Winter can be a hard time for gardeners—the last blooms of the year begin to die back, bulbs are moved indoors to overwinter, and many trees lose their lush foliage. Even if you live in an area where winters are warmer, the shorter days and fewer hours of sunlight likely leave you with less time to tend to your garden. But you can still enjoy the colors of a spring and summer garden by adding a few winter-blooming houseplants to your collection. These colorful plants, like bird of paradise and moth orchid, produce blooms in winter when cared for properly, giving you something to admire while you wait for warmer weather to return.
Holiday Cactus
There are three types of holiday cactus (Schlumbergera spp.)—Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. “Unlike a lot of desert cacti, holiday cacti are epiphytes, meaning that instead of growing on the ground, they grow on tree limbs,” says Justin Hancock, horticulturist for Costa Farms. “They have green, flattened stems, often with toothed margins and lovely flowers in shades of yellow, peach, orange, red, pink, purple, or white.” The flowers usually appear during the coolest months of the year and last four to six weeks.
Anthurium
Anthuriums (Anthurium scherzerianum) are cheery, exotic flowering houseplants with glossy, green heart-shaped leaves topped by heart-shaped pink, red, or white long-lasting blooms. “Happily, anthuriums bloom almost all year long if they get enough light, fertilizer, and moisture,” says Hancock. “And if conditions are warm and humid enough, the blooms can last for months.”
Bromeliads
An exotic plant that adds beauty to your home during winter, bromeliads (Bromeliads) have strappy leaves that are topped by colorful clusters of flowers in shades of red, orange, yellow, pink, purple, or white. “An individual bromeliad plant will only bloom once, but it will produce offshoots that will grow and bloom as they mature,” says Hancock. “After the main flower on your bromeliad begins to fade, the mother plant will begin to decline. But you’ll see baby bromeliads developing around the base.”
Oxalis
Oxalis (Oxalis spp.), also known as shamrock, has clover-shaped leaves that fold up at night or in low light. The plant will bloom for several months during winter and can be forced into dormancy to manage bloom time. “In late summer slow watering and stop fertilizing and allow it to go dormant. Keep it in a cool, dark place,” says Melinda Myers, gardening expert and host of the Great Courses How to Grow Anything DVD series. “Begin watering when new growth appears.”
Clivia
Clivia (Clivia miniata) is a rewarding plant that can be challenging to get to bloom, but when it does, it produces fans of strap-like green leaves with umbel-shaped clusters of yellow, orange, and red flowers in winter. The individual flowers only last several days, but the plant blooms for several weeks, says Meyers.
