Festive Plants

I’m thinking about bringing in some pelargoniums into the house from the garden before the frost gets them as they are still in flower. I’ll be saving my rather nibbled, neglected cacti and succulents in too and sprinkle them with a touch of glittery festivity before placing them in the hallway. I like the contrast between the inviting glitter and the sharp spikes from the cacti. I really gives a mixed message to anyone knocking on the door. Is he friendly and fun or is he prickly and unwelcoming?   It normally depends on who calls around.

There are loads of festive plants we can buy to brighten up the house at this dark time of year and a lot of growers ensure we have plenty of colour.  There are both indoor and outdoor plants to choose from and some cope well on both sides of the glass.

Indoor Festive Plants

Azalea: Water carefully –keep the compost moist, keep cool, a hall or porch is ideal as long as the temperature is constant. Keep in bright, indirect sunlight. Can be put outside when the threat of frost has gone.

Christmas cactus: Water sparingly and keep slightly moist. They like it cool. The plants should flower for about six weeks. Try and keep the plant in one place once the buds have formed as they could drop off with the shock of it all. Will get bigger and better for next year with a bit or care.

Cyclamen: These plants do best if kept cool and kept in porches and conservatories. They tend to wilt in central heating, if they do dry out, stand the pot in tepid water and leave to soak. After the compost has soaked up the water shake off the excess water, hopefully the plant will recover. After flowering allow the corm, (the bulb bit in the middle) to dry out then store until late summer. Repot again in fresh compost and start watering.

Poinsettia: The fragile festive favourite: Again don’t overwater; keep at a cool room temperature out of draughts. They should flower for twelve weeks and even more if the leaves are sprayed with water and the pots are put on a pebble tray to increase humidity. Put the plants in bright light to keep the plant colour. 

Orchid: Increasing in popularity, these delicate-looking plants are not as fragile as they appear and will bloom for months with little care. Give them bright, indirect light. They generally prefer it on the cooler side indoors. Avoid sudden temperature changes, which cause buds to drop. Water once a week until water comes out the bottom of the pot. They're usually planted in a soil-less planting medium made from wood bark as this mimics their soporific environment in the trees.

Outdoor festive plants

 

Plants that flower at Christmas outdoors in the garden will help give the garden a lift and improve the view of the garden from indoors as well. You can even keep the plants in their pots and just bring them into the house for a day or two before planting them out permanently if you buy them near to Christmas.

Camellia sasanqua: These have a strong aroma and can flower from November until January.

Mahonia: These are tremendously easy plants to grow and many produce fragrant flowers, beautiful berries and shiny foliage in winter.

Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’: A leafless shrub covered in flowers in winter is definitely a thing of curiosity and Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ is worth a close inspection. Walk up to this shrub in full bloom and take a deep breath of its sweet and delicious perfume. 

Winter heathers: Winter heathers are hardy, easy to grow, and unlike some winter flowering plants, their flowers last for many weeks even when sprayed with food colouring). 

Witch hazel: A glorious yellow colour. The name witch hazel comes from the word ‘wiche’, meaning pliable or bendy and the ‘hazel’ part refers to the plant’s leaves resembling those of the hazel (corylus).

Sarcococca: Known as the Christmas box or sweet box, Sarcococca are small shrubs with fragrant flowers and dark green foliage. 

Lonicera ‘Winter Beauty’: On gloomy winter mornings Lonicera ‘Winter Beauty’ is the perfect fragrant flowering shrub to add interest to your garden with little effort required.

Jasminum nudiflorum: Jasminum nudiflorum produces cheerful yellow star-shaped flowers brightening the winter garden. 

Helleborus niger: Known as the Christmas Rose, this is a low-growing evergreen plant which is perfect for brightening winter gardens with its attractive white flowers. It is named the Christmas rose because of a legend in which Helleborus niger sprouted from the snow where a young girl (who had no gift to give to the son of God) had been crying.

Hippeastrum (amaryllis)

The potted bulbs sold as ‘amaryllis’ at Christmas are really varieties of Hippeastrum. If you’re given one of these potted bulbs for Christmas, don’t be intimidated. It’s very straightforward to coax them from a bulb with a tiny green shoot to a towering plant producing large, colourful trumpets of flowers.