Winter is often considered a sad season in the garden. To compensate for the dullness of the weather, plant plants with colorful flowers! They are far more numerous than one could imagine.
Precious shrubs in winter
Shrubs are the backdrop of the garden, well chosen, they ensure the show every winter for many years.
Let's start with the great scented classics such as the mahonia with its deliciously fragrant flowering in bright yellow bunches or the Viburnum, an essential plant for its very long flowering period and its ease of cultivation.
Bewitching, the fragrances of Daphne odora emanate from the terminal bouquets of flowers whose palette ranges from pure white to deep purple. Let us not forget the witch hazel whose bare branches are covered with orange-yellow dishevelled flowers and the sarcococca with its discreet white bloom but nevertheless very perfumed. Also think of Lonicera fragrantissima, a shrubby honeysuckle that will embalm your garden throughout the winter.
Camellias, shrubs very appreciated for their splendid blooms, are the plants of choice to brighten up the garden in winter. Bonanza' produces large scarlet flowers reminiscent of peonies from October to February. Think of the Camellia sasanqua family whose many varieties are covered with flowers in winter, including 'Mineno-yuki' with small white flowers from October.
As for the Camellia reticulata, they are perfectly suitable in copses, isolated subjects or at the bottom of a massif because they can reach 4 meters high. The variety 'Simpatica' with very double flowers, Indian pink, blooms from February to April.
Essential perennials
Plant very much used in the gardens of our grandmothers and rightly so, the bergenia is a sure value whose foliage tinged with purple or bronze highlights large pink, white or purple inflorescences.
The 'Christmas Rose' (Helleborus niger) is a must-have, with cup-shaped flowers in cream, green, pink or purple tones. The many varieties and cultivars will titillate the collector's spirit of the curious gardener. These plants are ideal in large flowerbeds at the foot of tall trees or as an ornamental plant in shady flowerbeds.
For a bloom at the end of winter, think of the pulmonary, these plants of the shade with the foliage often spotted with silver and the flowers whose colors vary from pink to blue while passing by the red.
Bulbs in abundance
Enamelling the garden with their enchanting blooms, the bulbs forget themselves in the ground until they appear to burst with color in the heart of winter.
The ipheion is covered with bluish stars as early as November in regions with mild winters, just like the iris reticulata, true little jewels that deserve a prime location to be observed.
The cyclamen of coum likes in semi-shaded areas, which it enlivens with its deep pink blooms, just like the snowdrop which unfolds its white bell-shaped flowers marked with green whatever the weather conditions.
