Stormy
March
rushes in, desperate to announce the spring
Bulbs lead the way in March and daffodils set the colour of the month. It’s picked up in the almost blinding brilliant of the Marsh Marigolds in our pond.
We can’t speak highly enough of the Variagated Coronilla shown below. It often flowers for months before spring, but not this year. Omphalodes Cappadocica are shown bottom
We can watch the Kitchen Garden wake up while taking coffee in the greenhouse, even on the colder days. We’ve taken out a hedge so we can view the White Garden from the same vantage point. Anenome Blanda is pictured above.
Our Wild Spectacle feature lives up to its name with hillsides transformed by endless mauve goblets of Pasque Flowers.
This site supposedly has 60,000 plants.
Early sun gives encouragement to many mainly low blue and white flowers in the borders.
Top March plants
Brunnera
These reliable shade loving perennials offer foliage, forget-me-not flowers and ground cover. Pictured is Brunnera Jack Frost, which has spectacularly patterned heart-shaped leaves. It seeds around too. We also have the classic blue version as well as a white.
Top plants – when they flower – what they bring to the garden
| 1. Brunnera Jack Frost | Feb-May | Forget-me-not blue sprays |
| 2. Euphorbia Wulfenii | All seasons | Swaying towers of green |
| 3. Bergenia Silberlicht | Feb-April | Elephant Ears in white |
| 4. Tete-a-tete Daffodils | Feb-Mar | Multiheaded mini daffs |
| 5. Marsh Marigold | Feb-May | Vibrant yellow water and bog plant |
| 6. Omphalodes Cappadocica | Feb-May | Early sky-blue creeper |
| 7. Ipheion Spring Star | Mar-April | Mass of low lilac stars |
| 8. Iris Reticulata | Feb-Mar | Short arrows of navy blue |
| 9. Euphorbia Myrsinites | All-seasons | Escher-inspired pistachio rattlesnakes |
| 10. Anenome Blanda | Feb-Mar | Classic white anenome |
And more...
Dwarf Iris
Chives
Anthemis
Daffodils
Camassia
Periwrinkle
Chilean Glory Vine
Harts Tongue ferns are unfurling
The Kitchen Garden
This year the garden is waking up later. It’s not a productive month for the Kitchen Garden but the Ipheion Spring Star is reliably starry.
The Chilean glory vine (pictured) is flowering and will still be pumping out flowers until autumn. Under the plum tree, ferns emerge from a tapestry woven of European ginger, violets and periwinkle.
Garden Rooms in March
Wild spectacle: Pasque Flowers
The Pasque Flower is everything you want a wild-flower to be: exquisite as a single specimen, but mind-blowing in profusion. They emerge at Easter, hence the name and require particular conditions to perform at their best.
We’re lucky to have one of the best sites for it close by, and when the sun catches a hillside full of them, they take your breath away. They even have intriguing spidery seedheads.
