Introduction
White Flowers: I’ll never forget the first time I walked over to my neighbor’s all-white garden on a summer evening. Each of the petals was twinkling like the moon and I will never forget the smell of sweet jasmine mixed with roses coming from the air. That is when I discovered that not only are white flowers just white flowers, but they’re just pure damn magic.
You know what’s funny? You see them and you presume that white gardens may be dull as dishwater when you compare a white garden to those riotous blasts of colour cottage gardens all around us. But actually, nothing could be further from the truth. White flowers, they make other colours look amazing when you mix them in, or this kind of sophisticated, almost ethereal feeling when you go full monochrome.
Hydrangea: The Drama Queen That’s Worth It
1. Big Blooms, Bigger Personality, Biggest Impact
Alright, let’s kick this off with likely the most plants people have asked me about … white flowers. Hydrangeas are like that friend that requires all the attention but throws the best parties. They are dramatic, and they are high-maintenance about that water, but when they are happy? They’re absolutely stunning.
2. Worth Waiting All Year For
The thing about peonies, though, that nobody tells you when you’re first getting into them is that, at best, they’re only going to be in bloom for about three weeks. But those three weeks? Pure garden magic. I mean clouds of white flowers the size of softballs that aroma heaven and make your neighbors pull their cars apart to ask what you’re growing.
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3. The Bulbs That Actually Come Back
I used to believe that tulips were one-and-done flowers until I began selecting the right types and planting them correctly. Now I have white flowers that open each March at the same time and let me tell you, after a long winter, I love looking at those perfect cup shapes pushing out of the soil.
4. The Plant That Throws Evening Parties
That is where it gets really entertaining. Moonflowers are these amazing climbing vines that keep all their drama for the dark. On half the supports they were just these heart-shaped leaves that climb up whatever you give them. But around 6 PM? The magic starts. The first time I ever saw moonflowers unfurl I will never forget.
5. Don’t Judge This One By Its Reputation
I know, I know. Peace lilies have this reputation as the “you have someone in your life who died” plant, which makes them sound sort of sad and funerary, too. But wait, these are truly amazing plants with beautiful white flowers that can tolerate conditions that would kill most other ornamental flowering plants.
Tuberose: Perfume Counter in Your Backyard
6. The Flower That Makes Chanel No. 5 Jealous
Tuberose If you have never tried growing tuberose, you are missing one of the most intensely fragrant blooms on earth. I’m not even going to lie, it’s quite phenomenal, these white flowers smell magnificent, I have had neighbours pop over asking if I’m burning candles outside. The scent becomes more pronounced in the evening, which makes them perfect for that magic hour when you’re resting from your day. Tuberoses are certainly more labor-intensive than some of the other flowers on this list.
7. Blooms When Everything Else Has Given Up
Hellebores are truly magical in that they flowers just when your garden seems to be nothing but sticks and bones. I mean February and March, when there’s still snow and you’re starting to believe that spring will never arrive. And then these beautiful white flowers emerge through the chilling ground like it ain’t no thang.
8. The Tree Everyone Asks About
My flowering dogwood is definitely the most photographed plant in my garden, hands down. Each spring when it blossoms, I’ve noticed people slowing down and driving by, and my mail carrier has even mentioned it to me a couple of times. These trees just make an amazing show when they’re covered in those four petaled, big flowers before the leaves appear.
9.Beautiful Chaos You’ll Learn to Love
Yarrow is one of those plants that you learn very quickly the difference between a formal garden and a cottage garden. If you have to have everything in its place and to have things to stay put where you killed them, you and yarrow would have driven each other mad. But if you fancy a casual, “eh, stuff grew where it wanted to,” cottage garden vibe, yarrow is your pal.
10. The Flower That Looks Too Perfect to Be Real
Ranunculus are absolutely stunning white flowers that appear like a rose had an affair with a peony and voila, you have a perfect white explosion of layered beauty! And when I take pictures in social media, people are like, ‘Are those really real?’ They’re that gorgeous. The thing about ranunculus is they’re a trifle precious about the circumstances in which they’ll grow. So they like cool weather, so they’re really a spring flower here where I live.
Cosmos: Carefree Beauty That Self-Seeds
11. The Flower That Grows Itself
If you’re new to gardening or one of those people who has killed everything she ever tried to grow, cosmos should be on your list. These are arguably the most foolproof white flowers I’ve ever grown. I actually throw the seeds in the ground in spring, rake them in just barely, and then close my eyes and count to 10. Cosmos have this airy, cottage garden appearance of simple daisy-type flowers on tall, swaying stems.
