Winter-Friendly Plants for Your Outdoor Space

December 6, 2020

With winter’s chilly temperatures, it’s hard to keep a lot of plants outdoors. The result is that it’s harder to maintain the curb appeal of your Colorado Springs CO homes. Fortunately, there are a number of winter-friendly plants that are great for outdoor spaces, both in your yard and on front and back porches.

The Colorado Blue Spruce is an iconic winter tree for a reason. While you may be more used to seeing it indoors and covered in lights and decorations, smaller potted versions are great outdoor porch and patio accents. These evergreens do need full light and a lot of watering, but they offer great height and a lovely fragrance. When potted, they do need a drainage hole and one tip is to place a sponge over the drainage hole; this provides more moisture for longer, giving you a healthy, happy little blue spruce.

Another sunlight lover is the Boxwood Hedge. You can plant it or pot it, just make sure it gets plenty of light. This is a popular choice because of its topiary qualities. You can trim it to create the shape you want, though unless you’re a topiary artist, you’ll probably want to stick to squared and rounded shapes. Still, if you’ve got the skill, get creative!

An excellent winter choice is the Japanese Yew. It can be used for ground cover if you want something different than just regular grass. However, it can also be used as a potted plant, perfect for adding some greenery to porches and patios. It can withstand harsh winters, is drought tolerant, and generally does well in both partial and full sun.

An option that only requires sun in the morning, is the Cyprus Topiary. In fact, it does best with morning sun and afternoon shade. It does require some watering, but it’s best to water in the morning when the sun can burn off any excess. Too much water can cause the cyprus to rot. However, managed properly, it looks great in tall planters.

Somewhat similar to the spruce in its resemblance to a Christmas tree, the Brown’s Yew isn’t as thick and tree-like, developing a more globe-like appearance. It’s also a slow grower, so when potted, it can last in place for years without becoming too large. Give it full or partial sun and water it twice a week and it will add some lovely greenery to your porch or patio with little fuss.

Finally, Winter Gem Boxwood is a lovely topiary plant, but also works great as a small potted plant. For a ground topiary, they’re typically planted in groupings because of their smaller size. This is why they’re great for smaller planters, such as one you’d put on an outdoor table. During the winter, they take on a golden green hue, while in the summer, they’re a brighter green. Plus, they do well with partial and full sun for fairly easy care.

These are just a few ways to add some year-round greenery to your Colorado Springs CO homes. Even in the heart of winter, this touch of green, whether as a hedge or potted plant, will add some life to your home and help you get through the darker days of winter with a cheerful splash of color.

Categorized in: Design Tips, Winter-Friendly Plants for Your Outdoor Space

This post was written by Creekstone Homes