Early flowering plants for February and March

Primula ‘Elizabeth Browning’

Winter is starting to get a bit dreary and we’re itching to get back into the garden. Already strolling around, looking at beds to see what is starting to come up and in some cases, being a little surprised by how big certain plants seem to have gotten based on the larger area than last year that their shoots are coming up in. Some digging out and moving plants around may be in the relatively near future. For now though, with the days getting brighter and longer talk is turning to what the best plants for some early flowers in the garden are.  A spring border (or spring flowers included in a border), and early flowering perennials planted under and around trees and shrubs bring a welcome and needed infusion of beauty, affirmation of life and joyful colour.

The quiet, sleeping peace of winter is beautiful in its own pure and elemental way but these early spring flowers really do lift the spirits with their hints of what is to come over the rest of the season.

In February, just around the corner now as I write in mid January, we await Primula ‘Elisabeth Browning’ and Primula vulgaris. Some people hear ‘Primula’ and assume really early flowering and this is true for some varieties but actually a lot of varieties, for example the candelabra types amongst others, bloom around midsummer. Have a look at the flowering times of any Primulas you buy if you’re planning on an early blooming plantings.

Primula ‘Elisabeth Browning’ has pale creamy white flowers. Smaller and more delicate than many primula flowers and absolutely loads of them. A really sweet gentle first bloomer to ease us into the season. Primula vulgaris is native to Ireland, one of our wild flowers. It is a protected species and cannot be picked or dug up in the wild. I’m sure most everyone in Ireland is familiar with its creamy yellow flowers that are an important source of food to bumble bees waking up from hibernation. Both of these Primula like moist, well-drained soil in partial shade. Elisabeth Browning grows to 15cm, very dinky, and vulgaris to 20cm.

February flies by, with more birdsong, shoots , leaves and buds appearing daily. The palette of March perennials expands to include some deep blues and reds. Some of our favourite March flowers include: Saxifraga ‘Red Pixie’, Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’, Primula veris, Cardamine pratensis and Anenome nemerosa ‘Robinsoniana’. A variety in habitat, form and colour is now available. We can choose to have early flowering plants in many parts of the garden or even in pots.

Saxifraga ‘Red Pixie’ is a small plant with toothed leaves holding its magenta-red flowers proudly on stems up to 10cm high. It flowers from March to June and is an out standing little plant. It does well on the edge of a border, in a rockery that doesn’t totally dry out and in pots. A group planting gives a good visual impact.

For slightly damper ground Cardamine pratensis (one of our native Irish plants) with its light purple-pink flowers or Primula veris (cowslip, another native Irish wild flower) with its distinctive drooping yellow bell shaped flowers held in whorls are excellent choices. Its lovely to see the flowers we knew from childhood in our gardens. So many visitors to the nursery are delighted to see Primula veris, remembering how it grew in loads of places when they were children but its not as common in the wild anymore. How nice, and beneficial to nature, to be able to preserve our native Irish wild flowers in our gardens. Cardamine pratensis grows up to 40cm and Primula veris to 20cm. Both bloom from March to May.

Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’ and Anenome nemerosa ‘Robinsoniana’, both with blue flowers, will grow happily in a woodland garden or in a border. The ‘Blue Ensign’ has startlingly indigo bell shaped flowers and the distinctive soft feeling spotted lungwort leaves. As a child I was so enamoured of Pulmonaria, its soft spotty leaves, the gentle arches of the flower bearing stems and the jolly, bright coloured bell shaped flowers that I had it in a pot on my bedroom window sill. It can grow in containers with careful watering. Anenome nemerosa ‘Robinsoniana’ has almost electric blue star shaped flowers held above its divided leaves and will happily naturalise in partial shade, forming a carpet.

Jasminum nudiflorum, a winter flowering Jasmine grows to 1.5m and bears yellow flowers on bare stems in winter or early spring. It can be grown with support or as ground cover. The tough flowers will come even in very cold temperatures. Last but not least, a real gem for early interest in the garden is Salix gracilistyla ‘Mount Aso’. This shrub grows to 1.5m and has beautiful fuzzy pink and silver upright catkins in late winter to early spring on pinkish bare wood. They look fantastic in the pale wintery light.