Texas Winter Gardening for Color

Winter landscapes do not need to be drab and colorless. Even during Texas’ winters, there are many flowers and shrubs that can add spots of color to the area around your home and patio. Except for the Gulf Coast region of Texas, which rarely freezes and can support tropical year-around colorful plants, the central and northern parts of the State must use freeze tolerant plants and offer them some protection to keep them alive in their winter landscape.

Plants to Add Color to Winter Landscapes

The most common flower colors in the Texas winter landscapes are provided by pansies. These multi-colored friends may appear delicate, but they can stand up to snow and ice and keep on growing. According to Texas A&M Horticulture, ‚”The pansy has one of the widest color ranges of any garden annual. Included in the wide color range are red, purple, blue, bronze, pink, black, yellow, white, lavender, orange, apricot and mahogany. The flowers may be of a single color or have two or three colors with a face.”

Pansies may be planted individually in the landscape as a border, at the base of trees and shrubs, or clustered in containers with greenery around the porch or patio. A close relative of the pansy, the viola, has smaller flowers and a more limited color selection. It is grown primarily in east and central Texas. The viola is a cold tolerant perennial with what appears to be a happy face of purple and yellow petals.

Another great winter plant for adding color is ornamental cabbage—not to be confused with edible cabbage—but a member of the same family. This unusual plant has a center rosette like a flower that is colored in purple, lavender, rose or white. It can become fairly large—measuring up to 15 inches in diameter. Clustered closely together, a collection of ornamental cabbage may appear to be a flowered garden.

Some other colorful choices for mild winters include geraniums, dianthus, cyclamen and primroses. These plants will need to have protective coverings when the temperatures fall below freezing, but they tolerate frost.

Shrubs and trees with red berries also add a color focus to the bleak winter landscape. Holly bushes, pyracanthas and nandinas have red or orange berries throughout the cold months.

How to Care for Winter Garden Plants

The more delicate winter flowering plants should be placed in containers so that they can be moved into shelter during cold snaps. In the Texas Panhandle, these plants are probably not going to survive winter. However a row cover or blanket for cold nights will protect them in east and central Texas.

Winter flowering and color-spot plants require some watering during the winter depending upon rain and snow fall. If the ground or soil around the plants is dry to one-half inch of soil, add water. Newly planted annual flowers, like the pansies, should be lightly fertilized at planting time. Surround all winter flowering plants with a layer of mulch to hold moisture in the soil and keep the roots from getting too cold.

Most winter flowering and color-spot plants are easy to care for and in the colder winter temperatures they are rarely bothered by insects or disease. Plant some color where it can be enjoyed from a window or a warmed patio. The colorful plants around will help erase the depressing feeling from gray skies and leafless trees.