Spring beauties
Visitors to this year’s Cardiff Flower Show will be left in no doubt that spring has sprung in full colour this season. The showground is ablaze with colour and vibrancy and surrounded by the exquisite blossom filled grounds of Bute Park. The floral marquees are packed with spring classics, gardeners’ favourites and some real botanical treats. It’s a pick 'n' mix designed for plant lovers and the variety on offer is astounding. Here are a few to tickle your taste buds.
Clothe a seating area, trellis or arch with the dancing blooms of Clematis macropetala. This delightful white variety Clematis macropetala ‘Snowbird’ has waxy white double flowers on a compact and hardy plant. Marry it with the pretty pink Clematis ‘Propertius’ for a dramatic effect. They also have attractive seed heads and are good for bumblebees.
Here’s a stunner for a shady garden spot from Primrose Bank Nursery. Mukdenia rossi ‘Karasuba’ is an early spring flowerer (March/April) with fresh sage green foliage that matures to a bright red tinged effect in late summer. Sprays of starry shaped white flowers with red centres are held above the clump forming foliage.
Cowslips are a spring delight and a winner with the bees too. Ring the changes with this rich red strain from W S Lockyer. Primula veris ‘Red Form’ is just that, red. Keep it that way by isolating it from its wilder yellow cousins or over time it will naturalise and revert back to yellow. Buy through mail order or from the RHS Shows.
You can’t fail to notice the blackthorn blossom in the hedges along the roadsides. If you haven’t room for a full-grown specimen, consider a miniature. Mendip Bonsai transforms trees that some consider mundane, into magical, elegant forms. Don’t miss this ancient welsh collected Prunus spinosa, growing on Welsh slate and complete with early spring blossom.
Spring blossom is an addiction and once you are hooked it’s hard to stop. If you need an excuse try this Chaenomeles 'Geisha Girl' from Botanic Nursery. Once thought to be lost from cultivation it was saved by Plant Heritage and is making a comeback. Gorgeous, soft apricot blooms that develop a crop of fruit for preserves, or leave them for the birds, they love them.
Fragrance is a must have feature of spring and this pretty pink Daphne has it in abundance. It’s another magnet for pollinating insects searching for early spring nectar and a great treat for the gardener too. The aptly named Daphne ‘Pink Fragrance’ is available in limited numbers from Foxgrove Plants.
Spring wouldn’t be spring without a tulip parade. Pheasant Acre Plants specialises in these glorious flowers and it’s easy to see why. Order your bulbs at this year’s show and grow your own dramatic display next season. Tulipa ‘Monte Orange’ is a Darwin tulip (forced into flower for the show) with vibrant, poster paint orange flowers and a blue green centre with contrasting yellow stigma and blue-black anthers and pollen.
Don’t forget fruit and vegetables in your spring shopping list. This plant fits both. We think of it as a fruit and eat it with sugar but botanically it’s really a vegetable! Rhubarb ‘Red Raspberry’ is a relatively new introduction with sweeter stems than some. It’s very ornamental, doesn’t flower and tastes divine. Established plants force well and it crops from March to July. Buy plants at the show or visit the Pennard Plants website.
Don’t miss one of the few new plants in the Floral Marquee at this year’s Cardiff Flower Show. Camellia ‘Black Magic’ is a new introduction from Trehane Nurseries with unusually shaped blood red flowers; it’s a sort of single/semi double and very floriferous. As soon as the flowers start to go over they shatter and fall so you don’t get left with a plant clothed with dead brown flowers. Buy plants from the show or visit the new online store at Trehane Nursery.
Spring bulbs are the speciality of many exhibitors in the floral marquees and visitors will love the variety on offer. Avon Bulbs has an exquisite display of plants with cream and yellow flowers with a hint of blue. Don’t miss delightful Erythronium including this pretty white cultivar Erythronium ‘White Beauty’. It has attractive mottled leaves and flowers from April. An easy garden plant. Protect from slugs.
Words: Jean Vernon
Photos: Martin Mulchinock