If you live up North and are anything like me, Spring is the time of year you come alive again. Another thing that also returns to life are our Spring flowers. Here are some ideas for flowers that look staggeringly gorgeous in your yard when they blossom each Spring. Azaleas. Hugely popular in Japan, Azaleas are the one thing in my garden I couldn’t live without. They’re similar to Rhododendrons, only smaller and with one flower on each stem rather than the riots of blossoms that Rhododendrons produce. They come in so many gorgeous colors too that I like to have several in the yard for variety’s sake. They are bold and they are beautiful and they come in majestic reds, bold purples, pristine and pretty pinks and soothing whites, along with many other colors. They can be lovely along borders or just simply planted beside your other flowers. Rhododendrons. These are well known to everyone and fairly common in most yards, but they’re still lovely all the same. It’s best to have a fair amount of space if you want to plant Rhododendrons as they grow to quite lofty heights, but they can also be trimmed and pruned and kept smaller if you prefer. They’re always a welcome addition in my yard when it comes to heralding Spring. Forget-Me-Not. Forget-Me-Nots may be considered weeds by some people, but I adore them. They’ve been loved by many over the centuries, especially poets, philosophers and writers. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The mouse-ear forget-me-not, Myosotis laxa, hangs over the edge of the brook. It is one of the most interesting minute flowers. It is the more beautiful for being small and unpretending; even flowers must be modest.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow spoke of them, saying, “Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of Heaven, blossom the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.” Even the spiritual poet Shiraz spoke highly of them, relating the following story: “It was in the golden morning of the early world, when an angel sat weeping outside the closed gates of Eden. He had fallen from his high estate through loving a daughter of the earth, nor was he permitted to enter again until she whom he loved had planted the flowers of the forget-me-not in every corner of the world. He returned to the earth and assisted her, and they went hand-in-hand over the world planting the forget-me-not. When their task was ended, they entered Paradise together; for the fair woman, without tasting the bitterness of death, became immortal like the angel, whose love her beauty had won, when she sat by the river twining the forget-me-not in her hair.”
Clematis. This beautiful flowering vine belongs in everybody’s yard. Thought to come from China and Japan, there are over 250 different species and the large and colorful blossoms are a welcome addition to any trellis. Wind them around your house, your trellis or your fence and you’ll smile when they blossom and greet you each Spring.
When I’m planning out what flowers I want for my annual Spring planting sessions I always like to explore other gardens and manor houses to get a feel for what I like and then consider if something similar will work in my own yard. Most of the time it does, although often it does have to be scaled down quite a bit! I do this every Spring to get new ideas as while Spring flowers like Azaleas might seem common, they’re not if you plant them in a certain way and with other flowers that team up nicely with them. You can always look through magazines, books or the internet to get ideas about your Spring garden, but seeing them up close somewhere does a lot to get the ideas flowing for me.
One thing I’ve found helpful is to bypass larger gardening and/or home improvement stores like Home Depot and go for tools that are hand-forged. One place I love is Bulldog Tools, and, while a bit pricey, the tools should last a lifetime and I’ve noticed a huge difference in the ease of gardening with hand-forged spades when compared with the other versions on the market.
Your Spring garden will bring you great joy each year as the snow gently melts away and the heather bursts forth with bright purple flowers, so plan your garden in such a way that will allow for bright blooms to spring forth which will surely be a welcome sight towards the end of each Winter.
Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/articles/2008/01/08/azalea_feature.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Rhododendron
http://www.gardenersnet.com/flower/fmn.htm
http://www.flowerforyou.org/forget-me-not.html
http://www.britishclematis.org.uk/