Winter plants for flower beds

The beauty of the winter garden can be given not only with the help of "correct", thoughtful skeletal plantings. Far from being only conifers, shrubs with beautiful bark or branch patterns, winter green stars look good against the background of a white winter blanket. Today, a separate type of flower beds has appeared in landscape design - winter. These are such flower beds, the plants on which are selected with an eye to admire them in the coldest time of the year.

Winter flower garden - the most special ensemble in the garden

In winter, even the best, carefully planned gardens leave bare areas and areas. Favorite herbaceous perennials and flowering stars leave the garden scene completely, leaving behind empty spots. But garden plants are not only about lush and spectacular greenery or beautiful flowering. And if in the winter season of rest and preparation for the spring start it is boring to look at the soil without plants, then you simply do not use perennials, which are beautiful even in winter.

So that the garden does not seem empty even in the coldest time, it is worth adding several winter flower beds to its design - compositions planned specifically for the frosty period.

Winter flower beds - a special variety, usually not too large flower beds or flower islands, created with an eye on the season when the growing season of all garden plants is completed. Shrubs that bloom in winter and some bulbous ones that wake up earlier than anyone else are a luxury that can only be enjoyed in the south. Winter flower beds are not created from them at all.

Winter flower beds are compositions of plants that look attractive even after persistent frosts, thanks to individual decorative details - foliage, stems, inflorescences, berries, seed pods. They, even after the garden holds the breath of winter, allow flower beds to look not like empty patches of frozen soil, but like an attractive and multifaceted winter show in colors and textures, drawing attention to shining precious details.

A few years ago, winter flower beds were considered an attribute of garden design only in mild climates, where evergreens fully reveal their beauty. But the fashion for Scandinavian design, which also captured the landscape world, drew attention to the possibilities of designing interesting variations of flower beds that do not look empty even in the midst of a harsh winter.

Of course, where winters delight with their delicacy, winter flower beds are more lush, but even in the south everything depends on the weather and circumstances. Winter flower beds always look best under a thin cover of snow, when the garden is just touched by the breath of winter, during thaw days or during periods of little snow. Big snowfalls will hide even giants under them. But on days when you can freely visit the garden and conduct inspections, instead of flat empty areas, your eyes will surely meet something beautiful and unexpected.

Winter flower beds can be created in a variety of conditions. Plants with which you can cope with this task can be found for sunny, bright areas, and for partial shade, and even full shade. The only difference between such winter flower beds is how they will look during the rest of the year. The difference is especially visible in summer, since the appearance of plants that prefer shade is very different from the appearance of sun-loving garden stars.

When choosing a place for a winter flower garden, it is worth remembering that in the coldest and most boring seasons, such a flower garden will enliven the appearance of the garden and soften the skeletal plantings, bring pomp and add interesting textures. Therefore, for flower beds, decorated with an eye on the coldest time of the year, they try to choose a place in the foreground, where you can admire dry curtains, panicles or seedlings. Such a flower garden is often placed along a path or near a terrace, in a front garden or as a section of large flower beds, where in winter classical ensembles will create an abundance of bare areas. In fact, the landscape is “diluted” with winter flower beds. But the most advantageous place for a winter flower garden is one that you can admire even from the window of the house on bad days.

Winter flower gardens require careful selection of soils: they can only be planted on flat or slightly sloping sites without the risk of dampness or water retention, with nutritious, loose, drained, high-quality soil from among loams and sandstones. Pay special attention to wind protection: on windy areas, even the best evergreen leaves will lose their characteristic color and darken, and dry panicles will easily be broken by the wind. For winter flower beds, always choose the warmest and most sheltered places in the garden.

Maintenance of a winter flower garden is simple and no different from any other flower garden, except for the requirements not to forget about mulching (highly decorative materials are preferred) and about carrying out all the basic work with plants in the spring. As soon as the snow melts, such a flower garden is “cleaned”, removing dry leaves and inflorescences, dividing the plants if necessary. Early feeding, loosening and updating the mulch allow you to provide the plants with everything necessary for normal development. Watering on such flower beds is carried out only in drought. But you need to cut the inflorescences carefully: the more panicles, baskets and spikelets remain on the plants, the better the flower bed will look in winter.

