Planting a winter hanging basket can be a great way to enhance your garden or outdoor space during the chilly months. A cheerful basket packed full of bright winter annuals and evergreens adds a splash of colour in what can be a pretty bleak time of year in the garden. It’s also a good opportunity to explore and find new varieties of winter-hardy plants that can thrive in colder temperatures. Make sure you choose winter plants that flourish in winter and are resilient to frost.
Winter hanging basket plants
Winter Pansies and Violas
Known for their tolerance to colder conditions these cheery bright flowers can bloom throughout the winter in milder climates. These flowering plants come in a variety of colours, adding a little bit of joy to your winter display.
Ornamental Cabbage and Kale
With their attractive, textured leaves these plants come in shades of green, purple, pink, and white. They are cold-resistant and can provide a unique, decorative element.
Heather
Winter flowering heathers add colour and texture to your basket, heathers can be bought in various shades, including pink, purple, and white.
Wintergreen
These glossy evergreens produce small berries that can add winter interest to floral displays. They are also frost-resistant.
Ivy – a great trailing winter plant
Excellent trailing plants for winter baskets, this evergreen adds a touch of foliage and interest and are great to add more depth to your hanging basket.
Cyclamen
This produces unique, butterfly-shaped flowers in shades of pink, red, or white. They thrive in cool temperatures and bloom throughout the winter.
Evergreen Ferns
Certain varieties like Christmas fern add a nice feathery texture to your winter basket.
Winter Jasmine
This cold-hardy shrub produces bright yellow flowers during the winter months, spilling over the edges of a basket for some lovely structure.
Juniper
Dwarf varieties provide evergreen foliage in a compact form, making them great for winter baskets. They come in various shapes and shades of green and blue.
Hellebores
More likely found on the ground, due to their self-seeding tendencies, these beautiful plants, also known as Lenten roses, produce elegant, nodding flowers in late winter and early spring. They’re happy in the shade and add a sophisticated touch to any arrangement.
Acorus
A grass-like plant with colourful foliage, these tall plants add texture and interest to a winter basket.
Winter hanging baskets for wildlife
Winter hanging basket plants can also attract and provide food for birds, with berries or evergreen foliage acting as a great reason for winter wildlife to visit your garden. Hopefully, you’ll get a lovely Robin visiting you and your winter basket!
When should I plant my winter basket?
It’s best to plant your winter basket around October time so it can start to flower for the colder months. However, seeing as the autumns are getting milder, you could probably get away with planting it a bit later.
How to care for your winter hanging basket
Winter hanging baskets are pretty easy to take care of. To keep your flowers looking their best, it’s a good idea to deadhead any that have faded. You don’t need to overwater the basket either, as there will probably be some rain over the winter, but container plants need good drainage, so make sure there are enough drainage holes so your basket doesn’t get waterlogged.
You can also turn your basket occasionally so every plant and flower gets enough sun.
Winter hanging basket ideas
With a mix of the above plants, you are already well on your way to making beautiful hanging baskets. There are some simple tricks you can do to give your baskets an extra bit of flare.
- Add lights: As it’s winter, get your hands on a set of battery-operated fairy lights, these would be great to give your basket some life at night.
- Recycle: Think outside the box and use materials to create your basket. These could be old pots or even wooden crates. If you have old terracotta pots, these would be great to give your winter basket a Mediterranean feel.
- Add a bird feeder: As mentioned, your basket might have some plants that attract wildlife already, but maybe you could hang a lovely bird feeder underneath to get even more visitors to your garden.
Earth Cycle products
To stock up on compost for your winter planting check out our peat-free organic compost range which can be ordered online and shipped directly to your door. We also have handy accessories and tools to help you with your planting.
