I know we’re still deep in the winter but a garden lover is always thinking about the next season. It keeps you positive and thinking ahead and Spring is one of my favourites!
Spring is a time for new life and importantly – bulbs. Bulbs are like mini miracles, each one planted in autumn as a dead looking bulb, springs out of the soil at just the right time and then flowers and fades. Planned carefully bulbs can create a succession of blooms from January to June and can mean that every garden can be transformed for spring.
- Favourites of mine are snow drops, mini dafs, crocus and fritillary.
- Later on tulip white triumphator and red apeldoorn are good reliable ones that seem to survive well year after year even in clay (need a sunny spot)
- Alliums are amazing with their perfect heads of many flowers, another favourite of mine is onithogalium magnum that is tall and stately and a bit more unusual.
- Bulbs can be planted in informal drifts rather than in neat rows and they should overlap each other to create interesting and complimentary combinations.
Ferns are another highlight of spring and watching them unfurl is a real treat. First thing in the morning with dew and clear light, spring is particularly magical and of course bird song becomes a real feature again in the garden at this time of year.
New leaves on the deciduous plants are vivid and fresh and this is another reason I try to encourage a good mix of evergreen and deciduous trees; with evergreens not much ever changes and you never get that ‘wow’ moment of the new leaves appearing. Evergreens shed leaves all year round so they are not as tidy as people assume.
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If you would like to redesign your garden and need some professional help contact Selina on 07894 553 202
