Quote:
Originally Posted by kay
There are some winter flowering shrubs - I have Viburnum bodnantense (highly fragrant pink flowers from November to Feb/Mar), winter flowering cherry (white flowers from Jan to Mar), winter jasmine (yellow flowers October to March), hamamelis (witch hazel) - yellow, orange and red flowers flowers from about Feb, Cornus mas (yellow flowers in early spring).
But get get a really good feeling of interest at this time of year, look to long lasting berries and rose hips (for example pink and white sorbus and pernettya, red skimmia which seem to be disliked by birds), also plants with colourful bark (bright yellow or red on dogwoods, stripy "snake bark" maples, warm shiny red Prunus serrula, white and pink of silver birches), and a few evergreens which act as a splendid backdrop for, for example, white rubus stems.
At ground level, Cyclamen hederifolium are just finishing and the flower buds of Cyclamen coum are appearing.
then from February you can have winter aconites and early flowering crocuses.
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Some excellent suggestions, and I have many of those plants for just that reason.
Some evergreens are variegated with adds extra colour.
Bamboos can also add colour from their coloured canes. Semiarundinaria yashadake Kimmei has thin yellow culms which get red tints in cold weather, and is straightforwardly available by mail-order - I've had mine in for 10 years now and it hasn't shown the least hint of wanting to build an empire, though it is theoretically a running bamboo and it might be wise to take steps against its potential expansion habits in case you prove to have a garden more conducive to bamboo growth than mine. Several other yellow-culmed bamboos are available, as well as black, variegated, etc. Even "plain" green bamboos are often evergreen and give line and movement to a garden in winter, and bamboos like Fargesias won't take over the world. You can prune off the lower leaves to show off the culms, which I also do on my snake-bark maple.
Winter is a time of strong scents, because plants that do flower then have to work hard to attract the few insects around. Christmas box (Sarcococca sp.) aren't showy, but have small white flowers and smell delicious. There are also winter-flowering honeysuckles, which are less showy than the summer ones, but provide scent.
In a mild winter, my Daphne odora has flowered as early as the end of January, and it is the flower buds which have the pink colour, they open to off-white. More extravagantly variegated D odoras are available these days. I've decided Daphnes are special plants and I now have several, everyone who can grow them should have one.
There are structural plants grown for their shapes which operate year round, like hardy yuccas (which are honestly very hardy), and if you are in a milder area plants like Colletias. Some grasses keep their flowering structures through the winter, and can be cut down at the end of the winter, like giant oats (Stipa gigantea), pampas grass and miscanthus grasses.