Plants for Winter Splendor in Flower Beds

Winter flower beds are often referred to as flower beds of beautifully dying plants, i. e. garden crops that, after drying, dying or going dormant, can surprise with beautiful “dry” details. But such cultures deserve the title of “non-standard” much more. They are universal and multifaceted, they have prepared their own surprise for each season, they have, albeit not the most catchy and obvious, but still inimitable beauty, which is worth a closer look.

Planting decorative shrubs or conifers on flower beds in winter allows you to bring "skeletal" accents to their design. But nevertheless, herbaceous perennials should remain the main characters of any flower garden. And winter beds are no exception to this rule. At first glance, the number of perennials that look great in winter is very small. But it is worth taking a closer look at well-known garden crops, and they will reveal new talents and characteristics to you, thanks to which you can use them not only in spring, summer or autumn compositions.

Depending on which characteristics or parts of the plant come to the fore in winter, all stars for winter flower beds are divided into several categories:

1. Plants with evergreen or beautiful foliage in winter.
2. Plants with showy or showy pods or dried inflorescences.
3. Plants with bright berries or fruits.
4. Beautiful straight shoots that give lush texture to winter flower beds.

Plants for winter flower beds in well-lit places

There are a lot of perennials whose dry inflorescences or seedlings look amazing in winter both under snow and in ice crust. And you can choose plants with a different character, color and even texture. Favorites are ornamental cereals, which in fact remain one of the most beautiful perennials in any garden in winter. But herbs also have their competitors.

Dense spikelets of inflorescences spikelet liatris ( Liatris spicata ) look great not only in the midst of flowering. The plant, which has become for many a symbol of the prairie garden and American landscape design, can also surprise in winter. Narrow, yellowed, somewhat reminiscent of tarragon, in winter the leaves make the bushes lacy, and the dry ears, which have decreased many times, look like dense fur tassels. Liatris is golden under the sun and ice, it seems to be a bright spot on the winter flower garden. This is petite against the backdrop of giants, but a very lush accent that looks great in the foreground of winter flower beds.

Quite unlike other cereals, sharp as needles, fluffy inflorescences of reed grass ( Calamagrostis x acutiflora ) reveal their beauty in a new way in winter landscapes. The effect of a living fountain hovering over any flower garden changes somewhat in winter, the reed grass has more in common with derens and other bushes with beautiful bark, adds graphic and weightlessness to the collection of winter perennials.

Reedgrass is a fairly large cereal with a height of just over a meter to one and a half meters. It withstands frosts down to -34 degrees, its stems are frost-resistant and the plant retains its beauty even under heavy snow. Reed grass already looks like a sheaf of luxurious panicles, but you can additionally tie shoots to give tall bushes even more expressiveness. It is better to choose varietal reeds with more interesting colors and improved flowering.

Not only cereals can become the main active star of the winter flower garden. The Yarrow varietal ( Achillea ) will also attract admiring glances, whose lace-textured umbels seem to bring a new level to the design of winter flower gardens (if you want yarrow to support the beauty of cereals, choose the largest golden or light-colored varieties ). Yarrows withstand frosts down to -40 degrees, their maximum height is limited to half a meter.

Yucca ( Yucca ) will not get lost in the winter flower garden. Not having such an outstanding winter hardiness (optimal indicators are only up to minus 29 degrees), they are still increasingly found in our gardens. In these plants, xiphoid, sharp, stunningly beautiful leaves in basal rosettes not only retain their beauty for the winter, but are also complemented by winter-hardy seed pods, which look very good on plants in bizarre complex inflorescences.

Excellent candidates for a winter flower bed are Heleniums ( Helenium ), in which, after flowering, dense “buttons” with seeds flaunt on branching shoots. They easily endure frosts down to -34, in the winter flower garden they echo with yarrows and look like their more lacy and “airy” version.

Will decorate the winter landscape and lofant ( Agastache ), whose dazzling greenery and dense spikelets of inflorescences will decorate the garden not only in summer. Dense bushes and dry inflorescences of this largely underestimated perennial look no worse under a snow cover. They will add amazing texture to any flower garden.

