March flower delights – Colour returns

I am linking up with Chloris for a review of my top ten plants for March. I admit that they are mostly stalwarts, but I couldn’t be without them and think it spring. March should mark the beginning of spring after all! Things are a bit slow this year though, with the snow and cold we’ve been having.

First up, and very fresh looking is:

Iris tuberosa

Iris tuberosa (aka the Widow Iris, snake’s-head iris or, best, velvet flower-de-luce) comes up early in the year like a clump of sharply-pointed course grass. Around early March you must watch it closely if you want to see the flowers as they are easily overlooked, they are mostly green: a translucent olive colour, except for the black lips/falls. I’ve seen the falls described as deep purple, but with the velvet sheen in sunlight they look quite black to me.

Plants slowly spread to establish good sized clumps. They like sunny positions and well drained soil. Apparently, it has a delicate scent, but I confess to never having noticed.

Just gorgeous!

Amaryllis/Hippeastrum

For the last few years I’ve been buying amaryllis of (to my mind) a more exotic persuasion: interesting shapes like the spider group and colours (as dark as I can find). Sadly, I’ve been disappointed because when they finally opened the flowers have not been as advertised. This year I purchased  H. ‘Bogota’ and H. ‘Sumatra’ (from Crocus in fact). The ‘Bogota’ opened shortly after Christmas was a fairly standard apple-blossom type, not as advertised (OK it was still pretty, but grrr.)

However, the ‘Sumatra’ has delighted me for the last month or so. Not only is the flower delightfully balletic, but a third flower spike is now shooting up and will open in a few of days, so there is more to enjoy.

Hippeastrum ‘Sumatra’

I will definitely keep this one going for next year.

Crocuses

I can’t imagine ‘Spring’ without crocuses.  If the weather is miserable, then they adopt their wonderful goblet shape, incidentally revealing the beautiful markings on the outside. They are made for shrugging off raindrops.

Prins Claus

Pickwick

Crocus ‘Prins Claus’                                         and Crocus ‘Pickwick’

In sunshine, they stretch their petals out to reveal brilliant golden stamen and open cups which make easy landing pads for stumbling, newly-awakened insects.

Jeanne d’Arc

Ruby Giant

Crocus ‘Jeanne d’Arc’                         and Crocus ‘Ruby Giant’

They are a tremendous nectar source for these early emerging pollinators and even a small patch vibrates with a swell of gentle buzzing as the honey bees start to fly again.

Primroses

As a child, my Mum would take us kids on a bus every Easter to picnic in Cobham woods. The woods were coppiced regularly, promoting glade plants and I have happy memories of spreading blankets to eat our sandwiches on banks covered with primroses.

In the garden this year our primroses have been flowering since before Christmas, but March has seen an explosion in the number of blooms produced over all.

My efforts of transplanting seedlings from front to back garden are paying off as there are now mounds of primroses multiplying in the meadow too. Whatever the weather, the ground looks like it is covered in a carpet of sunshine.

Hellebores

I’ve been moving lots of self-seeded hellebores from the bark chipping path in the front garden to new permanent homes in the borders. These seedlings are showing up in various shades of pink, from parent clumps on either side of the path, white on one side and deep plum on the other. I love them, especially the plum colour, but they are all plain and single. I felt that it was time to diversify.

So last spring I bought two new ones (Helleborus × hybridus ‘Harvington pink speckled’ and ‘Harvington cream speckled’). Unfortunately, the pots fell over in the car on the way home and both ended up pretty battered. In fact, the pink was snapped off. I wasn’t sure that the damaged crowns would survive. Well happily, they have come back (if not bulked up) and I am optimistic for more flower spikes next year. This year I am on the look out for a double yellow. Imagine the variety in the self-seeds in the path in a few years time!

Species Tulips

As March has progressed these have taken over from the crocuses in providing open cups of nectar and pollen for the early insects. Tulipa ‘Hearts Delight’ is a favourite, with its red-marked leaves and rosy tipped petals, but there is nothing funnier than watching the buff-tailed bumblebees land on Tulipa turkestanica, since they dwarf the flowers and tip the whole spike over.

T. kaufmanniana ‘Heart’s Delight’

Tulipa praestans

Tulipa turkestanica

Muscari

Last year I experimented with Muscari macrocarpum ‘Golden Fragrance’ and Muscari muscarimi (here) and they are coming up again, but aren’t out just yet. This year I am trying M. latifolium ‘Grape Ice’ and they are a big success. I particularly love their appearance when they are just about to open, clenched fists and sliding through colours look like samples on litmus paper. I imagine that they would look great in a posey with some Cerinthe major.

Muscari ‘Grape Ice’ in bud

Muscari ‘Grape Ice’ in bloom

 

Hyacinths

I visited Alan Shipp’s National collection of hyacinths last weekend and the scent was wonderful (future post), so hyacinth have to be in this month’s top picks. At home Hyacinth ‘Delft Blue’ remains a firm favourite, with it’s lovely two-tone bells: sky blue fading to purple. The fact that its blue shades are a particular bumblebee magnet adds to its charm. I would hate to be without them.

Hyacinth ‘Delft Blue’

Anemone

Anemone blanda in shades of white and blue are irresistible. I tend to buy corms of the blue, but come spring can’t resist pots of white.

Anemone blanda

Anemone coronaria

Anemone blanda

A. coronaria are just start to flower now too.

Narcissus

This is the second year that I’ve planted a sack of wild daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) in our small meadow area. Initially I though that the muntjac had eaten them as they came up, but I am now seeing ” … a crowd, A host of golden daffodils“

Well maybe that is exaggerating a bit, but we’ve made a good start.

What is looking good in your garden?

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