The Flower Garden in Mid-Winter: Light, Planning, and Greenhouse Color

The redeeming feature of mid-winter weather is lengthening days — more light, even if temperatures stay low. Light matters more than warmth to green plants; without it they cannot survive, but they'll endure or grow slowly in cold if light is available. That's why tough herbaceous plants like snowdrops, Iris reticulata, and bergenias flower now, adapted to cold.

Hard frost, heavy rain, and snow dominate mid-winter, limiting outdoor work to small greenhouse routines. Occasionally, lawns can be limed, digging finished, and storm debris cleared on bright, frosty days.

Otherwise, spend time in the greenhouse or an armchair planning the coming season with new seed catalogues. Assess your entire flowering display — perennials, bulbs, annuals, bedding, rock plants. With experience, you can orchestrate continuous bloom from early spring through winter; even in winter, a few plants flower. There's no true end to the flowering season, only a diminution at certain times.

Last summer's container-sown plants begin to show from now into early spring, bringing color and fragrance to the greenhouse. A gently heated mid-winter greenhouse is a tremendous morale booster — a wellspring of color and spring's promise for remarkably little cost, especially with paraffin heaters.