Sweet Violets And Alpine Heath – These 17 Plants Are Perfect For Winter Hanging Baskets

When the landscape is all grey and the plants are all gone except for the evergreens, surely it is not possible to partake in the pleasure of cheerful flowers trailing from a hanging basket?

Colourful summer hanging baskets are a dime a dozen, but plants that will light up a hanging basket during winter are few and far between.

Nonetheless, here is a tidy little assortment for you to choose a couple from.

We have hardy perennials to hang out the front and tender evergreens to display in the living room.

All entries have winter interest, be it through their foliage, flowers or berries, and all are suitable for hanging baskets or larger hanging containers.

We’re sure these winter hanging baskets will add to the good cheer during the festive season and, perhaps more importantly, continue the good cheer into the dark January days.

1) Sweet Violet

• BOTANICAL NAME: Viola odorata
• HARDINESS RATING: H6
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: blue, white or purple
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): winter / spring
• SUITED FOR: Outdoors

What’s a hang-and-forget evergreen perennial growing to only 10cm wide and 40cm in height which puts on a delightful floral show in winter?

Winter-flowering violets offer a delightful option and the mother species’ royal purple flowers are even sweetly scented.

‘Königin Charlotte’ and ‘D’Udine’ form mounds of shiny leaves and their blooms are also fragrant, with the former cultivar’s being a deep purple and the latter’s a mauve.

The flowers of ‘Universal Plus’ are unscented, but they make up for it by flowering through most of the winter and spring, coming in a crayon box of colours.

Gardening expert Dan Ori shares, that although perennial, they are normally treated like annuals (used for 6 months) as leaves can become spotty and stems leggy.:

“Violas will have varieties marketed for summer and winter, there is no botanical difference between them, you will normally find the Violas marketed in summer have lighter more pastel shades.”

2) Alpine Heath

• BOTANICAL NAME: Erica carnea
• HARDINESS RATING: H6
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: pink, purple or white
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): winter / spring
• SUITED FOR: OUTDOORS

Among the British-native heathers, a few bear colourful winter flowers and have a trailing mat-forming habit, allowing them to be housed in hanging containers.

As they are hardy evergreens, they bring a touch of those rugged but romantic moors and heaths to your front porch all year round.

‘Queen of Spain’ is only 15cm wide and 30cm tall and bears small urn-shaped flowers of a rich pink hue in sprays, with the blooms spanning throughout winter and spring.

‘Rubra’ has the same dimensions and type of flowers with a change in hue, this being deep pink to red.

‘Aurea’ produces long-lasting tiny dark bells from January into May and also flaunts foliage colours during this time.

3) Common Ivy

• BOTANICAL NAME: Hedera helix
• HARDINESS RATING: H5
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: green or yellow
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): autumn
• SUITED FOR: Outdoors / Indoors

Perhaps you wouldn’t think that that massive climber that effortlessly goes up tall buildings is a hanging basket plant?

Well, it very much is – it just depends on the cultivar.

Three that are fantastic for year-round trouble-free charm even when grown in shade are ‘White Knight’, ‘Wonder’ and ‘Dyinnii’.

AGM-winner ‘White Knight’ is a trailing type with deeply-lobed white and green leaves.

‘Wonder’ is a trailing-climbing type that grows to 1-2m tall and has airy foliage, consisting of rounded leaves.

‘Dyinnii’, a bushy-trailing type, rises to only 20cm and its leaves are so deeply lobed that they appear star-shaped. 

4) Christmas Cactus

• BOTANICAL NAME: Schlumbergera × buckleyi
• HARDINESS RATING: H1B
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: red or pink
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

A very tender evergreen, the aptly-named Christmas Cactus is a great flowering favourite during the winter months.

An AGM-winner, Christmas Cactus has shiny green stems composed of flattish segments with wavy borders.

These cascade beautifully from a basket.

During winter, the stem tips produce a shower of blooms about 7.5cm long, which have a flower-in-flower effect.

The flowers’ colours range from bright pink to deep red.

5) African Violet

• BOTANICAL NAME: Streptocarpus ionanthus
• HARDINESS RATING: H1A
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: purple or blue
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): spring / summer / autumn / winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

Not to be confused with European Violet, African Violet is a fully tender plant and is nothing like its European counterpart.

However, it is a fantastic hanging basket play for winter, as well as spring, summer and autumn!

