Winter-Flowering Shrubs Complement a Pond

A bush or shrub at the side of a pond can soften the edges of a water feature. It also adds color to break up the greys and blacks of the pond landscape. In the winter and early spring, a splash of color from flowers or berries adds a welcome variation to a snowy, icy winter pond.

Why Choose Winter-Flowering Shrubs for the Pond?

People choose flowering shrubs for many reasons. They create habitat and hiding places for birds, and they create groundcover for insects and frogs. Bird habitat is especially important in the winter, when trees have lost their leaves and a dense, shrubby thicket is an essential hiding and roosting place. In the summer, these flowering shrubs provide shade to avoid algae growth in the pond. In the winter, they provide three-dimensional structure and contrast to the icy pond. Winter-flowering also give the promise of spring to the garden, an essential reminder to the pond gardener that warmer times are ahead.

Winter-Flowering Shrubs Suitable For Pond Side Use

The ideal winter shrub is one that has beautiful flowers, berries and leaves and reflects well in the pond. Choose shrubs that are evergreen to add green in the winter time. In deciduous shrubs, large leaves are preferable in some ways to small leaves, since they are easier to scoop out of the pond in the fall. Smaller leaves tend to get picked up by the filter rather than by pond netting.

Shrubs That Flower Early In the Spring Time

What shrubs have early spring flowers?

• Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica has creamy-white, bell-shaped flowers.
• Jasmine nudiflorumhas star-shaped yellow flowers that look lovely against an arbor. They love light, so they prefer a southern exposure.
• Witch Hazel (Hamamelis mollis) has bright yellow blooms, a bright shot of spring light.
• Winter-Flowering Viburnum (Viburnum x Bodnantense ‘Dawn’) also blooms in the early spring, and its light pink flowers are a subtle complement to the fading snow.
• Winterhazel (Corylopsis spicata) has lovely, bell-shaped flowers that arrive in early spring.
• Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) is a climber, and it’s suitable for growing on a pond-side tree or arbor. The winter honeysuckle has tiny but very sweet-smelling white blooms.

Add a splash of spring to the yard by choosing a brightly-colored or sweet-scented flowering shrub or vine to grow beside the pond. At the time when gardeners are pining for spring, these shrubs deliver lovely flowers, and they’re an asset to any pond or water garden.