Surrey Homes | SH30 | April 2017 |Gardens supplement inside

WT Garden Supplement
April Treats
Sue Whigham selects some beautiful spring
goodies to bring your garden to life
Whilst March is the month when things start
tentatively unfurling and lifting their heads
above the parapet, only to flinch as another
stormy day approaches, April really is the time when
spring flowers start bursting into life. And of course it’s
the month when bulbs really come into their own.
Then there is the blossom on the crab apples, the
pears and the dramatic appearance of magnolia flowers
while in the woods the iconic bluebells carpet the
ground before the deciduous leaf canopy grows over
and they lose much of the light. It is interesting how so
many spring blooming plants are shade lovers or partial
shade lovers and of course for the same reason.
Wood anemones carpet the ground in shady areas early in
the month. A. nemorosa (AGM) is one of the earliest of spring
flowers and its star-shaped white flowers are so refreshing
after a long winter. Once they have finished flowering, their
foliage disappears until next year. They take a very long
time to spread and you may want to grow A. blanda instead
which self sows rapidly. There are blue and white forms of
Anemone blanda. A choice wood anemone is A. nemorosa
‘Robinsoniana’ (AGM), named after William Robinson, which
is a pale blue and which looks wonderful with cowslips.
My mother, now in her ninety-third year, remembers
clouds of cowslips growing wild in her youth and just ready
for the picking. These are our native primulas, P. veris,
and their lemony yellow flowers last right through until
May. They are just lovely and wow, they spread rapidly so
that we too can have a sea of them although perhaps not
on the verges and in the meadows as they used to be.
One of my favourite groups of plants in April are the
Credit: FreeImages.com/helenhumphrey
“...in the woods the
iconic bluebells carpet
the ground before the
deciduous leaf canopy
grows over and they lose
much of the light”
17 wealdentimes.co.uk