Amsonia tabernaemontana ( Amsonia tabernaemontana ) is considered rare in our country with its amazingly dense bushes, whose golden leaf parade in autumn gives way to winter lacy pillows that look incomparable under the snow.

One of the main winter stars is Heuchera ( Heuchera ), the frost resistance of which is sufficient for growing in the middle lane without shelter (it freely tolerates frosts down to -34). The beautiful lobed leaves of this perennial look attractive at any time of the year, but in winter, geyhera is able to add volume to flower beds and glow especially effectively under the snow. Choose varieties for winter flower beds with bright yellow, orange or red leaf color, which contrasts perfectly with the winter landscape around.

It is difficult to imagine a winter flower garden without Echinacea purpurea ( Echinacea purpurea ), from which you can collect a whole collection of varieties of different heights. Strong stems can withstand even heavy snowfalls, and the convex "knobs" of inflorescences remaining from the baskets of inflorescences acquire a charcoal brown hue. The prickly heads of echinacea on flower beds look amazing, almost like artificial decorations.

You can also plant on sunny winter flower beds:

• perovski;
• Iberis evergreen;
• switchgrass;
• sheep evergreen;
• brilliant rudbeckia;
• Echinacea purpurea;
• aster naked;
• monard;
• stonecrops;
• veronicastrum;
• chelone;
• liriope muscari;
• foxtail pennisetum;
• sunflower heliopsis.

Plants for winter flower gardens in shady areas

Winter flower gardens can be made spectacular even if the site is in partial or full shade during the entire active season. Indeed, many shade-tolerant and shade-loving stars of the winter garden just do not like bright lighting too much. And winter green plants almost always, with very rare exceptions, prefer secluded areas.

The first plant to think about when planning a winter flower garden in the shade is magically airy lace fairy Astilbe ( Astilbe ). With frost resistance down to -34, astilba suggests choosing varieties with different colors of weightless and lush inflorescences, allowing shaded flower beds to become one of the most striking sights of the summer garden. In winter, astilba exhibits a beautiful pattern of thin shoots, above which the seeds in reddish-brown lace panicles look like floating lace. The golden-brown tops of astilbes adorn the garden all winter.

Fill in the gaps and bald spots between the main winter stars with ease European hoof ( Asarum europaeum ). The bright kidney-shaped leaves of this ground cover are beautiful even in winter, but here's what the hoof will definitely surprise you with is the seed pods. A dense cover of wild hoof is most often hidden under the snow, but during periods of thaw it pleasantly enlivens the appearance of a winter flower garden with its remaining green leaves.

Pachysandra terminalis ( Pachysandra terminalis ) grows like dense cushions. This plant, despite its modest height, looks spectacular on flower beds, especially if you choose variegated varieties. Thick rugs seem to break through the snow cover, and carved leaves seem even more beautiful.

The best of shade-tolerant ornamental grasses sedge ( Carex ), despite its modest size, looks great in the winter garden. Thin, curving leaves in dense turf look like textural fountains in the winter garden, and dry inflorescences only emphasize the charm of the plant.

Enliven the appearance of any flower garden and palmate, graceful, semi-luminous and quite bright leaves of hybrid hellebore ( Helleborus ). Early flowering of the plant will have to wait until spring in regions with harsh winters, but the greenery of the plant in original pillows will still look very impressive.

Also planted in shady winter beds:

• stinky hellebore;
• ophiopogon;
• Red sorrel shield;
• top-fruited multi-row;
• ivy-leaved cyclamen;
• liriope muscari;
• bergenia heart-leaved;
• large-rhizome geranium;
• hakonechloa large.

Winter does not mean ugly the rest of the time

Winter flower gardens, even though they use plants that should be especially attractive in winter, look great all year round. And in spring, and summer, and autumn, they have something to see.

Cultures with original greenery, such as yucca, sedge and stonecrop, show their beauty especially brightly in spring, and hellebore see off the winter with their touching porcelain flowers, giving way to the flowering of the very first herbaceous perennials - amsonia, echinacea. In summer, most of the "chamomile" stars planted on such flower beds bloom, the main dense herbaceous perennials begin the parade, including the magnificent astilba shade queens.