Growing to only 10cm tall, it has large, semi-rounded, greyish-green evergreen leaves.

These leaves look like trays for charming, dainty, cup-shaped flowers that are borne in tight clusters.

They occur in bright tones of pink, purple and blue with a small yellow eye.

About 2.5cm wide, these flowers are very long-lasting and you can even enjoy them all year round.

6) Poinsettia

• BOTANICAL NAME: Euphorbia pulcherrima
• HARDINESS RATING: H1B
• FOLIAGE: semi-evergreen
• FLOWERS: red or yellow
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

Poinsettia is perfect for a hanging container in the UK.

It will provide year-round foliage in a warm spot indoors, bursting into colour in winter.

Though it has small bright yellow flowers, these occur in the middle of big, leaf-like bracts and it is these bracts that are the star attraction.

They are plentiful and of a vermilion-to-red hue.

As a result, the plant turns into a spreading, tumbling mass of warm, flaming colour during the height of winter.

7) Long-Stemmed Basket Plant

• BOTANICAL NAME: Aeschynanthus longicaulis
• HARDINESS RATING: H1A
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: orange or red
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

Long-Stemmed Basket Plant’s hardiness rating is H1A, yet it has received the RHS’s AGM so this tropical plant must have some merit when growing in the UK.

It is an evergreen with a trailing habit that has pendulous stems that grow up to 1m.

The evergreen lanceolate leaves have a stripy surface in green and yellow.

In late summer, it starts producing clusters of flowers which last into winter.

These 5cm blooms are tubular and usually a bright orange, but the patterned foliage competes with them for attention.

8) Creeping Cotoneaster ‘Queen Of Carpets’

• BOTANICAL NAME: Cotoneaster procumbens ‘Queen of Carpets’
• HARDINESS RATING: H6
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: white
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): summer
• SUITED FOR: Outdoors

A hardy evergreen that can be kept indoors or outdoors, ‘Queen of Carpets’ forms an evergreen mat of glossy silvery-green leaves that trail along red stems.

At only 30cm with a spread of up to 1.5m, it is perfectly sized for a hanging basket.

This RHS AGM winner is a real low-care option.

It bears tiny white flowers from summer into early autumn and then is followed by colourful winter interest, where the blooms turn into red berries that add ornamental value from mid-autumn through to winter.

9) Rock Daisy

• BOTANICAL NAME: Brachyscome multifida
• HARDINESS RATING: H3
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: purple, pink or white
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): summer / autumn / winter
• SUITED FOR: Outdoors (in the right conditions)

Only about 40cm with a spreading habit, the very versatile Brachyscome multifida is as suitable for hanging baskets as for garden bedding.

This half-hardy evergreen has dense emerald-green foliage that is deeply cut and almost needle-like.

It produces small flowers in profusion starting from late summer.

These continue through late autumn and, in favourable positions, into winter.

The 2-2.5cm wide flowers are disk-shaped and daisy-like, range in colour from pink to purple and sport a yellow centre.

10) Striped-Flowered Wood Sorrel

• BOTANICAL NAME: Oxalis versicolor
• HARDINESS RATING: H3
• FOLIAGE: deciduous
• FLOWERS: red or white
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): summer / autumn / winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

A half-hardy deciduous perennial, Oxalis versicolor has won the RHS’s AGM.

It has a bushy, clumping habit, grows to only about 8cm and displays charming foliage, which is composed of bright green spear-like leaflets.

It starts to flower in late summer and continues well into winter.

The little flowers are as pretty as they are unusual, as they are conical in shape with the petals arranged in a whorl.

They are white with curving red margins on the outer surfaces of the overlapping petals, producing a twirling effect.

11) Verbena ‘Margaret’s Memory’

• BOTANICAL NAME: Verbena ‘Margaret’s Memory’
• HARDINESS RATING: H4
• FOLIAGE: deciduous
• FLOWERS: pink
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): summer / autumn / winter
• SUITED FOR: Outdoors

Well known for its summertime inflorescences, Verbena manages to post one entry on our list, as ‘Margaret’s Memory’ blooms in the wrong season but has just the right height and spreading habit for a hanging container.

This semi-evergreen has heavily serrated leaves of rich, deep green.

It produces the standard, Verbena florets in rounded flower heads that are of a blush pink hue.

