What Flowers Are in Season in December in the UK?

Short answer: December in Britain is a foliage season, not a flower season. What is genuinely in season here is evergreen — fir, pine, spruce, holly, ivy, eucalyptus, mistletoe and berried branches — plus paperwhite narcissi and forced bulbs towards the end of the month. Almost every flower in a December bouquet came from somewhere warmer.

This is not a criticism of December bouquets. It is the reason they look the way they do: heavy on greenery, structure and berries, light on soft blooms. Knowing what is actually in season in December makes it much easier to choose something that will look right and last in a heated room.

What is actually British and in season in December?

Cut foliage, and quite a lot of it. British December harvests are:

• Fir, pine and spruce. The backbone of every wreath, garland and festive arrangement, cut here in enormous quantities.
• Holly and ivy. Both British hedgerow plants at their peak in December. Berried holly is the one that sells out.
• Eucalyptus. Grown commercially in Cornwall and cut through the winter. Silver-grey, scented, and the longest-lasting foliage in a heated room.
• Mistletoe. Harvested in Worcestershire and the Welsh borders, sold at auction in the first half of December and gone by Christmas.
• Berries and branches. Ilex, hypericum, skimmia, rose hips, and bare birch and dogwood stems for structure.
• Paperwhite narcissi. Narcissi from the Isles of Scilly and west Cornwall start appearing from late December — the first genuinely British cut flower of the winter.

If you want a bouquet with the smallest possible footprint in December, it is built from those. We wrote about how that works the rest of the year in our guide to sustainable and British-grown flowers.

Which flowers are in the shops in December but not grown here?

Most of them, and there is no way around it in a British winter. Roses, lilies, carnations, chrysanthemums, gerbera and alstroemeria arrive year-round through the Dutch auctions and from growers in Kenya, Ethiopia, Colombia and Ecuador. Amaryllis, hyacinth and forced tulips come from the Netherlands, where they are grown under glass specifically for this month.

That is why a December bouquet costs what it does, and why the greenery around the flowers is doing more of the work than it does in June.

Are peonies available in December?

Not from anywhere near here. Peonies are a May-to-early-July flower in Britain, and the ones offered in December are flown in from the southern hemisphere. They are available, they are expensive, and the stems are rarely as good as the ones in a British June. If you want the look of a peony in December, a large-headed garden rose or an hydrangea gets closer than an out-of-season peony does.

What lasts longest in a heated room in December?

This matters more in December than in any other month, because the room the flowers are standing in is 20 degrees and dry. In rough order of how long they hold up:

• Chrysanthemums and carnations. Two to three weeks, and they are the most under-rated flowers of the winter.
• Amaryllis. Two weeks or more, and it opens dramatically indoors, which is the point of it.
• Alstroemeria and eustoma. Around two weeks, and both keep opening buds.
• Eucalyptus and evergreen foliage. Weeks, then it dries and stays.
• Roses. Around a week in a heated room, less next to a radiator.
• Hyacinth and narcissus. Under a week, but they are the ones that smell.

Cool room, fresh water every couple of days, stems re-cut, nothing next to a radiator — the standard rules matter twice as much this month. The full version is in our flower care guide.

Which December flowers actually smell of anything?

Hyacinth first, by a distance, and paperwhite narcissus second — both strong enough to scent a hallway on their own. Then eucalyptus, pine and fir, which is the smell most people mean when they say a room smells like Christmas. Most December roses are scentless, because the varieties that ship well are not the varieties that smell.

What about potted plants in December?

December is the one month when a plant is often the better gift than a bouquet: it lasts past the holiday, and it does not need a vase in a house already full of people. Amaryllis bulbs, hyacinth bowls and small evergreens are the seasonal ones; our range is on the plants page. We do not stock poinsettias, which is the plant most people picture first — worth saying plainly, so you know where to look for one.

How do you make a December bouquet look like Christmas without red and gold?

Go white, green and silver. White roses or lisianthus, eucalyptus, a few pine sprigs and something with texture — cotton stems, dried orange, or a berried branch. It reads as winter rather than as Christmas, which means it still looks right on 2 January when the tree has gone. Our white flowers page is the place to start, and the Christmas collection has the versions with the red and gold in them if that is what you are after.

When should you order December flowers?

Earlier than you think, and for once that is not a sales line: December is the only month when a florist runs out. Our last order date is 18 December for addresses outside London and 24 December inside London, and wreaths go before either. We set out the whole calendar in when to order Christmas flowers in London.