If you want a lush garden even in the coldest months, check out these Beautiful Flowers that Bloom from Fall to Winter!
While most fade as fall ends, we handpick hardy flowers that blossom and fill your winter garden with mesmerizing hues even as the mercury drops to freezing levels! With some autumn planting, your garden will enjoy beautiful blooms from fall through winter. So don’t wait; grab your tools and get digging!
Flowers that Bloom from Fall to Winter
1. Camellia
Botanical Name: Camellia spp.
USDA Zones: 6-9
These species have airy single or semi-double flowers in shades of white, pink, rose, and red. Camellias flower heavily from early fall to mid-winter and produce a sweet scent upon blossoming. It’s also important to note that autumn is the best to plant it in the garden!
Perfect in containers, these flowers bloom best in dappled shade and thrive in slightly acidic soil enriched by organic mediums like peat-free compost. Varieties like Camellia sasanqua tolerate full sun once roots develop.
2. Chrysanthemum
Botanical Name: Chrysanthemum indicum
USDA Zones: 5-10
Chrysanthemums are famous for their vivacious colors and dainty flower heads, comprising several tiny florets in warm, fiery hues. But the best part is that mums bloom from fall to winter, thriving in the cold when most others fade!
They do well in full sun on fertile, well-draining soil. If your mums are in the ground as frost arrives, heavily mulch to insulate the soil or bring them indoors to help them survive extreme cold.
3. Cyclamen
Botanical Name: Cyclamen
USDA Zones: 4-11
Cyclamen is a hardy species with green, silver, or patterned leaves. Its blooms are mainly mauve with five upswept petals. The showy flowers and pretty foliage make it a great plant to brighten garden beds and containers from fall through winter.
While several varieties must be brought indoors during frost, some, like C. cilicium and C.coum, are very frost-hardy. A flush of pink, white, or red button blooms will sprout from its low-lying foliage and survive even in dry, cold weather in partial to full shade.
4. Pansy
Botanical Name: Viola x wittrockiana
USDA Zones: 6-11
Garden pansy is a biennial but commonly grown as an annual; we all know that it produces five-petalled blossoms in bizarre patterns and contrasting hues such as purple, yellow, blue, white, and so on!
And it blooms beautifully from fall to winter, adorning wintry window boxes and cascading from hanging baskets against a dreamy backdrop of chill and snow.
It thrives in well-drained soil and grows well in garden beds and containers in wintertime. Here are the ten best pansies for icy blooms in cold climates!
5. Hellebore
Botanical Name: Helleborous niger
USDA Zones: 3-9
It is an evergreen perennial with dark green, leathery-textured foliage. Hellebore produces bobbing bell-shaped white flowers that mature to pale pink and lime green tones. Its hardy nature makes it capable of handling colder climates, especially after it matures.
However, some varieties need shelter from frost and winter wetness and are best suited for containers that can be moved around. Thriving in dappled shade and moist, well-draining soil, it flowers from late winter to spring when planted in autumn.
6. Mahonia
Botanical Name: Mahonia eurybracteata
USDA Zones: 5-9
Mahonia is an evergreen with pinnate, leathery leaves and yellow flowers. Some varieties also produce burgundy, red, orange, and creamy white racemes of blooms with a lily-of-the-valley fragrance perched above its textured foliage.
Brightening gardens from fall through winter, mahonia blooms well even in shaded spots. Check out varieties like ‘Winter Sun’ and mulch around its roots to insulate it during frost.
7. Wagner’s Sage
Botanical Name: Salvia wagneriana
USDA Zones: 7-11
Wagner’s sage is a perennial that can grow as tall as 10 feet. It has large, green, aromatic leaves with rosy-red flowers. The shrub’s tall stature and brilliant fuchsia blooms that come to life with the shorter days of the autumn make it perfect for winter interest.
Blooming through fall, winter, and spring, this warmth-loving plant attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to its flowers in mild climates.
8. Petunia
Botanical Name: Petunia
USDA Zones: 9-11, *grown as annuals in cooler climates
Petunias are beauties with their trumpet-shaped flowers, which come in pink, purple, white, and even red. The leaves are green, soft, and fuzzy. These plants grow well in garden beds, containers, and hanging baskets and prefer sunny spots.
Most of these are great for fall-to-winter blooms if you live in a warmer climate. In a cold climate below USDA Zone 9, wait for spring to arrive to plant them. They’re also easily revived if dying.
9. Winter Jasmine
Botanical Name: Jasminum nudiflorum
USDA Zones: 6-10
Winter jasmine is a deciduous flowering plant with small, dark green leaves and bright yellow flowers. While not as fragrant as other jasmine varieties, it makes up for the lack of aroma with an unmatched winter hardiness.
Plus, it’s pretty easy to care for and grows in full sun to partial shade, poor soil, and is drought-tolerant once established.
10. Witch Hazel
Botanical Name: Hamamelis spp.
USDA Zones: 3-8
Witch hazel is a winter-blooming shrub that grows up to 20 feet tall. It is native to North America and Asia and flowers between late fall and winter. This multi-stemmed shrub produces yellow, orange, red, and purple flowers with an earthy fragrance and performs well in partial shade and well-drained soil.
11. Snowdrop
Botanical Name: Galanthus spp.
USDA Zones: 3-9
Snowdrops are delicate perennials with strap-like gray-green leaves and dainty white bell-shaped nodding blooms. Snowdrops naturally grow in Europe and can live for many years with proper care. They can adapt to various climates and thrive in moist conditions.
12. Winter Aconite
Botanical Name: Eranthis hyemalis
USDA Zones: 4-7
This perennial grows up to half a foot with lively, green leaves. It produces remarkable cup-shaped flowers that are typically yellow, last long through winter, and go dormant in spring and summer.
Winter aconite thrives in slightly alkaline soil and tolerates full to partial sun.
13. Lenten Rose
Botanical Name: Helleborus orientalis
USDA Zones: 4-9
Lenten rose is a perennial with deep green leaves that grows well in shady, dimly lit spots. Its large cup-shaped blooms emerge in pastel whites, pinks, lavenders, and darker shades of plum and red from late winter to early spring.
Blooms are typically followed by strange-looking seed pods, which also look quite intriguing. It prefers full sun and well-drained, humus-rich, fertile soil.
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