Best winter bedding plants to add a splash of colour to your garden

With winter just a few weeks away, there's no need to settle for a dreary garden as several bright and beautiful blooms actually thrive in colder weather, like the pansy, cyclamen and Christmas rose

Experts have shared their favourite plants for adding a splash of colour to your garden through the winter months.

Winter bedding plants are a staple tool in every gardener's toolbelt thanks to the effortless way they can brighten up an outdoor space when most other flowers have perished in colder conditions. And they are not just a replacement for their more outlandish springtime counterparts. With autumn being the best time to plant winter bedding perennials, it's worth checking the opinions of experts to see which will suit you best before allocating them a place in your garden. As there is still a little warmth in the air, planting them in autumn will help them to grow stronger roots, and in time develop more plentiful flower buds. This will result in a better display come winter.

Winter pansies and viola

The hardiest of the plants, like pansies and viola, have been specially cultivated to bloom when temperatures are at their lowest. To brighten up your outdoor space with a carpet of blue, try Crocus' "Frizzle Sizzle Blue" pansies from October to May. The plant will need to have good sun/light shade and they will need to be deadheaded to prolong flowering. Sarah Raven's "Teardrops Apricot Purple Wing" violas are said to be great for edible flowers, with Thompson & Morgan offering a vibrant orange pansy bloom that flowers from November to May, according to womanandhome.

Cyclamen

Cyclamen is known as a classic for brightening up flower beds, or adding a splash of colour to a dreary patio. Christopher O'Donoghue, co-director at Gardens Revived, explained: "Their petals are sweet, fragrant, and shaped just like little hearts." With a little extra care and attention, these hardy plants can flower through autumn into spring. "Just be sure to pop them in a sheltered spot with freely draining soil, and don't forget to mulch!" Crocus' cyclamen offering will give you the opportunity to test out three different varieties of the plant at once. Thompson & Morgan's Cyclamen coum is hailed for its fantastic ground cover.

Christmas rose

The Christmas Rose is the first of the hellebores - a group of 20 evergreen perennial flowering plants - to bloom each year. The flower is stunning, and offers gardeners a unique white, sometimes pink, shade for their beds. They can flower as early as December if planted in well-drained soil with well-rotted organic matter to feast on.

What makes it even better is that it's a perennial with year-round interest, meaning it'll keep coming back year after year. Christopher advised gardeners to pop them in a sheltered spot, and said they can even be used as Christmas decor after blooming. Again, Crocus has a fantastic option with its Helleborus niger, which is available in 9cm pots or 2 litre tubs. "Snowdrift" from Sarah Raven is another solid choice and bestseller.

Winter-flowering heathers

Heathers, which carpet huge swathes of northern England, are another of the best winter bedding plants which will come back year after year. "You can either plant them in drifts or pot them up for some much-needed winter colour," adds Christopher. The Winter Heather Erica Darleyensis Collection from Amazon has plenty of colour and variety on offer, while Sarah Raven offers White Heather in a Rustic Terracotta Pot, which is known to be a low-maintenance houseplant.

Bellis perennis

The bellis perennis is a cousin of the common daisy, and offer a beautiful blast of colour for the dreary days ahead. "These winter bedding plants boast a mass of bright pompom flowers, making them ideal for adding some much needed colour to an outdoor space over the bleak midwinter," says Christopher. A long-flowering mixture of daisies can be purchased in the Bellis Bellissima Series from Crocus. Thompson & Morgan has its Bellis "Bellisima Mixed" as ready-grown plants. It'll give you so many blooms you won't be able to see the soil.