These Winter Flowering Shrubs can make your monotonous garden interesting! You can also grow most of them in containers!
These Winter Flowering Shrubs with their unusual textures, foliage, colors, fragrance, and flowers can beautify your garden. Some even decorate themselves with bright and vibrant berries.
Find the Best Indoor Plants that Grow All Winter here
Winter Flowering Shrubs
1. Scarlet Firethorn
Botanical Name: Pyracantha coccinea
USDA Zones: 5-9
After flowering from late spring to mid-summer, it bears astonishing orange to scarlet edible berries in fall and winter. ‘Lalandei,’ ‘Mohave,’ and ‘Yukon Belle’ are some of the best varieties.
Look at the Best Flowering Houseplants here
2. Wintersweet
Botanical Name: Chimonanthus praecox
USDA Zones: 7-9
The name justifies this shrub because of the sweet fragrance of the blooms that appears in the dormant winter season and early spring. It requires a full sun location that is sheltered against the wind.
3. Higan Cherry (Winter Flowering Cherry)
Botanical Name: Prunus subhirtella
USDA Zones: 5-8
This small tree-like shrub can grow up to 20-30 feet tall. It blooms in fall, winter, or spring, depending on the climate. Flowers change from deep pink to pale pink with time.
Look at the Beautiful Shrubs and Bushes with Red Berries here
4. Arrowwood ‘Dawn’
Botanical Name: Viburnum x bodnantense
USDA Zones: 5-9
It is a deciduous shrub with uniquely shaped oval leaves. The clustered pink flowers are scented and long-lasting and appear in the winter and early spring.
5. Witch Hazel
Botanical Name: Hamamelis virginiana
USDA Zones: 3-9
The yellow blooms of this plant spread an enticing fragrance in the surrounding in winters. Bizzare thin ribbons shape of the flowers also makes them stand out.
6. Clematis Jingle Bells
Botanical Name: Clematis cirrhosa var. purpurascens
USDA Zones: 6-9
The recurved white to yellow petals with freckled red of nodding flowers steal the show in winters. Also, they spread a mildly sweet scent, which is definitely a mood enhancer.
Find the Best Clematis Varieties here
7. Paperbush
Botanical Name: Edgeworthia chrysantha
USDA Zones: 6-9
Cultivars: Snow Cream, Gold Rush, and John Bryant
This shrub shows huge clusters of tubular flowers in late winter to spring end and sometimes early summer, which contrasts with the impressive skeleton of stems.
8. Winter Daphne
Botanical Name: Daphne odora
USDA Zones: 7-9
The late-appearing blooms in late winter and spring spread an intoxicating fragrance in the air. Small tubular-shaped clustered flowers adorn the simple dark green foliage.
9. Sweet Box
Botanical Name: Sarcococca confusa
USDA Zones: 6-10
If the glossy evergreen foliage is not enough, there are sweet honey-scented flowers that appear in winter and make this plant nostalgic. It is also resistant to deer and rabbits.
10. Cold-Hardy Camellias
Botanical Name: Camellia C. oleifera (Hybrids)
USDA Zones: 6-9
The beauty of magnificent blooming camellias is unparalleled. The blooms start to appear in the fall and last till the spring. The new hybrid varieties can tolerate low temperatures.
11. Siberian Dogwood
Botanical Name: Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’
USDA Zones: 6-9
The amazing shrub for winter interest looks spectacular when it sheds all the leaves in the fall. Before falling, the foliage leaves us amazed with a glorious autumn shade.
12. Honeysuckle ‘Winter Beauty’
Botanical Name: Lonicera x purpusi
USDA Zones: 5-9
It’s a deciduous shrub or climber with a bush-like growing habit. Intensely scented flowers that appear in mid-winter and continue till mid-spring are mood lifters because of their sweet aroma.
13. Mahonia Winter Sun
Botanical Name: Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’
USDA Zones: 7-9
In the dull, dead winters, the bright yellow blooms of this evergreen shrub look very cheerful. For an impressive effect, add them to the winter garden borders.
14. Winter Jasmine
Botanical Name: Jasminum nudiflorum
USDA Zones: 6-9
It stands out from other rival winter-blooming plants. Masses of bright yellow flowers appear on the slender branches from late winter to early spring.
Look at the Best Indoor Jasmine Varieties here
15. Winter Heath
Botanical Name: Erica carnea
USDA Zones: 5-7
This beautiful small shrub makes an excellent ground cover. It’s short and stout and grows only about 6-12 inches. In the blooming season, it blooms so extensively that it covers the foliage.
16. Camellia
Botanical Name: Camellia japonica
USDA Zones: 7–9
You can be doubly rewarded when you experience the pink or white flowers of a Camellia arriving in winter. Although it is a much-loved plant in the South, breeders have produced many tough varieties that can grow in colder places.
Grow these Houseplants to Warm up Your Interiors in Winter
Other Plants for Winter Interest
17. Sky Pencil Holly
Botanical Name: Ilex crenata
USDA Zones: 5-8
Standing tall and upright, the sight of sky pencil holly is intimidating. Use it in mass planting or hedges or grow them in series containers at the entrance.
Find the Best Holiday Season Houseplants here
18. Winter Aconite
Botanical Name: Eranthis hyemalis
USDA Zones: 4-9
The bright yellow flowers add a golden glow to the garden when planted in numbers. It can tolerate slight frost and cold but won’t do well in extreme weather.
19. Winterberry
Botanical Name: Ilex verticillata
USDA Zones: 3-9
Brighten up your winter landscape with the stunning berry display of this plant. Commonly known as deciduous holly, the bright red berries with the glossy green foliage of this plant are eye-catchy.
20. Snowberry
Botanical Name: Symphoricarpos albus
USDA Zones: 3-7
Snowberry is native to eastern North America and always delivers a winter show with beautiful, pure white berries. The fruits hang on the bare branches all through winter. The vigorous roots of this plant make it an excellent choice for stabilizing soil.
Wow! I have a Wintersweet plant in my backyard and I usually cut it down each winter, and wait for it to grow back in the summer! Guess I won’t cut it down this year!🤣