as well as potted colour, there are plenty of other beautiful flowering plants you can use to brighten up your garden over winter. Here are our favourites:
Hellebores
Known as winter roses because they flower in the cold of winter, hellebores are also one of the few plants that happily flower in the shade. Hellebores are flowering perennial well suited to growing in temperate parts of Australia. They grow best throughout Victoria, Tasmania, and the cooler parts of NSW, Qld, WA and SA and grow pretty much anywhere as long as there isn’t too much humidity, and have absolutely no frost.
Azaleas
Azaleas vary from small shrubs that are happy in pots, to large, hardy shrubs. New variants of azaleas are able to tolerate full sun. However, most azaleas prefer morning sun or dappled light. Some azaleas flower twice a year and others are free flowering, which means they will flower for long periods at different times of the year. We love a showy flowering plant!
Camelias
Camellias trees are easily spotted by their stunning pink and red flowers. They make lovely container and garden plants, as well as hedges. Camelias are long-lived and free-flowering (flower for a long time), and some varieties have a beautiful fragrance.
Nemesias
Nemesia are a pretty, dainty and bushy herbaceous annual or perennial depending on the variety and are easy to grow. They will continue flowering for long periods of time. Nemesias are fast growing, compact and very hardy making them ideal for borders, garden beds, pots and containers. They cope well with the extremes of heat and cold, and a light trim back quickly bring on another flush of flowers, making them ideal for a long lasting display of colour. They are ideal for a cottage garden too.
Garden Art
Not only can you use winter flowering plants to add colour and cheer to your garden, you can add garden art, such as these gorgeous, handmade Flannel flowers from Metal Garden. With 63 different flower varieties to choose from (as well as animals, insects, and beautiful garden art) there is something for every discerning gardener’s garden. The pieces are all handmade in Bendigo and are reasonably priced (which we love!).
Whether, you are adding some potted colour as pops of colour in your garden, a feature plant such as the camelia, mass planting flowers like azaleas or adding your own twist with metal flowers, we are sure you will have a garden your neighbours will be envious of.