best winter plants

can anyone give me some ideas on what i can grow over the winter, i am a container grower and my poor pots look a bit Lame as the summer plants are starting to die down.....

 

BBC - Gardening - Gardening Guides - Techniques - Ideas for colourful winter pots

Good page on the BBC site about containers which you might find useful.

 

Hi, a lot of garden centres and nurseries will soon start stocking young evergreen shrubs in 3.5" pots ideal for winter pots, things like Skimmia, Gaultheria, Heathers, Viburnum Tinus, Osmanthus, Sarcococca can be planted with Ivy and a few winter Pansies and some Crocus and dwarf Daff bulbs for late winter, early spring :thumb:

 

Heucheras, especially the ones with the purple or bronze foliage, also look good through the winter. Hellebores flower very early (helleborus niger is the Christmsd rose), and I should imagine are OK in containers, though mine have always been in the open ground.

 

I posted this on another recent thread:

for a shady bed, here are a few with good foilage that flower in november:
Terra Nova Nurseries - Home Gardeners - Bloom Time - November

some heuchera always look good:
Terra Nova Nurseries - Home Gardeners - Heuchera

add a few evergreen ferns

for january:
hahamelus , christmas box, aconite, Daffodil Paper White Ziva

for february:
hahamelus , christmas box, daphne mezereum, hellebores, aconite, Pansy Frizzle Sizzle, Primrose Fruelo Mixed, snowdrops, Daffodil Paper White Ziva,

there are loads for march

just double check the info on google, as it is what I have on my database that I created myself, and have not double checked

 

my local garden centre had nice looking lavenders and have popped one of those in my winter pot, I thought the silver grey foliage looked nice with some purple pansies, and some ivy.