Expert Gardener Unveils Essential Plants for a Vibrant Spring Display
As winter fades and spring approaches, garden enthusiasts are seeking early seasonal colour and texture to transform their outdoor spaces. According to multi-award winning garden designer, TV presenter, and author Ann-Marie Powell, strategic plant selection is key to creating an inviting spring garden.
"What you need coming out of winter is lots of pots by your back door, because you can see them straight away, which will entice you out," explains Powell, whose new book A Year Of Colour provides year-round gardening inspiration. Here, she details her top plant recommendations for spring.
Iris Reticulata: Early Spring Awakening
Powell particularly favours Iris 'Pixie' and 'Angela', describing the latter as "a paler blue with a purple glow and an orange blotch in the fall of the petal." She recommends pairing these with Crocus 'Orange Monarch' for a striking combination. "If you plant those together you have a gorgeous awakening that is jazzed up with the bright orange and pale blue," she says, noting this unusual pairing "just makes your heart sing."
While irises are short-lived, Powell suggests planting them in the top layer of containers with violas, with tulip bulbs underneath that will emerge later in spring.
Perennial Tulips: Lasting Colour Impact
For tulips, Powell recommends perennial varieties that return year after year without needing lifting. Her favourite is Tulipa 'Sonnet', which features "beautiful pinky purple elongated blooms with apricot and yellow flames to the edges." She describes it as "like a stained glass window when caught in the light."
This versatile tulip can be mixed with deep plummy maroons and blacks like 'Queen Of Night' or bright oranges like 'Ballerina'. Powell also suggests combining with 'Bourbon Street' for an orangey-red accent. For dramatic effect, she recommends 'Banja Luka', a "golden yellow streaked with red" goblet-shaped plant.
Powell notes perennial tulips perform better in borders than pots due to richer soil nutrients. She plants in clumps of twelve mixed colours, creating intentional repetition throughout the garden. "You get a mixed array, but it looks more purposeful and gives you more impact," she explains, adding that later-emerging perennials will cover spent tulip foliage.
Important tip: Plant tulips at least two feet from border fronts to hide fading leaves.
Amelanchier x Lamarckii: The Essential Spring Tree
"If you plant one tree in your garden it's got to be an Amelanchier x lamarckii, especially in spring," Powell declares. The 'Ballerina' variety is smaller than standard types, making it suitable for modest gardens.
This tree offers "brilliant season of interest," with beautiful white, pink, and peach flowers appearing on bare branches in early spring. "That makes your eye lift up so you are looking at the sky," Powell notes. "In spring, many things tend to be at ground level, but flowering trees really lift the scene."
Powell plants amelanchiers on either side of paths to create archways framing garden views. While possible in pots, they require extra nutrients and water when container-grown.
Foliage Beauty: Early Season Texture
With fewer flowers available early in spring, Powell emphasizes foliage's importance. "When new rose foliage emerges, you'll see rich red young leaves and glorious red stems," she enthuses.
She recommends combining roses with Rodgersia in shady areas with challenging soil. Ferns also provide early interest with lime greens of matteuccias and fresh green crosiers of Polystichum Herrenhausen. "I love watching a fern unfold. It's almost prehistoric and adds colour and excitement where other colour will come later," Powell says.
For layered borders, she suggests growing roses like Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis' and 'Night Owl' alongside ferns, with perennials between to extend the display.
Anemones: Jolly Spring Companions
These perennial bulbs provide rich spring colour, with Powell particularly praising the sapphire anemone 'Mr Fokker'. "They are just so jolly," she says, comparing their emergence to "meerkats with slightly nodding heads before blooms fully open."
Powell marvels at how "glamorous and beautiful" flowers emerge from "weird, shrivelled up nuts" of bulbs, noting their pretty ferny foliage. She plants anemones in borders where they thrive in sun, often pairing them in pots with daffodils, grape hyacinths, and pansies.
Even after petals fall, anemone seedheads remain attractive, resembling "silky little purses" that may feed garden birds.
A Year Of Colour by Ann-Marie Powell is published by Frances Lincoln, priced £25 and available now.
