Top 10 Spring Flower

Spring bulbs herald an end to dark winter days, bringing a welcome splash of colour to the garden when few other plants are in flower.

Knowing when to plant spring bulbs is important for the best displays. Begin to plant spring flowering bulbs, corms and tubers in borders and containers between October and December, before the coldest winter weather sets in. As a rule of thumb, most bulbs should be planted at 3 times their depth, but there are a few exceptions so it’s worth checking our planting depth table in our 'How to grow bulbs' article.

There are plenty of spring bulbs to choose from, but if you need some inspiration take a look at our top 10 pick of bulbs that flower in spring.

Crocus

1. Crocus

These jewel-like crocus flowers look sensational planted in large naturalised swathes throughout lawns and rockeries. Try crocus cancellatus, an unusual and sought-after variety from Turkey with delicate-looking blooms.

Daffodil

2. Daffodil

A well loved genus, and for good reason! Daffodils are the cheeriest of spring bulbs, with their frilly trumpeted blooms and bright colours. Traditional golden daffodils are hard to beat, but if you like something a little different, why not try frilly pink Narcissus 'Replete' or some lovely scented daffodils.

Tulip

3. Tulip

With so many shapes and colours available, it’s hard to choose just one variety of Tulip to grow, so treat yourself to our Everlasting Mix for a full range of colours. Take a look at the double flowers and stunning colour of Tulip ‘Purple Wow’. Keep early spring weeds at bay with a dense carpet of Tulip 'Ground Cover' Mix.

Snakes Head Fritillary

4. Snakes Head Fritillary

Instantly recognizable by their distinctive snakes-skin markings, Fritillaria meleagris is at its best when grown in areas of damp, meadow-like grass. Although native to the UK, Snakes Head Fritillaries are now protected and rarely seen in the wild, so it’s well worth planting a group in your garden

Lily of the Valley

5. Lily of the Valley

Famed for its breath taking perfume and sprays of elegant white flowers. Once established, Lily of the Valley forms a lush green carpet of foliage that makes excellent ground cover for a damp, shady spot. The foliage always looks particularly pretty jewelled with raindrops after a light spring shower.

Hyacinth

6. Hyacinth

The powerful fragrance of the Hyacinth is not to everyone’s liking, but their majestic, upright flowers are simply magnificent. Although they are often grown in pots on the windowsill, Hyacinths are surprisingly hardy and well equipped for outdoor cultivation. Try Hyacinth 'Midnight Mystique' for its enigmatic black flowers.

Winter aconite

7. Winter aconite

Despite its name winter aconite flowers into spring and attracts bees and other beneficial pollinating insects to your garden. The delightful flowers form a golden carpet each spring and are practically maintenance free.

Bluebell

8. Bluebell

Carpets of classic woodland Bluebells create a magical sight in spring as the weather warms and days begin to lengthen. English Bluebells thrive in damp, shady areas but are surprisingly resilient, even in drought conditions. Always choose English Bluebells as the Spanish variety can become invasive and hybridise with our native Bluebells.

Puschkinia

9. Puschkinia

Also known as the Russian Snowdrop, the white star-shaped flowers of Puschkinia are striped in the most extraordinary shade of blue. These resilient spring bulbs love a sunny spot where they can bake in the sun throughout summer. They look exceptionally pretty as an under planting beneath the ghostly stems of Silver Birch trees.

Pleione

10. Pleione

Pleione formosana is a surprisingly hardy orchid that you can grow either on a windowsill or in a sheltered border outside. It's very easy to grow and the delightful blooms will come back year after year.

Written by: Sue Sanderson

Visit for more flowers and gardening techniques: https://www.thompson-morgan.com

Spring Flowers Videos

How amazing to watch all the videos below. Take time to view and you will be surprise how they bring joy in our hearts. So lovely flowers and I am having a great time watching the videos. Have a pleasant day ahead.

Spring flowers

Spring Flowers 2018

Spring flowers are more than just some pretty blooms, they lift the heart and soul and are the promise of a lovely lazy summer, long warm days just around the corner and a lifting of the dreary winter gloom. All it takes are a few sunny yellow crocus in a pot or a whole host of daffodils underneath your shrubs and trees. A lot of spring flowers bloom underneath deciduous trees so are ideal for planting at the bottom of a deciduous hedge or underneath your shrubs. There is a whole range of plants to choose from, from tiny delicate pink Cyclamen coum to the heavenly scented Chimonanthus praecox (Wintersweet), a deciduous shrub with tiny pale lemon flowers which grows to a height of 4m (13’), best planted near a path where you can appreciate its aroma.

When we think of spring flowers the first images that come to mind are the bulbs, with drifts of snowdrops usually being the first to bloom closely followed by crocus.

They are available as dry bulbs in late summer, but you often have better success planting snowdrops ‘in the green’ in spring as the dry bulbs can have a high failure rate, depending upon where you buy them. A lot of the smaller flowering bulbs such as Chionodoxa (Glory of the Snow), Iris reticulata and histrioides, Fritillaria hermonis subsp. amana,  Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) or Narcissus ‘Tete a tete’, look lovely in a rockery, an old Belfast sink or collection of terracotta pots.

Rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias are the staples of the spring garden giving you a glorious burst of colour, and occasionally fantastic scent. You will need an acid soil for these but if you do garden on alkaline soil you can grow some of the smaller varieties in large containers using ericaceous compost. The evergreen azaleas tend to be smaller than the deciduous but don’t have any scent; yakushimanum rhododendrons are also a smaller growing, evergreen species available in a variety of colours. For scent you can’t beat the deciduous Rhododendron luteum (Azalea pontica) which grows to about 180cm (6’) and is a lovely sunshine yellow.

An easy shrub for even the most inexperienced gardener is Forsythia x intermedia but it does really need a large garden as it gives a huge blast of yellow for a couple of weeks and then is quite boring for the rest of the year. Magnolia stellata with it’s lovely white starry flowers would suit a small to medium garden as it only reaches a height of about 3m (10’), the large flowered magnolias really need a large garden but are worth finding space for in a sheltered position, as their buds are very susceptible to frost damage. Pieris is largely grown for its fresh red and pink foliage in spring, but they do have some interest for the rest of the year. They also come in varying sizes, some being suitable for even the smallest garden, ‘Little Heath’ is very slow growing, has lovely cream and light green foliage, and is quite happy growing in a container.

You can soon perk up a bland patio, backyard or entrance with some instant colour in the form of bedding plants in a container, window trough or hanging basket. The most readily available are Primulas, Bellis perennis (Daisies), Myosotis sylvatica (Forget-me-nots), Violas and Pansies. Just add some small trailing ivies and a little conifer in the centre and you have a quick, not very expensive burst of colour.

Whatever the size of your garden there are spring flowers to suit every situation from huge rhododendrons to a little pot of daffodils or dwarf tulips on the windowsill. So no excuse for not bringing a little bit of cheerfulness into a grey spring day.

Written by: Angela Slater from Hayes Garden World

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