Winter-blooming plants are perfect for adding color to the garden during the colder, darker months, helping to extend the season of interest beyond the traditional spring into fall. Grow a large range of winter-blooming plants, including climbers such as winter clematis and winter honeysuckle, shrubs such as mahonia and daphne, and bedding plants such as winter pansies – there's a flower bed for every part of the garden. What's more, winter-blooming plants are suitable for growing in multiple pots, so you can splash color anywhere you like – is a colorful display outside your front door enough to cheer up winter?
Some winter-blooming plants also benefit pollinators, providing pollen and nectar to species such as bumblebees, which forage more during the winter months. So these flowers can provide a lifeline to these unseasonably active pollinators, which would otherwise starve. However, not all winter flowers are bee-friendly, so browse our list below to find out which ones are best suited. Almost all make good cut flowers.
1. Winter honeysuckle
Winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrandissima, is a woody shrub that bears fragrant, creamy-white flowers on nearly leafless branches that are a magnet for winter-active bumblebees. These are sometimes followed by dull red berries.
Flowers: December to February
H x S: 2m x 3m
2. Christmas rose
The Christmas rose, Helleborus niger, is the first of the hellebores to bloom, usually in January but occasionally as early as Christmas. It has large, round, white flat-faced flowers that are very attractive to bees, low-growing leathery, deep green foliage. It is suitable for growing at the front of a partially shaded border.
Flowers: January to March
H x S: 45cm x 45cm
3. Pansies
Pansies, Viola x wittrockiana, are low-growing, bushy perennials that are commonly grown as annual bedding plants. They have large, striking flowers, larger than violas, and heart-shaped leaves. The colorful, often bicolored flowers have dark, face-like markings in the center. Most cultivars bloom in spring and summer, but some are bred to bloom in winter, providing a pleasing pop of color while others have smaller flowers.
Flowers: November to March
H x S: 20cm x 30cm
4. Winter aconites
Winter aconites have golden yellow buttercup-like, pollinator-shaped flowers that are separated from mid to late leaves. As the first snowdrops begin to bloom the clusters quickly spread to form a dramatic yellow carpet. It is perfect for planting under trees or naturalizing in grass.
Flowers: February to March
H x S: 10cm x 13cm
5. Daphne
Daphnes are colorful shrubs that typically bloom in late winter and early spring. They are wonderful for small gardens, with varieties suitable for different situations such as window boxes, large containers, mixed borders, areas of dry shade and gravel gardens. There are evergreen and deciduous varieties. Most bear clusters of small flowers in shades of red or pink and sometimes white or green that attract bees.
Flowers: February to March
H x S: 1m x 50cm
6. Snowdrops
Snowdrops are the first bulbs of the year that herald the end of winter. There are many varieties that grow from single to double flowers. Small bees like bumblebees visit the flowers.
Flowers: January to March
H x S: 15cm x 10cm
7. Mahonia
Popular with active bumblebees in winter, mahonias bear slender spikes of bright yellow flowers atop lush rosettes of glossy dark green leaves. Grow in moist but well-drained soil in partial shade.
Flowers: November to March
H x S: 5m x 4m
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