Top Flowers for the Winter

Baby, it's cold outside! Just because we're in the thick of winter doesn't mean your garden must be bereft of blooms. As much as I enjoy the silence and emptiness of a cold garden, I love watching a flower brave the elements -- taking on what we could consider botanical Siberia.

Everyone makes a fuss over spring blooms, but a winter garden in bloom? To me, that's far more special. Here are five of my winter favorites, blooming sequentially from late fall to pre-spring in my Zone 6. These are shrubs that defy the odds by insisting on flowering when it is cold.



Camellia "Winter's Snowman"
I came across this Camellia while shopping for a shrub that would bloom as late in the year as possible. It's luscious white flowers are perversely delicate-looking, given its bloom time of late November. They stand out beautifully against glossy, evergreen leaves. This is a cultivar of Camellia sasanqua - also known as Christmas camellias - signifying late fall and early winter bloom. (Camellia japonica cultivars bloom in early spring.) It needs a sheltered spot out of the wind, or its leaves and flowers will suffer frost bite below 15'F. It is hardy to Zone 6, prefers slightly acidic soil, does not like full sun (dappled shade is best) and likes well drained, though moist soil.















Hamamelis virginiana (American witch hazel) and Hamalis vernalis (Ozark witch hazel)
What's not to love? Not only are these two witch hazel native to North America, but they bloom in early winter (late October through December) and pre-spring (February through March), respectively. H. vernalis is scented. I love coming upon their frilly yellow streamers just when I think that everything is dead or asleep in the landscape. They even bloom in the snow -- an even more dramatic sight. Hardy to Zone 5 and possibly to Zone 4, tolerant of most soils, as long as they drain well, they like semi shade or full sun, and belong to the understoreys of native woods, meaning that dappled shade is perfect.


Jasminum nudiflorum (winter jasmine)
Depending on the weather, this sprawling, bright yellow jasmine could bloom in early winter or very early spring. Here in New York City, I have seen it in flower in December as well as late February. It is sometimes mistaken for Forysthia but blooms much earlier and has a habit of training up railings and arbors, or for spreading horizontally across terraced rock gardens. Hardy to Zone 6, wanting full sun, the dark green branches are almost leafless making their spectacular yellow flowers all the more dramatic when they erupt in the cold.



Edgeworthia papyrifera
When I am told that a plant is scented, my ears perk up. When I learn that it will scent the garden in late February, I get excited. With stout, almost succulent-like stems and broad green leaves, this deciduous shrub from China forms pendulous, downy silver buds in fall, which remain attractively on the bare branches through the cold weather. In late winter, they open into perfumed, pale yellow flowers before the plant leafs out. It is hardy to Zone 7, and possibly Zone 6, with protection (my rooftop-planted Edgeworthia is an experiment this year), prefers full sun and a neutral soil pH. This is a plant collector's delight: weird and wonderful.