Creating a Winter Wonderland

What better way to celebrate Christmas than with flowers! Here in Phoenix and other warm states, we get to grow beautiful flowers all year long, so picking out flowers that coordinate with the seasons and holidays is such a fun treat.Growing up in Michigan, we could not grow flowers outside in the winter (we had so much snow!) so its such a fun treat when I moved here to be able to grow flowers in the depth of winter. Although we love in Arizona it can still get chilly here, so picking out plants that thrive in our winters is essential.

Creating a theme:

We LOVE a good curated moment that brings intention into the garden. Being thoughtful with the plants you choose will bring a beautiful dimension to your outdoor space. Sometimes its easy to pick out one of everything in the nursery, and if thats your style by all means go for it! We love to pick out specific plants that bring texture and color into the garden.

Here are some essential things we add into our winter gardens:

• White

  • With the shorter days of winter, the white offers a ‘glow’ at dawn and dust that helps brighten up your outdoor space. White resembles cleanliness which is a great way to start the new year with a fresh, simple flower pallet.

• Texture

  • Its important to add texture to any garden. Texture can be different sized flowers or even on our foliage plants. It allow for contrast in the garden, which creates more interest! (The more interest the better!)

• Foliage

  • Foliage is a powerhouse in the winter garden. When the days are shorter, and nights are cold foliage will stang up and strong holding up their weight in the garden. Foliage can be small trees, shrubs, but one of our favorites are ornamental kales/cabbages.

Winter colors:

When choosing a theme, I always thing of my time growing up in Michigan. What colors remind me the most of winter?

White - resembles all the beautiful snowfall

Silver - gloomy winter skies

Blue/ Purple - the colors my hands turned after being out in the cold! lol

green - When everything is asleep for the winter, the evergreens still flaunt their beauty!

red- we typically only use red for around the holidays, providing nice contrast. Red is a great segway from the fall months into Christmas time.

Winter combo inspiration:

White garden- creating a white garden aka ‘moon garden’ is a simple, clean look that will go with all your holiday decor. We love using green and silver to compliment out white flowers/ plants.

Paperwhite bulbs add height into the garden in the winter months. Paperwhites can by purchased on our website here in November and December.

Pictured Above:

Paperwhites, alyssum, english daisy, and dusty miller.

Christmas colors - We had so much fun designing the Christmas garden this year. We had lots of red left over from the fall, so we incorporated them into the Christmas display garden.

They Mahodony spendors Hibiscus (plant in the center back) had a lovely foliage all summer long, and now that they night time tempertures have cooled off, they have been losing their lower leaves. This has some to my surprioze that the stems would be just as pretty as the foliage! They have made a beautiful addition to the Christmas garden, giving a beautiful red twig dogwood moment.

The Curly cabbage has a really fun texture to it that resembles frost. So cool! 

Here is what is in the picture above:

• Alternathera ‘Plum Dandy’

• Alyssum

• Cabbage ornamental (white + red)

• Celosia ‘Dragons Breath’ (seeds found here)

• Cockscomb celosia ‘Brainiac Raven Red’ ( Seeds found here)

• Dusty Miller

• Hibiscus ‘Mahogony splendors’ (Seeds can be found here)

• Rose ‘Iceburg’

• Lamium

A blue theme is such a fun way to add some color into the garden. This picture was taken at then end of winter when the blooms were abhundant!

Here was in the display

- Muscari (can be purchased here on our website)

- Viola Sorbet ‘Marina Blue’ (Seeds coming soon!)

- Alyssum

- Dusty Miller

- Lavender ‘Fern leaf’

- Lobelia ‘Sky blue’

- English Daisy

- Anemone Hormony ‘Blue’ (at the top)

Mixing the blue violas, red cbbages, alyssum and Dusy miller creates a moody winter vibe to the container garden.

Creating a winter wonderland in the garden should be fun and easy to do especially in the winer. The weather is beautiful, and we spend a lot of time outside here in Arizona. We usually do not cover our plants, unless we get a keep freeze ( which rarely happens) in that case we will move the alyssum in the garage. Cabbages and violas are totally cold hardy into the 20’s!

Happy gardening!

John