Winter Flowering Plants – Part III

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Primavera’ by Tie Guy II

In addition to winter-flowering flowers (see here and here), there are also winter flowering shrubs. Many of these shrubs are hardy in US hardiness zones 5 and warmer.

One of the earliest blooming shrubs is the witch hazel. Witch Hazel, Hamamelis intermedia “Pallida” is considered one of the best to open in mid to late winter.  See here.  Friends eagerly went to view the one that opened early in a local garden. Many of the Hamamelis have the added bonus of fragrance. Plus the witch hazel has fall interest with colored foliage.

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Winter Flowers – Part II

Helleborus niger ‘Praecox’by Tie Guy II

My very favorite winter flowering perennial plant is the very early winter blooming Hellebore. I cannot rave enough about this hardy perennial. The Hellebore is the plant that I greedily want more and more of growing in my yard. The earliest blooming ones are the Christmas rose Helleborus niger. Mine are spectacular and as they age, they are turning pink.

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Plants that Bloom in Winter

Natural Light (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) by Nietnagel

The period between winter and spring always seemed the saddest time of the year. The landscape seemed so dull and muddy after the pretty snows of winter and before the flowers burst open in the spring. That was before TheGardenLady learned that there are some winter flowering plants that bloom in the “dark” of winter and that keep blooming well into spring. The plants I prefer are the hardy perennials, bulbs and shrubs. Of course, I still cannot wait for the real spring blooming flowers that always seem to be such a miracle when they open, reliably, every Spring.

Since I now know that there are winter-flowering plants, this Garden Lady has been adding more and more of these wondrous plants to my garden. This way when I go out to look in my garden, even before the last snows have fallen, there is something to delight the eye. And it is amazing to me when I discover the little bursts of flowers that distract from the barrenness of the landscape and are a harbinger of the more spectacular show of flowers that I know are just a few months away.

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Commercial Gardening Website: Southern Living Plants

TheGardenLady gets some commercial websites sent to her that seem interesting. Because there are so many garden websites, one cannot know all of them. So I thought that if any website comes to me that may be of interest to readers of TheGardenLady.org, I would put them on the blog so that you can also check them out to see if there is anything useful for you.  I do not recommend them even though I might like the sites.

The latest site I received is of new plants for gardeners who live in the south- in Hardiness Zones 7 to 9, 10 or 11. Some of the plants will even grow in Hardiness zone 6, but nothing for colder zones. Southern readers might want to see what is new for their gardens and where they can be purchased. And those of us who don’t live in these warmer zones can just drool- as I do over the Hawthornes- or get some bulbs that you might want to plant as annuals and dig up in the fall.

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