'No need to wait': How to brighten your winter garden

It’s easy to understand why many of us eagerly anticipate the arrival of spring. The days become warmer and the garden bursts into life, heralding a season of new growth and opportunities. But here’s a little secret: there’s no need to wait. Even in late winter, nature puts on a spectacular show.

What to grow

Selecting the right plants is key for a colourful display. If you have a small space – like a balcony or courtyard – a medium or large decorative pot planted out with a mass of flowering annuals offers a pop of seasonal colour. Visit your local nursery and head to the “potted colour” section. Here, you’ll find a stunning array of vibrant blooms – calendula, cineraria, marigolds, polyanthus, primulas, pansies, snapdragons, and violas – that will flower over the next few months before they die and need to be replaced.

This idea also works if you have bare pockets to fill around the garden. Dot them around established shrubs or plant en masse in garden beds.

For something more permanent, go for perennials, shrubs or trees. Hellebores or winter rose are a personal favourite. The sweet, nodding flowers are available in shades of pink, purple, apricot, green, white, and near-black, and may be single or bi-coloured. They look fabulous in the ground or in pots, and perform best in lightly shaded spots. Similarly, clivias are popular for shady areas. The blooms are prolific in late winter and include shades of orange, yellow and red; a beautiful contrast against their dark-green strappy leaves.

If you have a larger space to fill, daphne, luculia and Japonica camellias are suitable candidates. Also, poinsettias are worth considering, too. We normally see them sold in pots at Christmas, but they actually flower in winter – they’re forced into bloom during the festive season.

Native Australian flora offers quite a smorgasbord of late-winter colour. Wattles come into their own at this time of year, filling gardens with glorious sprays of golden yellow flowers. They make excellent cut flowers, too.

Banksias – dwarf and standard forms – are aglow with the radiant yellow, orange or red flower spikes. The Giant Candles banksia is a striking specimen, growing into a sprawling shrub three to four metres tall. The orange flower spikes can grow up to 40 centimetres long! It’s nectar rich too, an absolute bird magnet.

For something smaller, the Birthday Candles banksia grows into a compact shrub (up to 50 centimetres tall) with large upright golden-yellow flowers perfect for rockeries, drifting through garden beds or a feature in a pot.

Other low-growing natives include grevillea Poorinda Royal Mantle, grevillea Mt Tamboritha, and grevillea Bronze Rambler. All are vigorous groundcovers and are adaptable to range of soil types, provided they’re well drained.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of flowering colourful choices for winter. It’s a good idea is to visit your local nursery and see what catches your eye. You don’t need to plant everything but including a few options will help bring colour and life to your late-winter landscape.

Tammy Huynh is a horticulturist, presenter on Gardening Australia and the owner of Leaf an Impression.