Don’t we all love the first blossoms of late winter and early spring? Don’t we savor each and every flower that springs forth from soil that was frozen ice-solid just a week or so earlier?
Well, I do. And I especially love the first shrubs that grace us with their pretty blossoms in spring. But let’s face it: designing around shrubs that bloom before we’ve stored away the snow shovels is not a big priority for most gardeners, which is a shame, really, because these hardy stalwarts deserve some eye candy at their feet! And there’s lots of early spring eye candy, if you put your mind to it.
Let’s take the hardy Asian witch hazel hybrid ‘Primavera’ (Hamamelis x intermedia). Actually, I could substitute any number of spring-flowering, hybrid Asian witch hazels, but ‘Primavera’ is hardy in my neck of the woods. So why must she appear without pretty companions? After all, this is showtime for the small, gorgeous spring bulbs that give us so much joy in March or April (even February, depending on your region and on the vagaries of spring itself).
Here are eight tiny choristers for your witch hazel star. This autumn, as soon as the small spring bulbs become available, mix a few kinds (or all) in a basket, dig them in, and give that pretty witch some colourful spring company.
Eight spring-flowering bulbs for an Asian hybrid witch hazel.
1 Crocus tomassinianus
2 Iris ‘Katherine Hodgkin’
3 Iris danfordiae
4 Iris reticulata
5 Eranthis hyemalis
6 Scilla forbesii ‘Violet Beauty’ (formerly Chionodoxa)
7 Scilla sibirica
8 Crocus chrysanthus ‘Cream Beauty’
Fabulous!! I agree, we need more planning to make the most of the early bloomers. This is great!
Thanks, Theresa. The soft yellows, purples and blues of spring are so beautiful, but they tend to be spread out over our gardens at this time of year.
Thanks, Janet, for the ideas. What about some larger specimens? At the Witt Winter Garden in the Washington Park Arboretum (Seattle), I liked seeing them under-planted with Helleborus foetidus and Sarcocca. You could also contrast the ephemeral bulbs with ordinary Ophiopogon as a ground-cover. The list of plants they are using at Witt is available online [http://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/docs/WinterGardenMap2010.pdf]
Absolutely, Grace. Beautiful ideas there, but a true “Winter Garden” is kind of a west coast thing (given our extreme winter temperatures in the east), so we’d be restricted to the hellebores and hardy heaths, etc. But even cold-climate gardeners can make a vignette with other early-flowering shrubs/trees such as cornelian cherry, magnolias, etc.
Oh, I didn’t even think of that! Silly me and my west-coast-centric ideas!