Plants with December Flowers – A Gardening Guide

In the month with the least amount of daylight hours in the year December flowers will make your garden that little bit cheerier. Flowering shrubs are quite often the mainstay of a winter garden. White flowers are the order of the day, as if they instinctively know they need to brighten the long, dark days. The plants here are fully hardy to -15C (USDA zone 8) unless otherwise stated.

December Flowering Shrubs:

In autumn, this deciduous shrub’s leaves turn from bright green to yellow before falling. In winter Hamamelis mollis (Chinese witch hazel) has clusters of spidery, bright yellow, sweetly scented flowers that cling to bare twigs. Place it near an entrance or along a path to appreciate its heady fragrance. It grows to around 4m high x 4m wide.

Slender spikes of flowers begin to appear on Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ (mahonia) in November. In December and January they are at their most spectacular, before slowly fading in February. The holly-like, dark green leaves of this evergreen shrub can be appreciated all year round, and given space it will spread to up to 5 m high x 4 m wide. A shady spot in the garden will make its flower spikes seem luminous, although it will tolerate sun as long as the soil stays moist.

December Flowering Climber:

Clematis urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’ (clematis) is a fast-growing evergreen climbing plant with bronze-tinted leaves. The green flower buds become paler as they mature to small, nodding flowers with cream anthers. The flowers contrast beautifully with the deep green foliage, and it doesn’t need any pruning, making this a must-have for any time of year. It reaches a height and width of 5 x 2 m.

December Flowers:

The Hellebore family provide beautiful winter flowers from December right up until summer. Helleborus niger (Christmas Rose) flowers from December until April. Its pretty bowl-shaped upturned white flowers appear above evergreen foliage. It looks at its best planted in groups in a shady border or underneath deciduous shrubs. The flowers are sometimes tinged with pink and age to pale green. They reach a height of around 30cm and a spread of 45 cm.

Cyclamen hederifolium var. f. alboflorum (sowbread) flowers from November to January. The white flowers, appearing before the marbled leaves, look great in a mass planting scheme in a woodland setting. There are a few varieties which flower at slightly different times and other varieties are included in the articles Plants with November Flowers – A Gardening Guide and Plants with January Flowers – A Gardening Guide.

These December flowers growing in the darkest month of the year shows it is possible to have flowering plants in your garden all year round, if you know where to look and how to plan.