12. When Everything Else Is Calling It Quits
My garden is looking pretty tired by September. The summer annuals are lanky, the perennials exhausted and by now I want and need something crisp and fresh. That’s where chrysanthemums come in. These white flowers are like an extra spring in your garden when everything else is winding down for winter!
13. Gorgeous But Keep Your Distance
Lupines provide some of the bolder vertical elements you can bring to a garden. These big white flowers can grow to 3-4 feet tall and make this fantastic architectural statement you can’t achieve with pants of a short stature. Coming from Nordic lands is why they prefer a cool climate and struggle in hot, humid climes.
14. The Plant That Plantsman
Begonias just bring that great, tropical kind of glamour to the garden with all the glowing leaves and popping white flowers and blooming and blooming from spring to frost. I have them potted up on my patio, and they really help to deck out this whole space with that lush, resort-y vibe and make me feel like I’m someplace more tropical.”
15. First Flowers When You Need Them Most
Primroses are some of the earliest bloomers come spring, often pushing up through the snow at a time when I’m itching for a little color after a long winter. These lovely white blooms smell amazing, particularly in the evening, and are a pleasure on those first warm nights when you may finally sit outside again.
16. The Rose That Actually Opens Up
most of the modern roses come in these very tight, formal flower shapes that are excellent if you want to pick a bouquet, but can feel a bit stiff in the garden. Cabbage roses are a whole other story; you sink into these full, voluptuous white flowers with absolutely nothing modern or up-to-date about them,” the kind of old-world romance that shines out in cottage gardens.
Water Lily: Pond Life at Its Finest
17. The Flower That Follows the Sun
Water-feature lovers will discover a whole new universe of growing possibilities and that water lilies are simply the divas of the water-plant world. These white floating flowers present this amazing daily show where they close at night and re-open every morning, following the movement of the sun across the sky.
18. Reliable Color That Spreads Itself
Candytuft is one of those plants that knocks out two birds with one stone in the garden. It offers stunning white blooms from spring to early summer, works as ground cover that keeps out weeds, and will even do well in areas of full sun with poor soil where other lawn fails. I planted candytuft along the side of a driveway where salt used to de-ice it had killed the grass next to it.
19. Why Reinvent Perfection
The classic is the classic for a reason, sometimes. White roses embody everything we adore about white flowers: grace, scent, heavenly petals, and that timeless quality that plays well in any type of garden, no matter if it’s formal or easy going or modern. I have several different white roses, but my favourites is ‘Iceberg’ which they say is the most popular rose in the world.
20. When Most Flowers Are Packing
It Japanese anemones are one of my favourite finds of recent years. They’re in flower late summer and autumn when everything else is starting to look a bit past its best, with pristine white flowers and bright yellow centres that really shine out at this time of year.
Gardenia: High Maintenance, High Reward
21. The Diva That’s Worth the Drama
I’m going to level with you here gardenias are high-maintenance. They demand acidic soil, even moisture, the right temperature and good humidity and they’ll tell you right away if any of this is wrong. But the white flowers are so stunningly beautiful and fragrant that most gardeners (myself included) tolerate the other requirements.
22. Reliable Beauty That Nothing Wants to Eat
Daffodils are likely the easiest spring bulbs to grow. Narcissus reliably and naturally return year after year, they amplify over time, and best of all, they are the best of the best when it comes to deer and rabbit resistance. In my neck of the woods, where deer pressure is high, this last point alone makes them indispensable.
23. The Supporting Actor That Steals the Show
Baby’s breath has been much maligned as boring or outdated, but I’m here to tell you that this plant just needs a second look. These clouds of wee white flowers blooms are the single most mind-bending textural element for the garden, and essential for anyone who enjoys making their own flower arrangements.
24. You Want Neighbors to Stop and Stare
I suspect my magnolia tree is the single most impressive plant in my whole garden. In early April, when it blooms, people stop their cars for a closer look. These huge white flowers appear on naked branches, well before the leaves start to out, and provide this stunning spectacle that heralds spring as much as any calendar could.
25. The Flower That Perfumes the Whole Garden
When my Oriental lilies flower in July, I can scent them from the back door. Lovely white flowers , amazing smell. And we’re not talking about just any scent: this is fragrance-quality aroma, fit to waft to every corner of the garden on a warm summer evening.
