Everyone loves the spring time with the nice weather and the beautiful bursts of color as the new growth starts to take shape. Every weekend finds gardeners sprinting to the nearest nursery to pick out the newest plants, shrubs and flowers they need to make their spring garden beautiful.
Even fall gets a little attention as the leaves start to turn, you clean up the aftermath of spring and summer and you prepare for the dreaded winter. However, there are several plants that can give your garden beauty all year long and even give that winter wonderland a dash of color. Here are the top five winter plants to help you use that green thumb all year long.
Camellia
With over 200 varieties available, you are sure to find a camellia that suits your fancy. While ideal to hardiness zones seven through nine, there are even a few varieties of camellias that have been developed as cold weather hybrids. Planted in partial shade and given plenty of mulch and water during the winter, camellias can thrive and bring beautiful greenery and blossoms in your garden year round.
Holly
What more can you ask for than an evergreen that is drought tolerant and can grow almost anywhere across the United States? Holly is one of the most versatile evergreens available for your garden. Very popular for holiday decorations and with over 400 varieties to choose from, holly is a favorite in almost any landscape. From glossy, shiny green leaves to variegated color and with berries from bright red to yellow, you are bound to find a holly plant that will liven up your winter garden.
Snowdrops
For those colder hardiness zones up north you should be planting the toughest, yet most delicate looking plant. That plant is the snowdrop. This delicate stem with a bell shaped white flower can even pop up through the snow and survive. Ideally, this plant needs to be planted in zones two through seven, and will not do well in the southern climes. Snowdrops tend to grow to about six inches, but some newer hybrids can reach up to ten inches.
Witch Hazel
Witch Hazel is another wonderful winter plant. This deciduous scrub can grow up to twenty feet and is a great tree for privacy hedges. One of the beauties of having witch hazel is that it blooms in late fall and early winter giving a beautifully fragrant display of yellow flowers when much of everything else has stopped blooming for the year. Perfect for hardiness zones three through nine, witch hazel is well liked across the United States as a favorite winter plant.
Hellebores
Perfect for zones four to eight, hellebores is a nice plant that blooms early, many times in January, giving drab winter a splash of color. The best thing about hellebores is that it is pretty much maintenance free so even the most inept of gardeners can rest easy when planting them in their flower garden.
These top five winter plants will give you some ideas of what you can plant in winter no matter where you live.
