The February Garden …

As we encourage Marc outside into the garden, surrounded by nature, our garden’s flowers are appearing in ever greater numbers and colours. Each acting as a beacon, both guiding and calling to his senses, calming him and stimulating his mind.

Daphne ‘Perfume Princess’ is widely considered the most fragrant daphne, boasting large, sweetly scented, pale pink flowers and a more vigorous, robust growth habit compared to other varieties. It blooms from mid-winter to spring, offering a stronger scent than the classic Daphne.

Tulips provide a splash of spring colour in dazzling shades. Different flower forms add to this variety, with lily-, fringed-, parrot- and peony-flowered forms. They are ideal for filling borders, growing in rock gardens and for bedding schemes. A few smaller specialist tulips are best grown in a cool greenhouse.

Tulips grow well in soil rich in organic matter. They like a cool moist conditions in spring, with a dry warm summer conditions for their summer ‘rest’ (dormancy). Most grow in an open position full sun, although some tolerate part-shade.

In mid- to late spring, cup-shaped flowers rise on single stems above wide strap-like green or green-grey leaves. Flowers stalks emerge from cream-white bulbs covered by a papery brown skin.

Tulips like good drainage, so don’t do well on very heavy clay soils where bulbs may rot if the ground becomes waterlogged.

The species tulip, Tulipa sprengeri, was first introduced to cultivation in Turkey in the nineteenth century. Sadly, it is now extinct in the wild but still thrives in gardens, naturalising in part-shade on moisture-retentive soils.
(RHS)

Chaenomeles is a genus of four species of deciduous spiny shrubs, usually 1–3 m tall, in the family Rosaceae. They are native to Eastern Asia. These plants are related to the quince (Cydonia oblonga) and the Chinese quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis), differing in the serrated leaves that lack fuzz, and in the flowers, borne in clusters, having deciduous sepals and styles that are connate at the base.

The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, and have a serrated margin. The flowers are 3–4.5 cm diameter, with five petals, and are usually bright orange-red, but can be white or pink; flowering is in late winter or early spring. The fruit is a pome with five carpels; it ripens in late autumn.

Bee-friendly, brightly coloured cup-shaped flowers during spring. Crocus bulbs are quick to establish and soon naturalise when planted in grass or beds and borders, producing larger and larger natural ‘drifts’ of colour every spring.

Beguiling, low-growing plants, reticulata iris produce their colourful and lightly scented blooms in late winter and early spring. Outside, they will add early interest at the front of a sunny border, gravel garden or alpine bed, but they also make excellent additions to pots and can even be brought inside for a short time when in flower.
(RHS)

Whether you need to fill containers, plant up a streamside, wildflower area or border, primulas dazzle with dolly mixture shades from spring through to late summer. – Ours start flowering in the coldest depths pf winter – They are all hardy perennials, with a few needing specialist growing conditions, but most are robust and many are scented.
(RHS)