Perennials and Grasses for Winter Interest
Evergreen and winter-flowering perennials are an important ingredient in the winter garden offering welcome splashes of colour and interest.
Popular choices include:
- Bergenia – offer pink, purple or white flowers from January to April as well as round, leathery leaves that develop red and bronze tints.
- Helleborus niger – offer white flowers from December to March.
- Iris unguicularis – violet-blue flowers from October to March.
Many ornamental grasses die back in winter, but their foliage remains, offering beautiful structure and form, especially when edged with frost.
A few evergreen grasses offer additional winter interest, including Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’ and black lilyturf (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’).
