Prepare the way for spring
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HERE’S no need to wait for spring to happen naturally. Bring it on early by planting a few cheery containers in all your showiest places. First have a bit of a spring clean to give them a tidy background; scrub down or sweep paving, collect up any dead leaves and winkle out weeds. Now find some suitable tubs or troughs.
If you’re using a container that has stood outside all winter, empty it, wash it inside and out then refill with fresh potting compost.
It’s worth adding up to 10 per cent grit to improve drainage since spring plants perform far better when they are not waterlogged. As insurance in case of a wet spring, stand it up on a couple of bricks or proper pot feet so that surplus water can run away quickly.
When it comes to plants you’ll have to be guided by what you can find on sale at nurseries and garden centres, since the selection will vary depending on prevailing weather conditions.
Primroses are a good choice for early planting; the wild ones are toughest and they team up wonderfully with a few pots of the earliest daffodils, snowdrops or winter aconites. (Here’s a hint. If you buy pots of spring bulbs don’t tip them out, sink the pot to its rim in the compost. The flowers keep going far longer when the roots aren’t disturbed at all.)
The flashier hybrid primroses with big brightly coloured flowers are best treated as plants for a porch or unheated conservatory since they aren’t all that hardy – though they might be okay in a mild, well-sheltered corner outside.
Polyanthus fare far better outdoors this early in the season. They come in bold colours that look stunning with rugged evergreen foliage of ivy or small variegated evergreen euonymus plants. For a slightly different look try adding a handful of stripy sedges or some purple-tinged bergenia for contrast.
If the weather seems determined to be dreadful your best plan is to hold off a bit – in another few weeks there will be a bigger range of spring bedding coming on to the market.
Some of my real favourites are the delicate little gold-laced polyanthus with their maroon flowers neatly edged with a fine line of silver or gold.
They look superb on their own, like a 17th-century masterpiece, but if you want something to put with them try plain green ivies and/or some miniature species of daffodil.
You only need a few to stand up on a shelf in the porch or on a sheltered garden table to act as an eye-catching centrepiece.
Another four to six weeks should see even more glamorous spring bedding appearing on sale, such as dwarf botanical tulips, anemones and the truly fabulous turban buttercups, otherwise known as ranunculus – the ones with the big fragile-looking fairy-tale, almost poppy-like, flowers in jewel colours.
So forget the tail-end of winter and get ready to roll out spring.
CATCH THE DRIFT OF WILDFLOWER PLANTING