10 Native Wildflowers to Beautify Your Winter Garden

To everything there is a season, as the song goes. That includes your garden, its plants, and its colors. While it may not stay lush and green during winter, it still can have all of its charm and appeal. Far from going on a total hibernation during the winter months, there is no reason why your garden can’t continue to be beautiful even as the earthy browns and icy whites set in. One way to dress your yard in the colors of winter is to foster some of these ten native wildflowers. While summer is the flowering season, winter is the time of the seedpod. They come in all shapes and sizes as well as in varying earth tones, and each one has its own particular beautiful quality.

Blue Wild Indigo

The tough purple-to-black seed pods that proliferate on these 4 ft tall plants in winter, and rattle as the wind blows through them, add both dark winter beauty and cool ambiance to your garden in the cold months.

Anise Hyssop

In contrast to its bright violet summer flowers, this plant sprouts brown bottlebrush-like seed pods in winter.

Ironweed

Brown and sparse in winter, these hardy plants grow to between 5 and 7 feet in height. They create quite an atmosphere when juxtaposed against a steely winter sky.

American Senna

As the seasons change, the bright yellow flowers of this plant give way to long, black, fuzzy seed heads that add great character to any garden.

Joe Pye Weed

This is not so much about the flowers or seed heads, but rather the brown, dried, curled-up leaves that stay on long after they’ve lost their life and color. The plants are robust and picturesque in a unique sort of way. And, they also offer great bird perches.

Muskingum Sedge

Also called palm sedge, this bushy plant grows to two feet in height. Its winter form is a beautiful combination of browns, reds, and even a touch of green at the beginning of the season.

Stiff Goldenrod

These narrow plants can go anywhere in your garden, and they yield fleshy pink flowers that offset the usual greens and browns.

Tall Tickseed

These 6 to 7-foot high perennials get long and spindly in winter, bearing tiny black seed heads and creating an all-round cooler atmosphere.

Yarrow

With its fuzzy, yellowish-brown flowers, yarrow holds its form, which is small and compact throughout the winter.

Culver’s Root

Much like anise hyssop, Culver’s root sports brown bottle brushes of seed heads in winter, but these ones are more reddish in hue, as well as being smaller and more upright.

The key to making the most of your winter garden is embracing the season’s sparseness and dryness. The time for bright blooms will come a few months down the line. In the meantime, celebrate the charms of winter with these indigenous wildflowers.

Fox Hollow Landscaping and Design can help you to cultivate the perfect garden regardless of the season. Contact us for unparalleled landscaping, hardscaping, and winter servicing throughout northern New Jersey.