Art Knapp Articles
Winter Plants and Flowers in the Nursery
in InspirationWinter Plants and Flowers in The Nursery
Winter typically marks the end to gardening season for most Canadians, but fortunately for many British Columbians, we can grow winter plants and flowers year-round. If you live in cities like Surrey, BC, it would be very beneficial for you to take a walk through your local nursery, to admire and plan a full, hardy and beautiful winter garden for your planters.
There are many plants that thrive in the cooler more wet climate, and still provide a gorgeous showy flower. You could put together planters, or raised beds that pop with colour during the grey drab of the winter. When you visit your local garden centre or nursery like Art Knapp in Surrey, look for plants, shrubs, foliage and flowering annuals and perennials, as well as filler plants.
SOME FOCAL FLOWERS YOU COULD USE INCLUDE:
- Pansies, or Winter Pansies
- Snowberry
- Pyracantha
- Heather - Golden Scarlett {Erica Carnea or Mary Helen (Erica darleyenisis)
- Dogwoods - Arctic Fire or Midwinter Fire
- Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn' - A lovely pink flower that will attract Hummingbirds
- Grevillia victoria
- Rudbeckia fulgida - Goldsturm or Orange Cornflower
Now that you have your focal flowers chosen, it you need to have some filler flowers and accessories that will create eye catching, creative masterpiece winter planters.
SOME GREAT FILLER PLANTS THAT ARE HARDY INCLUDE:
- Ornamental grasses
- Bamboo Stalks
- Brassica oleracea - Ornamental Cabbage
- Carex morrowii - Ice Dance or Japanese Sedge
- Festuca glauca - Blue Fescue
- Stipa tenuissima - Mexican Feather Grass
- Herbacious Perrenials
- Euphorbia myrsinites - Donkey Tail Spurge
When you are planning your designs for your winter gardens, take some time to walk through the nursery and enjoy the planter exhibits on display. Generally, if your nursery is using these plants, then they want to encourage you to use these plants as well. Talking to the horticulturist or arborist at the nursery is a great way to learn which plants work well together, which soils are the most effective in the amount of moisture they will be exposed to, as well as the low light levels caused by less sun from November to late February early March.
Just because it is winter, does not mean you should not reap the benefits that having a winter garden or winter planters can bring to you and your home. Showy blooms, hardy perennials and foliage, as well as, all the texture and shape of ornamental grasses and fillers that can all be found year-round at your local nursery in the Lower Mainland and The Fraser Valley. Bring those shovels and gloves out of storage and visit the Art Knapp Garden Centre in Surrey today and start planting.