If you have a small garden, I suggest you think about using shrubs or wall shrubs for colour in the winter time. Apart from Violas, Cyclamens and Hellebores, nothing is reliable on the coldest months.
Coronilla Valentina shrubs planted against a sunny wall or wall trained, will flower throughout winter into spring. They don't take up a lot of space.
There are a few plants that flower around now, but they don't fit your other requirements!
Anything brave enough to flower now will have been preparing for it all year and will need time to grow and recover if it is to do it again next year.
Some plants will be at the end of their growing season, such as autumn Chrysanthemums. Others will be at the start of theirs, like autumn flowering crocuses, Sternbergias and Colchicums, but all need to be growing already.
The chrysanths will die down, but will still take up ground space -they will grow new leaves in the spring. If you are happy to discard them, you may find some at the local Garden Centre, but it is probably all Xmas trees now!
The crocuses etc will send up leaves later, to provide food for next years flowers, but still need some space.
Winter flowering heathers are bright and evergreen and some have colourful foliage too - natural, not dip-dyed!
Not knowing just how small your garden is, it is hard to give better tailored advice, but a more economical route might be to look for plants that give year round value. This will mean plants with good foliage, probably but not necessarily evergreen, flowers, maybe autumn leaf colour and berries.
There are many smallish and dwarf shrubs that will fill the bill and you could still plant your little bulbs and things like violas and primroses in front of them. With careful planning you could have a garden that looks good all year, but doesn't mean having to keep planting things then digging them up and throwing them away!
There are a few plants that flower around now, but they don't fit your other requirements!
With careful planning you could have a garden that looks good all year, but doesn't mean having to keep planting things then digging them up and throwing them away!
Thank you Guys My garden is full with spring and summer planting all die back at this time of the year which makes it a bit bare. I've pansies and (wall flowers in but these wont come into until the new year) I was hoping to find something to brighten the garden just for the Christmas period Some good ideas have been noted from those given an input on this post thank you
Sounds to me like you need some autumpn flowers that will be at their peak in September/October and carry on into November. Think beyond flower colour to form, texture, bark, foliage to extend the season of interest. Google winter gardens such as the ones at Bodnant and Anglesey Abbey. Go and see what they have in RHS and/or NT gardens that will inspire you.
What you can do depends on space available, soil, local climate, exposure and your imagination.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I'd agree with all the comments about having interest from features other than flowers. I use Heucheras, Euonymous, Phormiums and grasses for variegated evergreen foliage, Cotoneaster & Pyracantha for berries, and oak leaf hydrangea and other deciduous shrubs which all give colour throughout autumn and early winter, along with the cyclamen, primulas, violas and hellebore flowers. I also have wild rocket which has little yellow flowers, and it can flower virtually all winter. It's in full flower just now. All these plants, along with the plain green evergreens, and other bits and pieces of ground cover, mean there's structure and form all year round which can have colours added to it from spring onwards - bulbs, climbers, perennials and annuals. Small gardens need plants to work hard to earn their place. Perhaps you need to rethink the basic structure of your garden - or even one area of it to give you more scope. A space near the house is often ideal so that you can have some feature planting you can see from a window regularly. Do you use the verticals? People often forget about using a fence or wall to add colour and interest, and it's an invaluable space. You could also use a collection of pots - near the house where you can see them, by a path where you go back and forth, or as a focal point at a far corner etc. Again, using different shapes and textures, you can ring the changes to have interest through winter. A feature like a birdbath or sundial can be useful in a small space too
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Some of our heathers are just beginning to flower - white - no not dip dyed, just natural white heather - take a look at the Garden Centres, which if like ours will have a display of flowering plants and some module trays of flowering bedding plants. For a shrub a Camellia would be a good choice, flowering over a period of a couple of months and giving some substance to your garden. Camellias may be expensive, but a good well tended one will last you a life time - far longer than bedding plants or heathers.
I was give two bits of this a few years ago ... and it's now a good sized clump. It has already started showing lots of new leaves some flowers stems. It will disappear by late spring. I have some geranium 'Ann Folkard' growing by it, which soon sprawls over the space left by the ranunculus. Bee x
Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
Polyanthus bedding brightens up any garden, I think you can get the plug plants at this time.. they should be flowering.. such gay colours, I prefer them to Pansies ..
A word of caution should be given about the above mentioned plant Ranunculus 'Brazen Hussy'... I hope you continue to be pleased with your plant Bee witched, but I've been trying to get rid of this for 10 years... it seeds everywhere, like celandines do, and you might not like it quite so much over time... when Mr Lloyd introduced this plant he should have warned gardeners of its proclivities... like that Houttounia chameleon, you need to think carefully before you buy these things...
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Coronilla Valentina shrubs planted against a sunny wall or wall trained, will flower throughout winter into spring. They don't take up a lot of space.
As Buttercup said, you could do with explaining your garden size.
My garden is full with spring and summer planting
all die back at this time of the year which makes it a bit bare.
I've pansies and (wall flowers in but these wont come into until the new year)
I was hoping to find something to brighten the garden just for the Christmas period
Some good ideas have been noted from those given an input on this post
thank you
What you can do depends on space available, soil, local climate, exposure and your imagination.
All these plants, along with the plain green evergreens, and other bits and pieces of ground cover, mean there's structure and form all year round which can have colours added to it from spring onwards - bulbs, climbers, perennials and annuals.
Small gardens need plants to work hard to earn their place. Perhaps you need to rethink the basic structure of your garden - or even one area of it to give you more scope.
A space near the house is often ideal so that you can have some feature planting you can see from a window regularly. Do you use the verticals? People often forget about using a fence or wall to add colour and interest, and it's an invaluable space. You could also use a collection of pots - near the house where you can see them, by a path where you go back and forth, or as a focal point at a far corner etc. Again, using different shapes and textures, you can ring the changes to have interest through winter.
A feature like a birdbath or sundial can be useful in a small space too
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Erigeron karvinskianus is in full flower at the moment... these are all very easy to grow, annually or perennially..
Just to add to the ideas so far ... have a look at Ranunculus ficaria 'Brazen Hussy'
(gotta love a plant with a name like that!!)
https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/a-z-plants/ranunculus-ficaria-brazen-hussy.htm
I was give two bits of this a few years ago ... and it's now a good sized clump. It has already started showing lots of new leaves some flowers stems. It will disappear by late spring. I have some geranium 'Ann Folkard' growing by it, which soon sprawls over the space left by the ranunculus.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
A word of caution should be given about the above mentioned plant Ranunculus 'Brazen Hussy'... I hope you continue to be pleased with your plant Bee witched, but I've been trying to get rid of this for 10 years... it seeds everywhere, like celandines do, and you might not like it quite so much over time... when Mr Lloyd introduced this plant he should have warned gardeners of its proclivities... like that Houttounia chameleon, you need to think carefully before you buy these things...