Fill your winter garden with scent, colour and silhouette! Don’t let the garden go bare and dormant over the cold months. With these winter-flowering plants you will be sure to brighten up your pots and flower borders in no time.

Heather

Winter-flowering heather is a brilliant plant for low-growing texture. It also looks fantastic in pots and comes with pink, white and purple flowers.

Heather

Japanese quince

Also known as chaenomeles, this is a hardy woody shrub. It possesses thorny branches that bear cup-shaped flowers in winter aswell as early spring.

Japanese quince

Winter aconites

This plant has lovely yellow flowers and are suited to growing underneath deciduous trees and shrubs. They prefer rich, moist soil.

Winter aconite

Helleborus

Hellebores are often known as the Christmas Rose because they can flower in midwinter. Look out for H. Orientalis varieties in white, green and even dark red for spectacular colour.

Hellebore

Cyclamen

Cyclamen are winter heroes that can be brought to flower from autumn to spring. The flowers come in a variety of red, pink and white shades. These look fantastic in pots or planted under trees.

Cyclamen

Pansies

Winter-flowering pansies are a gardener’s staple – ideal for filling pots and window boxes for a flash of colour to be seen from indoors.

Pansies

Witch hazel

Witch hazel is grown for the wiry flowers it bears along the branches, while Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ has red flowers, ‘Jelena’ is coppery coloured and ‘Pallida’ is best for yellow.

Witch hazel

Viburnum

There are a huge range of viburnum plants for winter colour. Look out for evergreen varieties like V. burkwoodii. Else, Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ is also brilliant deciduous shrub with strongly scented pink flowers.

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Dogwood

Cornus is a small woody shrub grown for its colourful bare stems in winter. Look for C. alba sibirica for red stems and C. sericea ‘Flaviramea’ for yellow bark.

Dogwood

Mahonia

A stunning range of evergreen shrubs commonly known as barberry. They bear sunny yellow flower spires above a foliage of rich green leaves.

Mahonia

Winter cherry

Prunus subhirtella autumnalis (winter-flowering cherry) is an ornamental cherry tree that bears pale pink flowers from late autumn to early spring.

Winter cherry

Snowdrops

Snowdrops can be the first flowers to open in the new year and grow happily under trees and shrubs. Look for Galanthus nivalis for a woodland style, and elegant G. ‘Magnet’ for flowers that dance in the breeze.

snowdrops

Winter jasmine

Winter jasmine (jasminum nudiflorum) is a scrambling plant with yellow star-shaped leaves that can be trained easily with wires or trellis as a climber. These are perfect for archways or just scrambling over low walls.

Winter jasmine

Daffodils

Some daffodils come up so early they can bloom in winter. Look out for Narcissus ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’ from January onwards, and ‘February Gold’ that flowers slightly later.

Daffodils

Crocus

Crocus flowers are a sign that winter is fading and spring is coming. Their upright, cup-shaped flowers look great in pots and borders, and poking up among the lawn.

Crocus

Chionodoxa

Glory of the Snow can flower even when there is snow on the ground. Grow C. luciliae for star-shaped blue or pink flowers with white centres.

Chionodoxa

Daphne

This shrub has intensely fragrant flowers in winter and early spring. Look for D. odora and D. bholua and grow near gates and doorways.

Daphne

Clematis

Cirrhosa is a winter-flowering evergreen clematis. C. cirrhosa var. purparescens ‘Freckles’ flowers first with creamy bell-shaped flowers and speckled petals. You can also try the Mallorcan C. cirrhosa var. Balearica.

Clematis

Iris unguicularis

Also known as the Algerian iris, these plants produce perfumed violet flowers with yellow and white patterns.

Iris unguicularis

Sarcococca

Commonly known as sweet box, its intense fragrance can be detected from across the garden. It produces tiny perfumed creamy flowers in winter followed by shiny black berries.

Sarcococca

Stachyurus praecox

This large deciduous shrub has drooping racemes of flowers in winter which are very popular with pollinators. This hardy, low-maintenance plant can grow to 4m tall.

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Even more winter garden colour ideas

Evergreens don’t have to be green. Look for unusual leaf colour like blue spruce, Juniper Blue Star or yellow and gold conifers. Frilly pink ornamental cabbages look great in containers while photinia and euonymous light up borders.

You can also try berrying shrubs like holly, cotoneaster and pyracantha.

Plus check out the best plants for spring, for a display from early spring right through to late spring.

For more winter info, check out my guide to frost prediction here:

Or check out my Pinterest board for more ideas: