Top ten plants for January gardens 2024

• Flowers from January to March
• Hardy
• Grows to 20cm tall and 10cm wide
• Moist, well-drained, moderately fertile soil
• Full sun part shade
• Exposed

These versatile hardy perennial plants are a great choice to brighten the garden in winter as they flower for weeks. And, choosing the hybrid mix, means you’ll have a range of colour flowers in shades pink, white, red and purple. They look wonderful planted en masse in the garden.

• Flowers from December to March
• Hardy
• Grows to 40cm tall and 40cm wide
• Rich, moist, well-drained soil
• Sun, part of dappled shade
• Sheltered

This medium-sized tree is a delight with its naturally peeling cinnamon-coloured bark, which remains delightfully hanging off the trunk. It also has a stunning, fiery red autumn leaf colour. They also are remarkably tolerant to growing in many soil types making it an excellent choice for the winter garden.

• Flowers none or insignificant
• Hardy
• Grows to 500cm tall and 300cm wide
• Well-drained soil
• Full sun or part shade
• Exposed

This is a hardy shrub; not at all showy but the scent coming from flowers during the winter is utterly wonderful.  The outer petals on the flowers are a soft yellow with a deep purple centre. You can cut the flowering stems to bring into the house.  Place at the back of a border and grow a medium-sized clematis through it for interest at other times of the year.

• Flowers from December to March
• Hardy
• Grows to 300cm tall and 200cm wide
• Will grow well in most types of soil as long as well-drained
• Full sun or part shade
• Sheltered

Iris reticulata provides a welcome splash of colour in late winter and early spring. Relatively low growing, they make the best impression when planted in pots, window boxes, fronts of borders or in rockeries.  ‘Pauline’ has striking, mauve, purple petals with darker burgundy purple ‘falls.’ Each with icing-sugar white markings which act as guides for pollinating insects to find the plant’s nectar and pollen.

• Flowers from January to February
• Fully hardy
• Grows to 15cm tall and 10cm wide
• Well-drained, acidic soil or ericaceous compost
• Full sun or dappled shade
• Exposed

This slow growing, evergreen shrub pumps out a delicious lily type fragrance during the winter months. The scent comes from its delicate looking, small, creamy, white flowers, whose clusters of red, pink stamens are on show at the base of each flower. It prefers to grow in full or part shade and tends to form a neat dome shape. This makes it ideal for planting near the front of a border or pathway in January gardens.

• Flowers from December to March
• Hardy
• Grows to 150cm tall and 250cm wide
• Moist, well-drained, moderately fertile soil
• Light to deep shade
• Exposed

This is another easy-to-grow and care-for shrub and, as such, an ideal choice for the inexperienced gardener. An added bonus is that it’s evergreen and will happily grow in both sun and shade. It is often chosen to plant against north- or east-facing walls. Come the New Year its branches become laden with long, dangling catkins. These are sure to be a talking point amongst your visitors and neighbours.

• Flowers from January to February
• Hardy
• Grows to 400cm tall and 400cm wide
• Well-drained, reasonably rich soil
• Sun or part shade
• Sheltered

This rare, unusual, borderline hardy clematis is certain to impress your visitors with its clusters of scented flowers that appear over winter.  The flowers are bell-shaped and greeny-yellow with exposed, attractive, red-purple stamens at the base of each flower. These are followed by fluffy seed heads which can last for several months. It becomes dormant and loses its leaves during the summer months, so is best planted against a robust, summer flowering shrub and pruned immediately after flowering.

• Flowers from December to March
• Hardy
• Grows to 300cm tall and 150cm wide
• Moist, well-drained, moderately fertile soil
• Light to deep shade
• Exposed

Fun Facts

• As the name suggests, this flower originates from Nepal, and some parts of China.
• The blooms that are produced in winter release a lovely delicate fragrance for you to enjoy.
• This plant is quite unique in that it loses all of its foliage in the late spring and early summer, when most plants are appearing luscious and thriving.

An upright, easy-to-grow and care-for shrub, that comes into its own during the winter months. Its bare stems become covered in clusters of deep pink, scented flowers. For this reason, is best planted close to the edge of a path or entrance. Be careful, it can grow to heights of up to 3m.

• Flowers from November to March
• Hardy
• Grows to 300cm tall and 200cm wide
• Moderately fertile, moist, well-drained soil
• Full sun or light shade
• Exposed

Witch hazels are delightful this time of the year, producing beautifully scented, coloured flowers during the coldest of winter months. ‘Diane’ has coppery-red flowers with a hint of purple.  Flowering stems can be brought into the house to perfume rooms. As a bonus, the leaves turn spectacular shades of orange, yellow and red during the autumn.

• Flowers from January to February
• Hardy
• Grows to 400cm tall and 400cm wide
• Mos soil types
• Full sun to part shade
• Exposed