Flowers are colorful, fragrant, and exude the joy of life. The most popular type of home gardens in India is annuals, i.e., ones that are raised from seeds, grow, bloom, seed & exhaust themselves during a season.
These seasonal flowering plants have the advantage of a tremendous variety of color, size & form. They occupy the garden space in less time & can be easily replaced. Annuals can be grown in beds, herbaceous borders, as an edging, for window boxes pots, etc.
In India, winter is the best time to grow many different species of beautiful blooming annuals. The seeds of winter flowering annuals are sown in October-November. Some seedlings almost hibernate during the cold months of December & January & start growing as soon as the spring sets in.
• Best Winter Flower, Annual Plants to Grow
1. Alyssum
Buy Alyssum Seeds
These low-growing, winter flowering plants branch freely with usually white flowers which are honey-scented and the beautiful compact plant looks like a carpet of flowers laid out just for you.
2. Antirrhinum (Snapdragon)
Buy Antirrhinum Seeds
This is a branching annual with winter blooming flowers that produces numerous flowering spikes, mostly of a crimson or white color. Many other colorful varieties of Snapdragon are also used for bedding and pot culture.
3. Aster
Buy Aster Seeds
China Aster is not just a beautiful winter flower to grow but also an excellent cut flower. The flower heads come in many different sizes, types & colors, giving you more of a variety to choose from and grow.
4. Calendula (Pot Marigold)
Buy Calendula Seeds
Calendula are great winter plants that produce flowers varying from a straw color to deep orange. This single or double flowering plant is also very useful for bedding, potting, & for window boxes.
5. Clarkia
Buy Clarkia Seeds
This is a hardy annual flowering plant with slender branches & attractive long spikes of flowers. It can be grown as a pot plant as well as a ground plant. Versatility is just one of its plus points!
6. Dianthus (Sweet William)
Buy Dianthus Mix Seeds
Double or single fragrant, these colorful winter flowers are borne at the top of their branches in rounded clusters. This garden plant is suitable for beds, borders, rock gardens, or window boxes.
7. Hollyhock
Hollyhock is a tall, majestic annual. The large flowers are born in the axis of leaves all along the length of the stem. Hollyhocks can be used as a background plant, screen, open space shrubbery or annual border.
8. Larkspur
This is a very popular blue/mauve-purple/pink cut winter flower. This garden plant is grown as a background or in front of a tall hedge or border & in pots.
9. Pansy
Buy Pansy Mix Seeds
As stunning flowers that grow in winter seasons, the beautiful butterfly-like flowers are available in almost all shades of colors & their combinations & blotched, variegated, marked, stripped in contrasting colors. These low growing plants thrive well under the shade of other tall plants.
10. Petunia
Buy Petunia Seeds
Petunias are the most popular, lovely, and valuable race of garden plants. The flowers are trumpet-shaped and may be small or large. Petunias are also further classified into many different types of flowers.
11. Phlox
One of the most well-known & favorite annuals grown for their brilliant displays and long-lasting blooming period. These winter flowers are delicately scented with a wide range of colors and many have contrasting ‘eyes.'
12. Salvia
Buy Salvia Seeds
Salvia plants that survive in the winter grow long terminal spikes with tubular bright scarlet flowers that are borne above the foliage of this flowering plant. Salvia is ideal for growing in mass, in beds, borders, background shrubbery, under trees, and semi-shaded places.
13. Sweet Pea
Buy Sweet Pea Seeds
This garden climber winter plant is valued and widely cultivated for its vast range of flower colors, elegant form, fragrance, and its utility as a cut flower.
14. Verbena
A free-flowering, low-growing, spreading plant, its flowers are born in clusters with light mauve, white & pink as common colors.
15. Statice
• Additional Note of a Few Things to Remember
- As the growth of garden plants during winters is less, start with proper-sized ones.
- Plant according to the size of the container.
- Place your container in a place where it receives ample of sunlight.
- Water your winter plants cautiously during this season.
- Compost regularly.
- Use containers with proper drainage facility.
• What Your Winter Garden Plants Need
- Sow the seeds of your favorite flowers right before the winter sets in.
- Flowering plants need soil to be 5 inches deep. So, select an earthen pot of 6-8 inches, and bury the seed about 2 inches deep.
- Saplings will emerge in about 6 weeks.
- Sprinkle water as and when required.
