Winter Blooming Plants

I have a year-round garden on the southern Oregon coast; something is always in bloom. My garden is rather large, so I am able to dedicate different parts of the garden to different months. My rhododendron gardens are in bloom from January to June and then they are just a green background during the rest of the year. The simple parterre garden next to the house is filled with the blooms of columbine and geums during the month of May. In June the roses along the edge of this garden take over. My daylily garden is a riot of blooms during the month of July, but by the middle of August there are almost no daylily blooms. By early August, the dahlias along the pond and in the parterre garden are usually in bloom. My waterlilies bloom all summer, they are the real stars of my summer garden.

It is easy to have parts of my garden blooming during the summer, but it is more difficult to keep it blooming during the winter. I deadhead my dahlias so that they will keep blooming until the first frost, which in my garden usually occurs during the first week of November. Once the blackened dahlia foliage has been cut back, my garden is dominated by green lawns and the foliage of evergreen trees and shrubs.

During the winter I become very aware of the various shades of green foliage. My garden is surrounded by a forest of native conifers and I especially love the way that the translucent bamboo foliage glows against the dark green conifers. For me, the winter aspect of my garden is mainly about the contrast between bamboo and conifers; flowers are just delightful surprises.

Winter flowering heaths insure that my garden has something in bloom throughout the winter. Heaths and Heathers are often confused. There is only one species of heather (Calluna vulgaris), but there are there are over 500 species of heaths, all of which go by the Latin name of Erica.

Erica carnea is native to the Alps of central Europe. I have several selected forms of this species in shades of pink, rose and white. I also have several of the Darleyensis hybrids; these are hybrids of Erica carnea and Erica erigena. Erica erigena is native to Spain and southern France. Erica erigena used to be known as Erica mediterranea; I suppose that may be the reason why the Darleyensis hybrids are often sold as "Mediterranean Heath" in our local nurseries.