Choose early risers for a head start
With some thoughtful plant selection, you can get spring off to an early start in your garden. We asked Philip Holmes, Head Gardener at Nymans in West Sussex, for his suggestions on how to coax welcome colour from the chilly late winter soil.
'It’s easy to think that the garden is asleep in winter when, in fact, it’s far from it,' says Philip. Already, Nymans is home to flowers and scent in abundance - in fact, at the annual flower count on 12 February, the gardens team counted 120 species and cultivars in flower.
Among them are carpets of dainty Cyclamen coum, ensuring splashes of colour with their glowing blooms and attractive marbled leaves.
Early-flowering camellias are another asset here, particularly Camellia x williamsii 'J.C. Williams' and double-white C. japonica 'Nobilissima' (left), one of the first camellias to bloom.
Less showy, but still highly garden-worthy, are heathers - Erica carnea and E. x darleyensis cultivars keep the Heather Garden alive with colour for weeks on end.
Other choice early-risers include:
- Iris reticulata and I. 'Katharine Hodgkin' - admire these in the Rock Garden, alongside dwarf crocuses
- Forsythia x intermedia 'Lynwood Variety', with its large, butter-yellow flowers
- Pulmonaria angustifolia 'Azurea'. A must for its beautiful, sky-blue flowers and spotted leaves.
- There's nothing like clumps of nodding snowdrops and snowflakes (Leucojum) to reassure that spring is on the way!
It's not all about blooms, though - Cornus alba 'Sibirica' and C. sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' are as show-stopping as any flower, with their sizzling colourful stems. These look particularly fetching against a backdrop of snow.
No late winter garden would be complete without scent. Philip recommends Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' (left), which has a 'tremendous' fragrance and keeps on flowering from January well into March. Another good choice is long-flowering, compact Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna, which scents the air for miles around and is ideal for smaller gardens.
Top tips for making the most of early spring
- Position plants where they can get sun. Placing flowering and scented plants near paths means you can appreciate them without trekking across soggy lawns!
- For the best coloured stems, prune Cornus hard in mid-March to encourage new growth.
- When lifting and dividing snowdrops, remember they are best moved in the green (that is, once the flowers have faded but before the foliage has died back).
Nymans is an RHS Partner Garden offering free entry to RHS members (main cardholder) throughout its open period.