Colorful plants you can add to garden pots right now, in the heart of winter

As you read this, I am most likely in Seattle enjoying and hosting at the Northwest Flower & Garden show. This show marks the unofficial start of the spring garden season.

The best news about gardening in mid-February are the colorful plants you can now add to your pots, window boxes and protected garden beds. There is a lot more than just primroses in bloom and for sale at local nurseries and garden shows. Taking some design and plant ideas from Container Wars, the competition at the NWFG show, here is what you can plant now for an instant end to drab winter color.

Frost hardy pansies

These early birds of spring color come in pastel shades of blue, lavender, white and yellow, but the newest varieties bloom in deep violet and purple shades. Mix these darker colors with white and silver plants for maximum contrast in your winter hardy container garden designs.

Dwarf heather

Early blooming heather plants can be purchased now in 4-inch pots perfect for tucking into window boxes or porch pots. Use them with dwarf daffodils for a lavender and yellow color scheme that welcomes spring.

Hellebores

If it were up to me, it would be required by law that every homeowner add hellebores to their landscape.

Hellebores are drought, deer and slug resistant and bloom in January, February and March when our days are often gray. Purchase hellebores in 1-gallon pots now and set them into empty porch or patio pots for instant color. Leave them in the nursery pot and cover with a mulch.

In May, when bedding plants are available, just move that hellebore plant into the garden.

Wintergreen or Gaultheria

Bright red berries on a ground-hugging evergreen plant make this hardy perennial easy to tuck into containers and window boxes. The berries can be used to make wintergreen tea or strong breath mints. Even the crushed leaves will release a fresh scent. Winterberry is also an excellent groundcover in the shade.

Leucothoe Rainbow bush

There must be a pot of gold as a reward for anyone who adds the Rainbow bush to a pot or piece of land. The droopy branches have a relaxed look and the red, yellow, cream and green leaves look most colorful on winter days and early spring afternoons.

A small plant can fill a pot but this fast grower can then be moved to a shaded part of the garden where it will spread politely. Drought, disease and deer resistant, this rainbow never fades as it is a shrub with yearlong color.

Winter accents

Cut some pussy willows, forsythia or red twig dogwood whips and poke them into your container garden designs for added height and frost-tolerant color. Better yet, come to the NWFG show this weekend and see what the celebrity designers use in their award-winning creations.

Spring has arrived in Western Washington. You just have to know where to look for it.

Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of several books. Reach her at binettigarden.com.

See Marianne at the NWFG show

Meet Marianne Binetti at the NWFG show at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 18 and 19, as she hosts “Container Wars” on the main stage. For more information, go to the NWFG show website.