Gardening icon Alan Titchmarsh reveals favourite flower to grow during winter

Alan Titchmarsh revealed his favourite flower to grow during winter (Image: Getty)

The former Gardeners' World host Alan Titchmarsh has revealed his favourite flower to grow during the winter months with wind, rain and snow set to sweep across the country over the coming weeks.

Writing in the recently released The Gardener's Almanac, the gardening icon said that as the mercury levels drop closer to freezing, his choice of plant is the Iris unguicularis.

Despite its rather timid looking complexion, the veteran former Gardeners' World presenter said: "It sits like an unruly rug of linear leaves for most of the year, and then up through that haystack of foliage in December and January push spears of palest amethyst, which open to reveal the most delicate of lavender blue iris flowers that look as though a puff of wind would destroy them."

Alan named the Iris unguicularis as his favourite flower to grow during the colder months (Image: Getty)

After the flower has made its way through the undergrowth and poked above its neighbours, the gardening expert named the perfect place to put it in your home after picking it: "It used to have the more euphonious name of Ivis stylosa until the rather more unwieldy moniker was bestowed upon it.

"Pick the flowers when they are in bud and watch them open over an hour or so in a tiny jar of water indoors. This particular iris demands little except to be left alone.

"Find it a sunny spot in well-drained soil, preferably in front of a south-facing wall, and it will thrive."

The flower, which originates from Algeria, Africa is described by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) as "a vigorous evergreen rhizomatous perennial to 30cm in height, with copious dark green leaves and very fragrant, deep violet flowers 5-8cm in width, the falls marked with white and deep yellow at the base, in late winter.”

While Alan revealed his favourite winter flower, the presenter recently revealed that one Christmas gardening habit could 'take a toll on his marriage'.

He said: "I have avoided sowing my onions on Boxing Day (a keen exhibitor's habit), not because I am fearful of the toll on my marriage that such dedication would inflict, but because I prefer to grow onions from sets, and they can wait until March."