Winter Flowering Plants

Miss your flower garden? These winter flowering plants will brighten up your home and help you to survive cabin fever.    

Just because the temperature has dropped, don't miss out on the wonder of growing flowers. Here you'll discover quite a few good indoor flowering plants to carry you through the colder months.

Florist shops and online flower delivery sites offer baskets bursting with tulips, daffodils and other flowering bulbs all winter long. Check them out. While you're at it, why not order flowers as gifts for your mom, a friend or neighbor, too?

Photo: Bill Davenport

Force Crocus into Bloom

Crocus is among the first flowering plants to pop through the snow in spring.

But why wait? You can indulge yourself with these enchanting flowers through the frigid months, too.

Start forcing crocus bulbs in fall and you'll enjoy them mid-winter. And why stop at a few? Force a few bulbs every couple weeks and you'll have a succession of bright, beautiful crocuses on your windowsill right through spring.

Christmas Cactus

You'll find Christmas cactus in flower shops before the holidays.

These Brazilian natives grow as epiphytes in the rain forest, anchoring themselves on tree branches. Although tropical by nature, Christmas cactus is surprisingly easy to please indoors.

Photo: Beverly Buckley

Fragrant Jasmine

Jasmine plant is one of the first to arrive in florist's shops in late winter or early spring. Treat yourself to a pot of these intoxicatingly fragrant flowers.

You can train its leafy vines to climb up a trellis and show off its delicate, star-shaped clusters of white blooms.

Clivia

Bright and beautiful Clivia miniata is in the same family as Amaryllis, and is just as easy to grow indoors.

These flowering hybrids produce big clusters of trumpet-shaped flowers in orange, pink, red, yellow or white. Naturally a summer-bloomer, Clivia bulbs can be forced for early bloom indoors in late winter.

Christmas Rose

Helleborus niger takes kindly to growing indoors -- that is if you can give it a cool spot with indirect sunlight. Native to alpine regions of Europe, these pristine white beauties are winter flowering plants and will last longer with cool temps.

Dubbed the Christmas Rose, it's easy to find potted plants in bloom around the holidays.

Cyclamen

Add a big splash of color to any room with a pot of flowering cyclamen. These florist favorites are sure to take the chill off winter -- just look at those vibrant, up-swept petals.

When buying a new plant, look for one that has plenty of unopened buds. That way, you'll enjoy watching them burst into bloom, and also keep them longer.

Image by Sabine Frisch

African Violets

African violets aren't the first to come to mind when thinking of winter flowering plants. But did you know...you can keep these petite plants in bloom nearly year-round? If you don't have a sunny window for them, use a grow light. 

New varieties offer us more colors than ever before; both single and double flowers, as well as ruffled. Light, water and feeding are the keys to keeping these beauties thriving. It takes just a little success with African violets to want more. Fortunately, they're among the easiest of houseplants to propagate.

Photo: J_0

Kalanchoe Plant

You'll find Kalanchoe in florist's shops mid-winter. Well, you'll see them for sale year-round. These beautiful bloomers are gaining in popularity as house plants.

This semi-succulent plant is easy to care for -- and you'll enjoy long-lasting blooms. Those tiny, brightly colored flowers are sure to add cheer and thoughts of springtime for several weeks.

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