Blossoms featuring a white hue
In the heart of every garden, white-flowered plants bring a touch of elegance and freshness. From snowdrops heralding the arrival of spring to hydrangeas blooming in autumn, these plants light up the landscape with their crisp, clean blooms. Here's a seasonal breakdown of the best white-flowered plants to brighten your garden.
Winter
Snowdrops (Galanthus) and winter-flowering Cyclamen are excellent choices for early blooms even under cold conditions. Snowdrops, renowned early bloomers with charming white flowers, often spread naturally. For those seeking evergreen foliage and fragrant pinkish-white flowers, Viburnum tinus is an evergreen shrub that thrives in winter.
Spring
Sweet alyssum and white varieties of cosmos provide masses of white flowers in spring. These plants also bloom into fall, releasing a sweet fragrance and thriving best in full sun to part shade. Early spring bulbs like Cyclamen with white flowers shine in this season.
Summer
White wisteria, white spider flower, and white lupine are well-suited for summer full sun planting and produce striking white blooms. The white spider flower, in particular, attracts butterflies and hummingbirds and enjoys moist, well-drained soil.
Autumn
For autumn, white hydrangeas such as Fairytrail Bride Hydrangea bloom well into fall, while some sedum cultivars offer pale white-greenish buds that last from late summer into autumn.
In shaded areas, Astilbe and Bear’s-breeches flourish, adding white elegance even in low light throughout the growing season.
All Year Round
Creating a white-themed flower border is inspired by the world-renowned white garden at Sissinghurst in Kent. Many white-flowered plants are richly scented, attracting nocturnal pollinators such as moths. For example, Ammi has beautiful white umbels of flowers that are much loved by pollinators and are excellent for cutting.
Sarcococca (sweet box) will provide year-round color, with the bonus of small but deliciously fragranced flowers from December to March. Tulips come in pretty much every color imaginable, including clean, crisp whites in a range of flower shapes.
Special Mentions
Clematis take up very little room on the ground, are perfect for covering a fence, wall, or trellis, and bear fragrant, cream or white flowers, often freckled, in winter. Roses have many beautiful white or creamy white varieties to choose from. Lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis, bears arching stems of bell-shaped, white flowers with a wonderful perfume.
Daphnes are an ideal shrub for smaller gardens - they're evergreen and have delightfully scented flowers in the depths of winter. Helleborus niger flowers throughout winter and into spring. Crocuses follow hot on the heels of snowdrops in late winter, bringing much-needed color and winter nectar.
Camellia sasanqua flowers in November and December when there are very few flowers elsewhere in the garden. Its foliage is evergreen, giving year-round interest. Solomon's seal (Polygonatum) has white, pendulous flowers hanging from arching stems. Gaura is beautiful and useful in equal measure, perfect for filling gaps in sunny beds, borders and containers and giving any planting scheme an airy feel.
Rhododendrons and azaleas also come in a dazzling array of jewel-bright colors, but cool whites are also available. Echinacea 'White Swan' has drooping petals and has a striking orange-green centre. Phlox are stalwarts of herbaceous borders and cottage gardens - long flowering, fragrant and easy to grow in a sunny spot. Largely pest-free and disease-resistant, they last for years in the garden.
Jasmines are much loved for their white, fragranced flowers. Grow in a sunny spot, preferably somewhere where you can enjoy their scent. The most reliable jasmines in the UK climate are the evergreen star jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides and the common jasmine, Jasminum officinale.
Cosmos are half-hardy annuals that flower their socks off from midsummer to the first frosts. 'Purity' is a pure, crisp white. You may find plants at the garden centre, but they are very easy to grow from seed. Keep deadheading them as the blooms fade to prolong flowering.
Some of the plants listed will be available at garden centers but you will find a wider choice at online retailers. Daffodils (Narcissus) spring in late winter and often carry on until late spring.
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