Our Ultimate Guide to Planting Flowers for Winter Blooms
There are so many reasons to grow flowers in your garden; they provide beautiful colour, a much-needed home for bees and wildlife, and you can pick them and have an endless supply of fresh cut flowers in your house. So what’s not to love? Different flowers bring colour in different seasons: start your year off with daffodils and tulips in March and April; glory in the arrival of peonies in May; summer is the time for roses; while in autumn dahlias and chrysanthemums have their moment in the sun.
The most crucial thing to keep in mind when planting is timing: spring bulbs should usually get underway in autumn, while bare root roses can be planted in winter. Seeds can often be sown in the very earliest days of spring, though early autumn is also a good time to sow seeds for summer annuals. In accordance with the year’s chronology, here’s what you should be planting, when, and how.
Flowers to Plant for a Winter Garden
Hellebores
These charming, delicate winter flowers are one of the loveliest things about mid winter in the garden. Plant them in late spring or early summer and you'll be rewarded with flowers throughout the following winter and spring. See our guide to how to grow hellebores for more advice.
Snowdrops
Snowdrops are a joy when they burst through the ground and bloom at the harsh end of winter, lighting up the garden and signalling that spring is not far away. The clumps of white bells provide vital nectar for early-foraging bees and are one of the best plants for woodland-style gardens. Spreading by way of bulb offsets, they form pools and streams of white flowers that wind between the trees and gradually merge into vast carpets. Find out how to grow snowdrops in our guide.
Cyclamen
With blooms to brighten up the garden between early to mid winter, the pretty cyclamen is a a welcome presence in the winter months. Cyclamen coum is the best-known variety, and do well when planted already flowering in pots in autumn. Read more in our guide to autumn bulbs.
Easy flowers
For the less green-fingered flora lovers, there are some easy flowers to grow that require minimal attention and provide maximum colour. We asked gardeners to recommend the least high maintenance flowers to grow in the garden, and they delivered 15 resplendent recommendations.
This story originally appeared on House & Garden UK