Perennial favorites
Winter is a time for rest and reflection and thinking about what we love. As I look back on the year, I remember my favorite flowers, and the months when they took center stage
January | Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis). These most reliably reblooming orchids can make any room look swank. Though available in colors, the white ones have the most and largest flowers – which really do look like hovering moths. They like east- or west-facing windows, a nearby humidifier, and warmth.
February | Snowdrops (Galanthus). Even earlier than crocus, these are the very first flowers to bloom in the garden, a down payment on spring. Their tiny white and green pendants look like teardrops.
Plant them in September by the dozens, 3 inches deep and 3 inches apart in partial shade, and look for them when there's still snow on the ground.
March | Lenten rose (Helleborus hybridus). These long-blooming members of the buttercup family have 2-inch flowers in many bewitching, somewhat Gothic color combinations of maroon, mauve, white, and green. They thrive without attention in partial shade. Long-lived plants, they can take several years to reach blooming size. Float the cup-like flowers in a bowl of water.
April | Daffodils (Narcissus). They are the best spring bulb – cheerful, easy, and varmint-proof. Thousands of cultivars in combinations of yellow, orange, white, and apricot are available through mail-order catalogs for fall planting 5 inches deep and 8 inches apart in sun. Ice Follies and yellow Carlton are tough varieties that multiply with determination.
June | Roses (Rosa). They have it all: fragrance, variety, and length of bloom. But they can be a lot of work, so I prefer the newer low-maintenance “landscape roses” such as pink Bonica and Carefree Beauty and the climbers Dortmund and William Baffin, all very disease resistant and winter hardy. But there are thousands of others worth cosseting.
July | Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). These choice milkweeds produce glowing, translucent orange buds that open into bright flowers irresistible to butterflies. In the fall they produce a different kind of show with silvery pods that release their seeds on silken parachutes. Native to Cape Cod meadows, they like full sun and loose, acidic, preferably sandy soil. Mark their locations as they are slow to rouse themselves in the spring. With their drought-resistant taproots, mature plants are difficult to move, and young plants take a couple of years to flower.
August | Zinnias (Zinnia). These sun-worshiping, easy annuals bloom in terracotta shades that spell summer.
I like the large, flamboyant strains such as State Fair, which I cut frequently for long-lasting bouquets. This only encourages these hard working plants to produce more flowers.
September | Dahlias (Dahlia). No flower offers more variety in size, shape, and color. Dwarf bedding types bloom earliest, but I prefer taller varieties with decorative maroon foliage such as Bishop of Landaff. You can treat these tropicals as annuals or dig up their tubers (roots) to store over the winter.
October | Autumn monkshood (Aconitum carmichaelii). Their stately towers of rich blue flowers resemble late-blooming delphiniums. But these plants are much easier, longer lived, and more shade tolerant, asking only rich soil. Their glossy foliage looks awesome from April through October. Thinning crowded stands is easy as the 4-foot stalks pull out with the bulbous roots attached. Yes, they are poisonous. So just don't eat them.
November | Sedum (Sedum). These diverse, well-behaved plants require almost nothing but sunlight to thrive.
The hybrid Autumn Joy looks like neat green heads of broccoli in summer. In fall it produces pink star-like flowers that attract butterflies. In winter the flat seed heads turn coppery red on their 2-foot stalks, providing perfect landing platforms for the fluffy flakes the Japanese call “snow flowers.”
December | Amaryllis (Hippaestrum). These bulbs are drama queens that produce foot-long stalks, which then miraculously open into three to six gigantic (and very feminine-looking) flowers in flaming red, hot pink, or frosted white. Fertilize them every two weeks until September, and then give them three months of unwatered dormancy to get them to repeat their act.
