Top 5 plants for winter colour

Keep your garden looking good all year round with the colourful foliage and flowers of these hardy plants

Even if you don’t venture out into the garden very often during the winter months, it’s always cheering to see a splash of colour from flowers, leaves or stems by a path or viewed from a window. Grow these plants for winter colour to ensure your outdoor space always provides something of interest.

1 Winter-flowering honeysuckle

Once this deciduous shrub loses its leaves, the bare branches are covered in creamy-white blossom throughout the winter.

Botanical name: Lonicera fragrantissima

Best for: Famed for its heavily scented flowers, this honeysuckle will add sweet fragrance to your trellis or garden walls.

Planting tip: Take softwood cuttings in the summer to propagate more honeysuckle plants for the following year.

2 Dogwood

It’s the stems of dogwood that bring winter colour into your garden. Following its display of summer flowers, the shrub’s leaves will drop in the autumn, leaving striking fire-like stems.

Botanical name: Cornus

Best for: Injecting reliable red or yellow colour into otherwise bare gardens.

Planting tip: Group multiple dogwood plants together for the most impact.

3 Coral bells

With pretty evergreen foliage, coral bells are available in a variety of vibrant colours, from bright scarlet and rich purple to lime green and silver.

Botanical name: Heuchera

Best for: Providing excellent ground coverage in areas of dappled shade, bringing colourful foliage to the front of borders.

Planting tip: Add a layer of mulch on the surrounding soil to protect them from frost.

4 Wintercreeper

There are dozens of different varieties of wintercreeper, including shrubs, trees and climbers, with variegated gold, silver and white-tipped leaves.

Botanical name: Euonymus fortunei

Best for: Hedging or adding mid-height structure to borders. Choose an evergreen variety to ensure colour in the winter.

Planting tip: Prune wintercreeper in the spring to encourage bushy growth.

5 Christmas rose

One of our favourite plants for winter colour, the Christmas rose displays cup-shaped flowers from late winter into early spring and have marbled evergreen foliage.

Botanical name: Helleborus

Best for: Interesting blooms – try a double variety such as Helleborus x hybridus ‘Double Ellen’ for extra oomph, which comes in a range of shades, from light creamy-pink to dark blackish-purple.

Planting tip: Wear gloves when handling the plant to prevent skin irritation.

WORDS: CASSIE FAIRY