Winter Colour

[Amberforce]

Could anyone advise what might provide some good winter colour in my tropical border, especially as a lot of my plants will be over-wintering indoors? Come to think of it summer colour ideas would be greatly appreciated too.


Cheers

[Tom2006]

Dogwood is always a winner in winter and although no that tropical looking in summer adds depth at the back of a boarder.

[boybeck]

I cram wallflowers into every spare bit of soil. You can buy them cheaply in the autumn. They come barerooted in bags. I get about five for 80p from a nursery near me. You get an amazing display of flowers in mid April.

[kata]

The colors are excellent in the Violas,

I buy them around september, they last till the first frost........but wait.........they come back then in spring till August time when they are due again...no need to fleece protect they are fine no matter what the - maybe.

You can even save the seed from the dead ones. They are available for months from Easter.

I have saved all my dead one, thrown them into an unused boarder till next spring, all the seeds will germinate freely.


http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=isch ... 62&bih=802

Yesterday I saw a beautiful palm. Its called the Red Lipstick palm from Malaysia. It likes to be near water.
http://www.ppp.com.au/nursery.html

Nig should know this palm, its supposed to be native to Brazil.
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[Trudytropics]

Any of the Hellebore varieties, beautiful flowers that brighten a winter border, from past experience these self seed and are a multitude of different colours

[Dim]

there are evergreen ferns ..... best ones that I have planted are the Dryopteris affinis Crispa .... they have lime coloured leaves in spring and turn dark green and are evergreen .... they grow fairly large and are hardy but need semi-shade ...

there are loads of different coloured Heuchera which have colour in all seasons, and go well with ferns and palms/hostas etc

I will be planting some Heuchera this weekend to give some winter colour .... from what I have seen, they prefer semi-shade, or if planted in the full sun, need to be watered regulary

I will be planting in 3's (1 Berry Smoothie with 2 electric lime) .... the contrast of bright red and lime yellow will make a good contrast ... the electric lime changes colour in winter (gets red veins in the leaves, but reverts back to plain lime coloured in spring .... from what I have read) .... there are loads of different colours available, and most people only associate Heuchera with the brownish / burgundy variety

google to see the different varieties

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

I cram wallflowers into every spare bit of soil. You can buy them cheaply in the autumn. They come barerooted in bags. I get about five for 80p from a nursery near me. You get an amazing display of flowers in mid April.

Agree with Boybeck. If you want the earliest colour in your garden and plenty of it then wallflowers (erysimum) grew mine from seed, masses of colour and even in the coldest of last winter they were evergreen , so didn't have to look at bare brown earth patches or twigs. When they finish flowering, i cut them back and shortly after comes a second flowering. Wouldn't be without them.

[stephenprudence]

I always aim to use Cyclamen hederifolium and some brightly coloured (hot coloured) versions of Primroses. The only problems with the former is that it doesn't tolerate weeks of frozen ground, so in that last few winter it's died.

In a normal winter however it would probably give some exotic colour in the winter. In some ways winter planting of bedding plants is my favourite passtime because it's the most challenging, and you know if you pull off the colour then the winter will be a brightly coloured one.

[The Codfather]

I put a few baskets out etc....with just winter pansy.....and antything left dot around the garden inbetween the green stuff with a carefull selection of spring flowers......

[kata]

Found something pretty nice

Most of the year, it will reward its grower with its handsome shiny dark green leaves, surmounted in late winter by a “red hot poker” like inflorescence in a range of colours from near neon pink to a more restrained greenish orange.

*~*

Veltheimia bracteata;