Flowers for Early Spring

There are, perhaps, a surprising number of flowers for early spring gardens. By early spring I mean the month of March, dipping into April if the weather is cold enough to delay plant growth. We have spring flowering bulbs, early flowering perennials and flowering shrubs to choose from. And to the delight of those pollinating insects that are braving the vagaries of a British spring, many of the flowers are nectar rich.

For humans, the benefits include the visual delight of seeing flower buds bursting into bloom on a dreary overcast day. Plus the added bonus of many a flower offering a fragrance which we can enjoy whilst telling ourselves it’s really for the bees.

As always, I’ve put links within the text and in the Related Articles section, as there are individual Plews blogs on some of these plants.

Flowers for Early Spring – Bulbs

Daffodils

The most obvious spring flowering bulb must be Daffodils, aka Narcissus and traditionally referred to as ‘Heralds of Spring’. Daffodils flower from mid February through to April, depending on the cultivar or species. With flowers in shades of yellow from bold through to soft buttermilk, plus white, and even apricot there’s much to love. They are all of them are scented, but some so lightly that you’d hardly notice, whilst others pack a real punch.

Hyacinths

Hyacinths are such a feature at Christmas time, filling rooms with their sweet fragrance that we often forget that is not their natural time to flower. Those bulbs have been specially forced to flower in the winter. But if you have planted Hyacinth bulbs in your garden, go and search them out – they’re probably the source of that scent you noticed walking down the path. But they may be nearly buried under a pile of leaves so you’ve forgotten that they are there.

One way to enjoy Hyacinths in the spring is to plant the bulbs in pots and stand them at your front door. I do have a penchant for the deep purple and blue flowers but if you fancy an ice cream bi-colour of pink and white, you go for it!

Fritillaria

Fritillaria meleagris, known as the Snakeshead Fritillary and chequered lily; a European native. The chequered pattern on the petals may be harder to spot on the white flowers than on the purple. Great for naturalising at a moist woodland edge, or in shady, damp areas.

Fritillaria michailovsky, Michael’s flower, is an unusual plant to add to our list of flowers for early spring. Like all Fritillaries it has bell shaped flowers, here they are maroon with yellow edges. Plant in a pot and put it on the table where you drink your morning cup of tea – these babies have a lovely fragrance.

Flowering Shrubs for Early Spring

Forsythia

One of the notable attributes of many of the earliest spring flowering garden shrubs is that they flower on bare branches, ie without leaves.
Many of us have a love-hate relationship with forsythia. But kept correctly pruned, those bright yellow flowers on bare branches brighten up dull days.

Chaenomeles

Chaenomeles is also known as ornamental flowering quince and Japanese quince. Just like the ‘real’ quince, it has decorative flowers – red rather white and a different shape. It also has edible fruit, which can be made into a quince preserve, although its not aromatic.

And there’s a good reason for these differences – the two plants are not related. Well, not closely, read on…
The quince tree, Cydonia oblonga is the only member in the genus Cydonia. Whereas ornamental quince is in the genus Chaenomeles, with three (possibly four) species. Their relationship comes higher up, as they are both members of the Rosaceae Family, which also includes apples and roses.

When it comes to flowers for early spring, Chaenomeles blooms a good month or more before Cydonia. Maybe that’s a reason to have both in your garden…

Camellia

Should this be pronounced Cam-ee-llia or Cam-ell-ia? It doesn’t really matter, so long as you protect the buds and blooms from frost which will turn their petals brown. It is of course an evergreen shrub, unlike the others here and prefers acidic soils.
In smaller gardens, place them where you’ll enjoy the flowers in spring and the glossy foliage will provide a backdrop for summer flowers.

Magnolia

Magnolia Stellata, star Magnolia, with star-shaped flowers, is probably the most popular of the smaller Magnolias. Small is good – up to 2.5 m when mature, depending on variety. And it means you can get your nose up to the flowers and enjoy the scent.

For something a bit different, you could grow Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’, Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Nigra’, the Black Lily Magnolia. As its name suggests these flowers are a dramatic deep purple. And yes, still scented. This is larger than stellata, making a spreading slow growing shrub up to 4m over about 15 years.

Flowers for Early Spring – Small Perennials

Pulmonaria

Pulmonaria are commonly called lungwort as they used to be a herbal remedy for respiratory problems. They are native to Europe so do well in British gardens. You may have a patch of cheerful little pink and blue flowered pulmonaria. But do seek out some of the other varieties, with rich purple, cream or red flowers. Their leaves may be green, or have white spots and if cut back after flowering present fresh clumps of foliage in a month.

Vinca

Commonly known as periwinkle, Vinca, is most usually seen with blue flowers and green leaves. As you might expect, I’m going to tell you that there’s a lot more variety than that to choose from!

Vinca minor, lesser periwinkle has the smaller leaves and makes a neater plant, probably better than Vinca major, greater periwinkle, for ground cover. Both are happy in shade. There are flowers of white, pale blue, lilac blue, pink and purple to choose from. The foliage, although generally green and semi-evergreen, is available in a variegated form.

Scented Climbing Flowers for Early Spring

Clematis

Yes, I know, strictly speaking its not the flowers that climbing but the twining shoots. Clematis armandii is an evergreen climber with shiny leaves and slim 4 petalled fragrant white flowers. If it likes your garden you may find it can get too vigorous, in which case prune it back after flowering.

Well now, there you have a small selection of flowers for early spring that you could seek out in your garden as you may find some of them hiding there. Or you could visit your local plant nursery or garden centre and treat yourself, supporting local business at the same time. There are plenty more to choose from, and I haven’t included one of my favourites, which is Viola oderata, sweet violet. Partly due to lack of space, but also as blogs about Sweet Violets, Pulmonaria and Fritillaria are planned.

And if you’d like help with a planting design for an early spring border, do get in touch. It’s a design service we can offer nationwide as it does not always require a site visit, just chat on the phone and plenty of emails. Plus photos from you and creativity and practical planning from Plews. Ask us for more details.