Lily of the Valley: The Woodland Sweetie
26. Tiny Bells with Big Impact
Lily of the valley has some of the sweetest-smelling white flowers you can grow, and they do well in the shade where most flowers don’t. Trained over arching branches or down from perches, the flower buds of this tiny bell shaped flower chime nature’s own wind chimes, and the fragrance is divine!
27. The Gift That Keeps on Giving
In mild-winter climates, camellias are garden darlings, blooming when almost everything else is napping. These white floral blooms are so unsurpassable, perfect even- wing petals of symmetrical design progress mathematically and it almost appears to be artificial.
28. Exotic Beauty That’s Easier Than You Think
Orchids were this mysterious, expensive plant that only the most serious of greenhouse gardeners could manage. But breeders have created far more forgiving varieties, and now you can buy gorgeous white flowers orchids at grocery and big box stores.
29. Old-Fashioned Charm That’s Making a Comeback
Carnations have that stigma of being old-fashioned, or, you know, a little cheap, but there’s a moment for them to come back. The white flowers of supper daisy are extremely long lasting in a vase, they have an astonishing, spicy scent, and they rebloom all season with no fuss. Border carnations are also part of my cutting garden, and they have proved to be one of my most dependable sources of flowers for indoor displays.
30. Go Big or Go Home
Dahlias are not subtle. When my dinner-plate dahlias are at their peak, nothing else in the garden is quite the head-turner that these giants are. These white flowers can literally be the size of dinner plates – 8-10” across and they are so completely attention grabbing from yards away. In my zone 6 garden, I treat dahlias as annuals, digging up the tubers every fall and storing them inside over winter.
31. Feathery Plumes Where Others Fear to Grow
If you have any shaded areas where you want flowers, astilbe is a must! These white blossoms create these amazing feathery cones that contribute to vertical accent and lacy texture to woodlands and shaded borders. I have some astilbe planted on the north side of my house where there is very dense afternoon shade. Most blooming plants would sulk in that location, but astilbe does well there.
32. When You Want Something Completely Different
Cream Mini Toppers The strawberries n’ cream flavour is right for when you want to switch it up, by livening things up in bed, on the couch, in the car, on the living room floor. Calla lilies are nothing like any of the other flowers I’ve listed. There’s something so architectural about these white flowers that unmistakable funnel shape reminiscent of a piece designed by a modern artist rather than found in nature.
FAQs
When to plant white flower bulbs and seeds?
This is because they are either spring or summer bloomers. Plant spring bulbs like daffodils and tulips in the fall when soil temperatures are below 60 F (typically October to December). Pea-like seeds of cosmos and baby’s breath can be direct sown outside in spring once frost danger has passed. White-flowering bulb flowers generally require that cold winter to bloom well.
What’s the trick to having a bed of white all season long in my garden?
The trick is to select white-flowered bulbs that emerge at disparate times. My types fall into these groups: early spring (daffodils, hellebores), late spring (tulips, candytuft), early summer (peonies, roses), midsummer (lilies, hydrangeas), late summer (cosmos, dahlias) and fall (chrysanthemums, anemones).
My white flowers look dirty and/or brown so early?
White flowers certainly show harm more than colored flowers. It’s usually due to overhead watering, which leaves water spots on the petals; fungal infections caused by lack of air circulation; pest damage; or simply the plant getting older. Keep them looking lovely by watering below, at the base of (not over) plants — directly onto soil — so the leaves stay dry and you don’t encourage disease, providing enough space between plants for good air circulation, snipping off blooms as they fade and opting for disease-resistant varieties. Sometimes it is the nature of the beast with certain white flowers peonies, say, that look perfect no longer than a week.
Which white flowers actually smell good and which ones are just for the birds?
The very fragrant white flowers I have in my yard are tuberose (insanely fragrant), gardenias (sweet and complicated), lilies (Oriental are special favorites), roses (depends on which rose), lily of the valley (sweet and delicate) and moonflowers (sweet evening fragrance).Strangely, some of the most beautiful white flowers don’t have scent bulbs that burst when picked; tulips and daffodils don’t, and neither do summer flowers such as cosmos and chrysanthemums as these flowers have been bred purely for appearance, not for scent. Be sure to ask or research if odor matters to you at all.
