Winter blooming flowers
It is not an very easy to make your garden bloom in the winter time. But with some persistence and proper watering techniques it is possible to add some brigth colors to all of the grey and brown that comes with winter. The winter flowers make us realize that spring is not far away.
Wintersweet tree
Wintersweet is a fitting name, for the flowers appear all winter on the mature plants, and are renowned for their fragrance; whole stems are often being cut for attractive indoor arrangements. The small waxy blooms are light-yellow with brownish-purple inner petals. The blooms are produced on the bare branches of older bushes and it takes a juvenile plant a few years to settle down to flowering. It is best grown on a warm sheltered wall in full sun, behind other plants which provide color once the wintersweet has finished flowering.
Witch Hazel
They are popular ornamental plants, grown for their clusters of rich yellow to orange-red flowers which begin to expand in the autumn as or slightly before the leaves fall, and continue throughout the winter. Depending on the variety, they begin to blossom from early January to mid-February. Not all the varieties are fragrant, so if you are sure you want fragrance check that it has scented flowers before you buy.
The leaves also colour well in autumn for added interest. Plants look good when grouped with shrubs that have provide blooming flowers or scent during the winter.
Common holly
The native holly tree has bright red berries (found only on female plants), and shiny evergreen leaves. It grows as a shrub or tree, and has a narrow, conical crown and smooth silver-greyish bark. The fragrant male and female flowers are found on separate trees; they occur in clusters, and are white in colour.
Other winter blooming flowers will brighten those gray days. Most are bulbs: tulips, daffodils, freesia, native iris and hyacinths. They bloom at different times during the winter so something is always going on in that bed.
Camellias have a long bloom period. Some sorts start in late November or early December and continue into April.
If you want to add brigth colors to your garden and home you can always make it with winter blooming flowers.
