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5 Best Winter Color Flowers for North Dallas
- , Plants
As the cold weather approaches, you may have noticed that while preparing your garden beds for winter, most flowering plants were nowhere to be found. Compared to the vibrant colors of spring, the winter season presents mostly evergreen shrubs and bare branches from tired trees. However, here are the 5 best winter color flowers for North Dallas, which bloom quite happily throughout the cold season.
Cyclamen
Only coming to life in cooler temperatures, the Cyclamen flower blooms a glorious white, pink, red, or purple flower all winter long. Often known as a perennial tuber plant, in North Dallas we consider Cyclamen an annual as it will not survive long if we experience long periods of freezing temperatures below 28 degrees. Given that, it’s a good idea to protect this plant from winter freezing temperatures in Texas. However, if we have one of our milder winters, it’s possible that your Cyclamen will go dormant in the spring only to remerge again in the fall. Growing between 8 and 14 inches tall, Cyclamen is a dense, clumping plant with a base of dark green foliage, and the blooms sit tall on top of tender stems, resembling a mass of butterflies. Make sure to plant Cyclamen in a shady spot alongside your other shade-tolerant perennial plants.
Dianthus
Commonly referred to as Pinks, the Dianthus flower is a great annual for winter color in North Dallas. Blooming white, pink, red, or purple between November and April, Dianthus is a fantastic choice for the front of any planting bed, as it only grows to between 8 and 12 inches in height and requires at least 6 hours of sunlight each day. Each individual Dianthus plant produces what appears to be a mound of soft greenish, gray stems and tons of delicate blooms. Dianthus is very cold-hardy and should have no problem surviving our winter season.
Pansy
One of the most popular choices for winter color flowers throughout North Dallas is the Pansy flower. Available in both standard and trailing varieties, the Pansy is available in limitless bloom colors or a combination of petal colors. Other than bloom color options, the Pansy is also popular because it is considered one of the longest blooming and cold-hardy of all the winter annual plants in North Texas. You can plant your Pansies in early October and will not need to replace them until towards the end of April the following year. Growing only 8-10 inches in height, pansies look best when planted en masse within a garden bed. Pansy flowers are edible to rabbits. To keep rabbits from eating plants like the Pansy, consider applying an organic rabbit deterrent regularly throughout the winter.
Snapdragon
Available in many bloom colors and varieties, growing up to three feet tall, the Snapdragon flower can command a unique spot in your garden this winter. The Snapdragon flower sits tall with an upright growing habit. Blooming all the way between November and April, make sure to give your Snapdragon a sunny place in the landscape. Each plant will produce one main stem along with a few additional side branches; each will display the unique bell-shaped blooms along the top 6–8 inches of the stem.
Viola
Considered a miniature version of the Pansy, the Viola flower is similar in many regards. Viola blooms from very early October through April, has a wide assortment of bloom colors to choose from, and is edible to rabbits. While the Viola can reach the same 8-10 inch height as the Pansy flower, the one significant difference is the size of the bloom itself. The Viola bloom is much smaller in size when compared to the Pansy. The small bloom size gives Viola a very delicate appearance.