Don't let winter's gloomy grey stop you from creating a colourful spectacle in your garden. Simply follow GARDENA's top tips on planting and caring for violas, pansies and English daisies. These three winter wonder blooms are resilient and require similar care manageable by gardeners of all skill levels. They also make exquisite cut flowers with a long vase-life – a lovely reward for your gardening care and effort!

Before you embark on your winter gardening adventure, we suggest starting with the essentials: a good set of gardening tools. With GARDENA Hand Tools you can tackle almost any gardening task. Different hand tools make up different hand tool sets. Each set is assembled as a specialised kit, suited for a particular garden type or size. The GARDENA City Gardening Basic Set, for example, includes a hand trowel, weeding trowel, secateurs and a pair of gardening gloves – all cleverly packaged in a multifunctional jug that can be used for watering or shovelling soil and stones.

For those with limited space, the GARDENA Balcony Box is a great choice for a balcony or patio garden of plants with similar care needs. The Balcony Box can be mounted against a wall or remain freestanding. Tools can also be stored in the box and the box cover doubles as a dustpan to collect debris.

Now that you’re all set, put on your gloves and let’s dig into GARDENA’s top picks.

1. Violas

Violas, also known as Johnny-Jump-Ups, are a beautiful and versatile addition to any winter garden. These charming flowers are perfect for borders, containers and rock gardens, and come in a variety of vibrant colours. Violas are hardy and easy to grow, making them an excellent choice for experienced and novice gardeners alike.

How to plant:

• Use your hand trowel to plant violas in well-drained soil, in a location with full sun to partial shade.
• Space plants 10-15cm apart for optimal growth.
• Water consistently, keeping the soil moist but not waterlogged.
• Remove weeds from your newly planted patch with your weeding trowel.

Care tips:

• Deadhead spent flowers with secateurs to encourage new blooms.
• Fertilise every 4–6 weeks with a balanced fertiliser to promote healthy growth.
• Protect from frost by covering the roots with mulch.

2. Pansies

These delicate flowers are known for their stunning, frequently variegated blooms and are a favourite among gardeners for their long-lasting beauty.

How to plant:

• Use your hand trowel to plant pansies in well-drained soil, in a location with full sun to partial shade.
• Space plants 20–30cm apart for optimal growth.
• Ensure you water at the base of the plant, close to the soil, to keep the leaves dry and prevent fungal disease.
• Keep the soil moist but not waterlogged.
• Remove weeds from your newly planted patch with your weeding trowel.

Care tips:

• Deadhead faded flowers with secateurs to encourage new blooms.
• Fertilise every 4–6 weeks with a balanced fertiliser to promote healthy growth.
• In very cold weather conditions, you can protect the plants by covering it with a light cloth or plastic sheet, removing once the cold passes.

3. English Daisies

These beautiful blooms are perfect for creating colourful edges along pathways but also look great when bunched together in pots.

How to plant:

• Use your hand trowel to plant English daisies in fertile, moist soil with partial sun exposure.
• Space plants 10-12cm apart to form a dense carpet.
• Water consistently, keeping the soil moist but not waterlogged.

Care tips:

• Use good quality tools to prevent damage that makes your plants vulnerable to infections. Recommendations are to use the GARDENA Bypass Secateurs for young, green shoots and the GARDENA Anvil Secateurs for dead or dried branches.
• Deadhead spent flowers regularly with secateurs to encourage fresh blooms.
• Fertilise every 4–6 weeks with a balanced fertiliser to promote healthy growth.
• These flowers are frost hardy, but it is still recommended to cover the roots lightly with mulch when severe frost is expected.

We hope these pretty plant picks inspire you to flex your green thumb! All it takes is a little attention and care for your garden to burst with colour all winter long.

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About GARDENA 

For over 50 years, GARDENA has provided high-quality gardening tools to passionate and savvy gardeners around the world. The brand, through its vast range of gardening tools, offers innovative solutions and systems for watering, lawn care, tree, and shrub care and soil cultivation. Today, GARDENA is a leading European supplier of high-quality gardening tools and is distributed in more than 80 countries worldwide.  

Find out more about GARDENA: 

Website: https://www.gardena.com/za/  

Facebook: @gardena.southafrica 

About The GARDENA ReTh!nk pledge

Our economic activities have consequences for the environment and climate. It is important we are aware of this and face the resulting challenges. By subscribing to our ReTh!nk pledge, we make every effort to reduce the toll and lessen the impact on our environment and our lives.

Our ReTh!nk pledge is built on the foundation of the Circular R’s: Reduce, Repair, Recycle. This helps us quantify and qualify how sustainable each of our products really is and, in turn, how sustainable your gardening can be. We aim to become the sustainable choice in gardening tools and are already working on a number of new circular innovations to help you make better, more conscious and sustainable decisions.

We want to inspire all passionate gardeners to learn about sustainable gardening practices and how you can contribute to a healthy ecosystem. At GARDENA, we believe now is the time to ReTh!nk.

Find out more about GARDENA ReTh!nk: https://www.gardena.com/za/about/gardena-sustainability/rethink/.

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