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For gardeners and non-gardeners alike, winter is at its worst in February, and spring color looks like it’s still months away.
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He says the most reliable way to add color to indoor plants is with flowering houseplants. Orchids are perhaps the easiest and most elegant. Available in a rainbow of colors, shapes, and species, orchids require a modest amount of water and light, bloom for a long time, and with minimal care during their dormancy, which lasts a few months, can be stimulated to bloom again next year.
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Anthurium is another easy-care flowering plant, with glossy green leaves and large, red, heart-shaped plants. It thrives in humidity and does very well in a warm, bright location out of direct sunlight, such as a bathroom windowsill. On the other end of the moisture spectrum, Kalanchoe is a semi-succulent, which means that it actually prefers drier conditions—making it a great choice for those who tend to forget to water their plants.
Outside the window at this time of year the pleasures of the winter garden may be more subtle than during the height of summer but they are no less beautiful. Evergreens provide structure and rich color. Some contain berries in the winter, and all provide shelter for young birds. But even dormant plants have a more subdued kind of beauty, or provide visual interest that’s often overlooked in the growing season.
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The spiraling branches of screw nuts are easy to admire when their leaves are gone; The red twig dogwood bark stands out brilliantly against a snowy background. Ornamental grasses remain graceful in the pale yellow winter phase until heavy snowfalls. Hydrangea bushes, their dry flowers still clinging to the stems, are what Flowers describes as “nature’s artwork.”
By February, many of us are eager for any sign of spring. So it’s no coincidence that potted bulbs—especially the more popular ones, like tulips, daffodils, and crocuses—are hitting grocery stores and gardening centers.
It is best bought in bud, not flowering; Once home, they can be placed in a cool, bright spot out of direct sunlight, and given a little water to bring them back up.
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But the most reliable early harbingers of spring are the young spring bulbs, all of which take care of themselves and often sprout over time. The opening act is usually snowdrops that can handle a late snowfall. Then comes the turn of crocuses, which often form drifts of color over time; They are followed by scilla hyacinths and grape lilies, both of which can quickly take over a garden or even lawn with sheets of bright blue, but can’t really be classified as invasive, because their strap-like leaves quickly wilt and disappear just as the rest of the garden is underway.
Many spring flowering shrubs are ideal for cutting off some branches and bringing them indoors to thrive in water, which is called “forced.” Forsythia and pussy willow are the most common and easiest species to do this, but the young, tender branches of any flowering tree or shrub—cherries, flowering almonds, apples—can be triggered to bloom in a warm, bright room, long before they emerge. do in the garden.
Flowers offer one last piece of advice for the winter gardener, even if most gardening now happens only in our minds. “During the growing season, take lots of pictures of your garden from many different angles,” he says. “Then, by this time next year, you’ll have a clear idea of where you’ll need to fill or rearrange things for the next season. You’ll be less tempted to push ahead with your order when the spring catalogs arrive, or when you make that first trip to the garden center.” .