Winter Blooming Plants

If your landscape looks bleak during the winter months, consider adding a few winter blooming plants to perk things up. These blooming plants add interest, color and occasionally food for the birds and animals that venture out in the coldest months of the year.

Winter blooming plants add color during the cold months.

Even though there are many plants that will bloom in the winter, not all of them are suitable for every hardiness zone. It is important to select plants that will survive the warmest of winters or sub-zero temperatures, depending upon your locality, so that you can enjoy the winter plants that you've cultivated.

The following is a list of winter blooming plants, along with their suggested U.S. Hardiness Zones, to help you choose the best plant for your area.

There are many flowers that will bloom in late winter. The following is a sampling of those available:

• Glory of the Snow – Hardy in zones 3 through 8. Grows up to 6 inches tall. Produces light blue, star-shaped flowers.
• Hellebores – Hardy in zones 4 through 8. They are available in a wide variety of colors to suit anyone's landscaping needs. They prefer rich, well-drained soils. As an added bonus, they keep deer away from other nearby plants.
• Reticulated Iris – Hardy in zones 4 through 9. They can be planted in full sun or partial shade and may be planted around your favorite shrubs or in groups by themselves.
• Snowdrop – Hardy in zones 3 through 7. They prefer well-drained soils and even rock gardens.
• Winter Aconite – Hardy in zones 4 through 9. Prefers rich, well-drained soil in the sun. Produces cup-shaped blooms in various shades of yellow.
• Grecian Windflower – Hardy in zones 4 through 9. Prefers well-drained, sunny areas. This plant has fern-like foliage and produces blue, pink or white blooms.

Want a large amount of blooms in your landscape? Consider using winter blooming shrubs to liven things up!

• Wintersweet – Hardy in zones 4 through 9, depending on cultivar. Produces fragrant, light-yellow flowers.
• Lily of the Valley Shrub – Hardy in zones 4 through 8. This plant loves cool, dry areas and will provide volumes of delicate, white blooms.
• Cassia – Is hardy in zones 8 through 11. It will not survive in areas where the temperature dips below 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Weeping Winter Jasmine – Hardy in zones 6 through 10. If you want to cover a fence or trellis, this plant will blanket it with dozens of blooms in the coldest winter months.
• Camellia – Depending upon cultivar, may be planted up to zone 9. They produce hundreds of blooms, often throughout the winter months. Camellia colors include pink, white, dark pink and red.
• Winter Honeysuckle – Hardy in zones 4 through 9. It is semi-evergreen and can be pruned as a hedge or left to grow up to 8 feet as a screen. Produces fragrant white or cream flowers, depending on cultivar.

If your landscape is gray and bleak during the winter, consider planting one or several of the following trees to add a splash of color during the coolest months of the year.

• African Tulip Tree – Hardy in zones 10 through 11. This tree prefers full sun and rich, moist soil. It will provide hundreds of reddish-orange blooms each year.
• Flowering Quince – Hardy in zones 4 through 9. This tree produces hundreds of red blooms. The fruit that this tree produces can be made into delicious jelly.
• Yellow Elder – Hardy in zones 9 through 10. Produces volumes of beautiful yellow flowers during the winter months. May be pruned to a shrub size, if desired.
• Colville's Glory Tree – Hardy in zones 10 through 11. Will do well in full sun or partial shade and requires constantly moist soil. This tree produces orange blooms in grape-like clusters that attract birds, bees and butterflies.
• Witch Hazel- Hardy in zones 4 through 8. The bright, yellow blooms in the late winter announce that spring will be coming soon. Can be pruned to a shrub size if space requires.

Check your local nursery or garden center for these winter blooming flowers, shrubs and trees that can be planted in the early spring or fall. This will give the plant time to acclimate itself and store the energy it needs to produce beautiful blooms in the winter months.

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