Spring Flower Garden
This must be the most uplifting season of all. The claw of winter has now loosened it’s firm, cold grip and colour is returning to the garden.
Now is just the right time to consider what plants you would like to see you through the spring months and into the summer and provide your garden with that essential ‘pick-me-up’ make over.
Spring Flowers you can plant now for instant colour
Of course, you can’t plant spring flowering bulbs right now, expecting them to burst into colour this year, but you could make a visit to your local garden centre and buy a few plugs or pots to bring in instant colour. In saying that, most stockists will sell bulbs ready-grown, with flower buds either open or just about to. There is certainly no harm in buying and planting up such lovelies. I do think it removes a little of the wonder from the process though – it’s great to see those first signs of life during the last weeks of winter.
The following list of plants (all perennial) will give you a few nudges in the right direction to make the most out of your spring garden.
Creeping Phlox
Smother weeds with ground-hugging phlox. Delicate in appearance but tough in character, these spreading perennials soften the edges of paths and grow in dry rockeries and on sunny banks and slopes.
Vinca (Periwinkle)
The first trailing basket vinca is easy to grow and drought tolerant, requiring half the water of a Busy Lizzie basket! Mediterranean Mixed will give you maximum colour with minimum effort. Trailing to 12 inches.
Helleborus
A range of flower and leaf types, even appearing through snow. Flower shades can vary from lime-green, through white, appleblossom pink, to dark maroon, either spotted, speckled or plain Foliage is mid to dark green, leathery with different degrees of dissection. The seed pods are also attractive. These long lived hardy perennials can be grown in the border or as pot plants in the unheated greenhouse, flowering late winter through early spring. A useful addition to the flower arranger when few subjects are available, they reach a height of 30-60cm (12-24in).
Primrose
Liven up your spring garden with these giant flowered primroses. Massive 3 inch blooms, in an array of strong, bright colours, bring transformation to beds and borders, patio pots, pouches and baskets. Plant up a few pots for your windowsill and enjoy their fresh fragrance in your home.
Violas
A small, attractive bicoloured flowers resembling tiny sweets. Compact plants are smothered in masses of flowers over a very long period, making it ideal for summer or winter flowering bedding displays.
Pansies
A Pansy for every season! Can be used for displays in spring, summer, autumn or winter! It will flower and flower through anything the weather will throw at it. Blotched and pure colours makes the Pansy perfect for bedding, borders and every type of container. They prefer a moist, well-drained soil in full sun or semi-shade. Plants planted in spring will flower early summer onwards, or winter to spring if planted from late summer to autumn.