With thanks to our resident gardener Stephen Lee
March beauties
March is always for me an amazing month. It seems to be the start of a crescendo that continues through most of the year but March is certainly the start. It also is the month where the temperature should improve and our herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees all burst forth with new growth and vigor and our evergreens too with amazing bright spring flowers. This month brings forth all our most common spring bulbs like daffodils and tulips whether they be big or small and all the little bulbs like Chinodoxa, Scilla’s, Anemone, and many others.
We have a whole variety of daffodils that flower here, they, some of the older varieties that flower at Christmas with their jolly yellow trumpet flowers. As the new year dawns there are some varieties that flower early in February, like Narcissus February Gold. But, in March most of our large trumpet daffodils flower. Outside our towns and villages and in our municipal park’s great swathes of nodding daffodil flowers, tracking the sun throughout the day and swaying in the wind.
In our gardens too where we can have a whole variety of daffodils, Chinodoxa, scilla’s, Anemones, tulips and many others, taken from inspiration from bulb catalogues in the autumn. You can of course visit your garden center and nurseries from January and pick up bulbs growing and flowering in pots and as lovely as this is, it’s not the most cost-effectiveway of buying bulbs.
Daffodils come in many forms and can flower as late as May. I like the lovely golden yellow ones but also two tone or doubles as I feel you’re getting more for your money. Quite a lot of daffodils are scented so this is also a consideration when buying them.
Chinodoxa, lovely small bulb flowering in March. Often blue like Chionodoxa sarnensis but can be white and lovely clear pink shades Chinodoxa rose queen being particularly nice. These are quite lovely open star shaped flowers.
Scilla’s, again a lovely small bulb with rich blue flowers Scillia siberica with small pointed bell shaped and white flowers Scillia suberica album.
Anemone, these usually from small corms (bulbs) Anemone blanda being most common in shades of pale to rich blue but some are white like Anemone white splendor and occationally pink. However, some of the rhizomatic (roots) types like Anemone apinina can be and are quite rewarding plants that multiply quickly and both are great for a area under trees.
As for tulips, they again can flower from March but their main flowering period is from mid-April to May and like daffodils there are many to interest us with the shape colour and form.
Below is a gallery of pictures relating to March
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