This cultivar has a tremendously long blooming season, starting from late spring and continuing until the end of autumn and, often enough, carrying on into winter.

12) Rattlesnake Crassula

• BOTANICAL NAME: Crassula barklyi
• HARDINESS RATING: H2
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: white
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

Plunk AGM-recipient Crassula barklyi into a hanging basket and you’re sure to find a winter-flowering winner.

This is a spreading, clump-forming succulent evergreen with a spread of 30-40cm.

C. barklyi’s tiny white flowers may appear throughout winter.

13) Small-Leaf Spiderwort

• BOTANICAL NAME: Tradescantia fluminensis
• HARDINESS RATING: H1C
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: white
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): spring / summer / autumn / winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

Tender Spiderworts are trailing evergreens and have two AGM-winning cultivars that have year-round foliage and flower interest ‘Aurea’ and ‘Quicksilver’.

Their habit and heights of, respectively, only 10cm by 20cm, make them ideal for hanging baskets.

‘Aurea’ has thick elliptic leaves that are longitudinally striped in green and yellow in varying balances and ‘Quicksilver’ plays the same sharp trick, but in rich green and white.

Both these elegant cultivars produce clusters of little white flowers all year round.

14) Silver-Inch Plant

• BOTANICAL NAME: Tradescantia zebrina
• HARDINESS RATING: H1C
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: pink or purple
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): spring / summer / autumn / winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

Tender Silver-Inch Plants are also trailing evergreens, among which are two AGM-winning cultivars and these too have year-round foliage and flower interest.

Both Silver-Inch Plant and its cultivar ‘Quadricolor’ at only about 15cm are also ideal for hanging baskets.

Both have thick, ovate-to-lanceolate leaves.

The species plant’s leaves have two broad white stripes on a greyish-green background with deep purple undersides, while the leaves of the ‘Quadricolor’ cultivar are boldly striped in greyish-green, cream and maroon.

Both these stylish plants produce pink-purple flowers year-round, including in winter.

15) Kalanchoe ‘Tessa’

• BOTANICAL NAME: Kalanchoe ‘Tessa’
• HARDINESS RATING: H1B
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: orange or red
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): winter / spring
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

With their pendulous habits, Kalanchoe varieties are perfect for hanging baskets, but they do not offer winter colour except for one cultivar – ‘Tessa’.

It grows to only about 30cm and its drooping stems carry leaves with some year-round interest, as they are edged in bright red.

It is a very understanding evergreen because it flowers prolifically just when you need it the most – during the height of winter and into spring.

The little tubular blooms are borne in panicles and are about 2cm long, of a warm, glowing, reddish-orange colour.

16) Common Winter Cactus

• BOTANICAL NAME: Schlumbergera truncata
• HARDINESS RATING: H1B
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: purple, red or pink
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): autumn / winter
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

This plant is only technically a cactus as it has no thorns to speak of.

The glossy green stems, composed of flattened segments, emerge upright, arc and then become pendulous, tumbling nicely off a hanging basket.

It starts to produce lovely tropical flowers in mid-late autumn and these continue into the winter.

These long-lasting blooms are 7-8cm long and occur in pinks, reds and purples.

17) Coleus

• BOTANICAL NAME: Coleus scutellarioides
• HARDINESS RATING: H1C
• FOLIAGE: evergreen
• FLOWERS: blue
• FLOWERING SEASON(S): spring / summer / autumn
• SUITED FOR: Indoors

Finally, there’s Coleus, which produces colour explosions of foliage that make them popular all over the world.

The smaller bushy types are fantastic for hanging containers and can decorate the portico in summer and the drawing room in winter.

‘Lord Falmouth’, ‘Wisley Tapestry’ and ‘Winsome’, all AGM winners, are precisely the right types in habit and size and offer striking colours.

The first has cordate leaves with green edging which enclose maroon centres.

The second has irregular and deeply lobed leaves with a central crimson splash with maroon veining, surrounded by yellow and green borders.

The third has serrated leaves that are bright red at the centres, rich green at the edges and have variable bright yellow zones.

You don’t have to grow a single type of plant in a hanging basket.

As long as the soil requirements and environmental needs are similar enough, you can mix and match.

Give it a shot and perhaps you’ll come up with a one-of-a-kind combination that will have your guests amazed at your hanging basket skills!