GARDENING:
Make the most of shady spots with delicate spring f lowers
Anyone wanting to enjoy the prettiest spring flowers should go down to the woods today. Delicate primroses and violets are flowering already in the sunlit glades. Soon, drifts of wood anemones will follow, with carpets of bluebells as a grand finale. In some woods, you’ll also find rarities such as oxlips, herb-paris and lady orchids.
Spring woods are just as beautiful worldwide. Three-petalled trilliums and erythroniums flourish under American trees. Cool Asian forests shelter dainty slipper orchids, golden adonis and dwarf rhododendrons.
In gardens, woodland plants have been nurtured for centuries to give us a rich legacy of shadeloving species.
A woodland garden makes a wonderful feature. But shade-lovers
are also ideal for limited spaces. Some, such as primulas, are seasonal. But many, including pulmonarias and epimediums, are pretty for longer.
Most suppliers sell popular woodland plants, and specialists offer rarer treasures, often by mail order.
The superb Harrogate Flower Show, in north yorkshire, running from April 25 to 28, will give the opportunity to see several of the best in one place. Woodland exhibitors including Kevock Garden Plants and Hartside nursery will exhibit plants in their prime. They’ll also have well-stocked sales tables.
YOUR OWN FOREST
FEW gardens are lucky enough to have a wood, but most have a shady area suitable for woodland plants.
even in soilless shade, you can fill pots with Uvularia or Solomon’s seal Polygonatum Betberg. Some woodlanders need lime-free soil. For most, though, condition matters more than soil-type. In natural woods, leaf-fall results in high levels of organic matter — woodland plants need that.
In my little wood garden, I allow fallen leaves to rot where they lie. It looks messy from october to Christmas. But the pay-off is soil so rich in humus that the plants thrive in it.
even the wildest wood garden needs controlling. Though lovely, my free- seeding wild bluebells are now a nuisance. Unwanted plants such as these must be hand- culled so that their less pushy neighbours can thrive.
In restricted spaces, avoid highly invasive plants, such as wild garlic Allium ursinum and woodruff Galium odoratum.
PLOTS OF ALL SIZES
OUR wood garden show begins in January with snowdrops and yellow aconites. Primroses begin in late February, joined by wild daffodils Narcissus lobularis in March. By then, oxlips, lesser celandines and the first wood anemones are starting to show.
By April, bluebells, snake’s head fritillaries, wood spurge, stitchwort and more native woodlanders rush into bloom.
These are valuable in big numbers and great for colouring the woodland floor. But we also grow special feature plants, including Erythronium Pagoda — an easy bulb with flowers resembling small yellow lilies. e. Harvington Wild Salmon has pink reflexed flowers and broad, marbled foliage.
We’re lucky to have space for a little woodland garden. If you only have room for containers, make every plant count. Varieties such as lilac-mauve Guinevere are a good choice. Long-stemmed polyanthus are even better.
But, instead of jazzy bedding types, try Cowichan varieties from summerdalegardenplants.co.uk/barnhaven.html. Their subtle flower colours are as luxurious as the finest velvets.