Explore the spring palette
Team blue, pink and yellow for a dazzling early-flowering display
Blue, a rarity for much of the year, is a significant spring colour. It comes in shades that veer between (dark) Oxford and (lighter) Cambridge blue. For a shady edge, seek out true-blue honesty Lunaria annua ‘Corfu Blue’. Add in periwinkle Vinca minor ‘Azurea Flore Pleno’ with plain-green leaves and frilly lavender-blue flowers. Both go well under hedges. Strong blues provide a zinging contrast for acid-green euphorbias. Euphorbia epithymoides forms a foot-high mound by March; use it with the green-leaved, sterile pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’. Its violet shoots push through the ground in February and its navy-blue flowers last for weeks. Divide every three years to keep it vigorous. Hepaticas can offer one of the best blues and they love being tucked away on the sunnys ide of deciduous trees or shrubs where they’ll get spring sunshine and a cool root run in summer. Often found on sloping ground in the wild, they need better drainage than their close relatives, the wood anemones. Large blue H. transsilvanica has pale-green scalloped leaves and
Lamprocapnos spectabilis it’s worth cutting off browning foliage in December so the pristine blue flowers can shine. Smaller-flowered H. nobilis comes in pink, white and blue and there are double forms too. For wilder areas, try the crimped white campion, Silene fimbriata. This is capable of growing under trees and happily pops up in deep shade. Geranium phaeum ‘Joan Baker’, ‘Misty Samobor’ and ‘Waterer’s Blue’ are paler forms that also light up shade. Expect seedlings! Cardamine pratensis, our native lady’s smock, produces silvery-mauve blooms in April. C. quinquefolia is shorter and flowers in March so is a great gap filler among hellebores. It does spread, but this deep-rooted woodlander goes underground by May so I leave it to its own devices. Bleeding hearts are worth seeking out and Lamprocapnos spectabilis produces arching pink stems strewn with pink and white lockets; there’s also a purewhite form. Surround them with strong pink April tulip ‘Barcelona’ to mark their position and help protect them from frost. Compact Bergenia ‘Overture’ is a good addition too, with red-tinted foliage framing short mid-pink flower spikes. ➤
Avoid planting magnolias in low-lying sites where cold air lingers
MALUS TORINGO ‘SCARLETT’
Dark pink spring blossom, bronze-purple foliage that turns fiery in autumn and purple fruits. H and S5m (16ft)
AMELANCHIER LAMARCKII
White spring blossom emerges with bronzetinged young leaves; good autumn colour. H8m (26ft) S4m (13ft)
CAMELLIA JAPONICA ‘JUPITER’
Evergreen shrub with red bowl-shaped flowers (Feb-Apr); part or full shade. H2.5m (8ft) S1.5m (5ft)
PRUNUS ‘MATSUMAEFUKI’ (‘CHOCOLATE ICE’)
Pink-blushed flowers (Apr-May) and red-tinted chocolate-brown foliage, which colours in autumn. H and S4m (13ft)