Toward the end of the season, cereals and autumn flowering plants come to the fore, their character begins to emerge, thanks to which the crops are included in the lists of the best plants for decorating winter flower beds (leaves, lines, stems). Inflorescences and inflorescences stand out brightly against the background of other garden ensembles and seem to hint that pleasant surprises will await any visitor in this area of ​​the garden in winter.

Winter flower garden: what to plant and how to save

The suburban area from autumn to spring loses its bright colors, black-gray-white gamut prevails there. If you are out of town in winter, then it is worth making the garden attractive, equipping a flower garden, which is interesting to look at in the off-season.

The main characters of the winter flower garden can be plants with bizarre branches, bright bark or colorful berries. What shrubs and herbs are suitable for decorative purposes in winter and how to arrange a winter flower garden.

Planning winter decor

Plan and outline the winter part of the garden

Divide your garden into summer and winter parts and make a plan. It is convenient to do this in late autumn or early spring, when trees and bushes are without leaves. So you will determine the most advantageous and problematic places that will require disguise. Choose on the site those zones that you usually use, which means that you most often observe in winter. Most likely, it will be the part adjacent to the entrance, the paths leading to the outbuildings. Consider the views that you can enjoy from the window or from the porch of the house, terrace.

Plan a flower garden that can be observed from the window

If you traditionally celebrate the New Year at your dacha, then take care of decorating a special New Year's area. It is in these areas that you will have to make adjustments to the decor and plan winter flower beds. It is advisable to choose a place on a flat or slightly inclined area without stagnant water. It is important to provide protection from the wind, because. in windy places, evergreens will suffer, decorative grass shoots may break, and dry fruits of perennials will scatter.

How to make a winter flower garden

A bright bench diversifies the landscape

It is best to build a winter flower garden according to the mixborder principle, in which individual large, consistently attractive plants (low trees and shrubs) will stand out, surrounded by textured "support". When choosing species, pay attention to the color of the bark, the shape of the branches, evergreen foliage and needles, the presence of ornamental fruits, plant height, their winter hardiness and durability.

When planning a flower garden, be sure to consider the viewpoint, arrange trees, shrubs and perennial grasses with various decorative properties. A properly composed winter flower garden will not look like an empty area, frozen in anticipation of heat, but a multifaceted composition. A gazebo or a garden bench painted in cheerful colors will diversify the picture.

Winter evergreens

Thuja with a spherical crown and creeping juniper

Coniferous plants will not let you down and will be attractive all year round. Be sure to use a modern diverse range of species and varieties of conifers. Combine plants with different heights and crown shapes, now you can buy conifers with a pyramidal, round, nest-like, creeping, weeping crown. Be sure to consider the color of the needles, for example, blue prickly spruce and dark green western thuja look spectacular side by side. As a Christmas tree, choose slow-growing forms with a conical crown - Norway spruce (Picea abies) Will's Zverg Canadian spruce (Picea glauca) Conica Prickly spruce (P. pungens) Glauca Globosa . In this case, it will be possible to dance around the Christmas tree for more than one year.

Spruces with blue and green needles look spectacular side by side

Consider the winter hardiness of coniferous trees, their susceptibility to sunburn, choose only stable forms. A tree wrapped in covering material will not decorate the site. Do not forget about the sense of proportion, do not create a dense composition with an excess of arborvitae or spruce, "dilute" it with spectacular deciduous trees and shrubs in winter, textured cereals.

In addition to conifers, there are several ornamental shrubs with evergreen leaves that, with proper care, can be grown in the middle zone of the country. Evergreen boxwood (Buxus sempervirens), planted in a sheltered place, winters well, lends itself well to shearing, its geometric shapes will appear even under a layer of snow. Holly mahonia (Mahonia aquifolia) is unusually attractive in autumn and winter due to clusters of bluish-blue berries.

Evergreen mahonia holly

Shrubs and trees with bright bark

Derain white Sibirica

Shrubs with bright original bark will give a welcome touch of color against the white background of the winter garden. Suitable breeds are enough.