How to grow a winter flower garden

(Wait, does Perth even GET winters anymore??)

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Hello readers old and new!

Today’s newsletter is all about adding colour to your winter garden - trust me, it can be done!! If your garden feels drab and colourless, read on to find out which plants will thrive in a Perth garden AND reward you with blooms through winter.

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The last of the autumn flowers have faded and that familiar sense of overcast foreboding is creeping around the edges of the sky. Winter is here. For many gardeners the months between June and September can seem sterile, drab, cold and dull. Plant growth stalls, flowers vanish and rainy days make the grass stodgy and lacklustre. Oh, the gloom!

Wait a minute.

We live in Perth. PERTH, Western Australia. Where the skies are blue (or partly blue) for an average of 265 days a year. Where there are only 47.6 rainy days between June and August (which means for half of our winter it doesn’t even rain at all).

I think we’re all suffering from some form of mass delusion.

We’ve got a caricature of ‘winter’ based on TV shows from the northern hemisphere and it’s taped over our eyes, blinding us to the fact that - for the most part - winter in Perth is a friggin clear-sky, crispy-sunshine daydream! A long-awaited break from the pressure of having to hand water our gardens in between retic days; a reprieve from staring at plants that are in a depressingly constant state of wilt, and a time to fearlessly garden without worrying about accidentally giving ourselves heat stroke after a few hours in the sun.

Winter in WA has a lot going for it. AND with proper planning and a bit of thought, our gardens can be just as gloriously flower-filled as they were in summer. Well, maybe not quite as flower-filled, but we can get damn close!

Our garden in August, last year

Here’s the thing: you might think that winter gardens are drab and boring, but there’s actually a HEAP of great stuff you can plant right now to ensure that your winter garden is filled with flowers right up until September. These plants are about the farthest you can get from dull and it’s important to plant them - not just for ourselves but also for the insects and birds that we share our gardens with. Bees, butterflies, hoverflies, honeyeaters and a myriad of other creatures all consume pollen and nectar from the flowers in our gardens. While lots of people have gardens that are filled with flowers during spring (providing a rich supply of pollen and nectar), gardens that flower during winter are rarer and - because of this - are crucial to supporting insect and bird life during the cooler months.

Admittedly, not all of the flowering plants on the following list provide a source of pollen or nectar for these animals. Some of the flowers (like pansies and violas) are really just pretty. As justification for their inclusion, I was just about to refer you to the quote by William Morris: ‘A beautiful thing can never be truly useless’. But then I googled it and it turns out the quote is actually ‘Nothing useless can be truly beautiful’. Whoops.

… Anyway, Morris can say whatever he likes. I bet he never grew an awesome winter flower garden.

What to plant

I’ve broken your list of recommended winter-flowering plants into annuals and perennials. Quick reminder: annuals are plants that germinate, grow, flower, set seed and die back all in a single year. Perennials live for 2 or more years. It’s usually good to aim for a combination of annuals and perennials in your garden; perennials tend to grow bigger and provide the structure and framework for your garden, while annuals add seasonal change and excitement!

Winter-flowering annuals

Nemesia

If you sow one packet of seeds this week make it nemesia. These flowers often come in packets of mixed colours and make the most beautiful, colourful winter borders. Last year I filled my wheelbarrow with them and they rewarded me with crayon-bright reds, yellows and oranges all through July.

Primulas (aka Primroses or Polyanthus)

These happy little flowers send up stems topped with a little clustery bobble of flowers. You can get them in pretty much any colour under the sun. They come in a few different varieties (with stem lengths ranging from the long and lean to the short and stocky). Stick them in pots, in your borders, in a wheelbarrow, in a gumboot. Any garden filled with primulas is certain to be cheerful.

A wheelbarrow filled with orange, red and yellow Nemesia (back row), pink Primulas (middle row), orange and yellow Kalanchoe and little white daisies (front row).

Pansies & violas