In the Garden: Flowers bring a pop of spring colour

THE mild temperatures and plentiful rainfall of the last few weeks are encouraging plenty of buds to burst forth this spring.

It’s a time of great hope with much to look forward to in the garden for the growing year ahead.

The spring bulbs are at their best right now, with daffodils dancing in the wind, tulips colouring up, and fritillarias appearing in the grass - they really are a great bulb to naturalize in grass areas, reappearing each year and encouraging us to delay mowing for longer to allow the green foliage to die back and return nutrients to the bulb for next years display.

Snowdrops have finished flowering for the most part and now is a good time to consider splitting and dividing larger clumps to plant elsewhere in the garden.

The longer evenings will tempt us out into the garden to get the last of the pruning completed and plants divided or moved.

It is a time of great planning and scheming for the growing year ahead and a busy time in the garden as we prepare for growth.

‘No mow May’ is fast approaching so consider keeping the lawnmower in the shed for a few weeks longer this year, and maybe even give over some of the lawn to long grass this summer, allowing wildflowers to blossom and provide pollen and nectar for pollinators.

Linda Murphy gave a talk for the Cork Alpine/Hardy Plants Society recently and spoke about ‘An approach to garden design’. As a lecturer in Garden Design at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin and an avid gardener herself, she gave some great insights into the training provided for garden designers. The bigger considerations from the outset of designing a garden being:

Topography and looking at the natural features of the landscape, sloping or flat and how this can be used to enhance the design.

Hard landscaping, considering what materials to use for any built structures in the garden and what is local to the area, materials the house is built from, where seating areas and patios are best located to maximize on light and creating shelter

Water, and where it is might best be located within a design to provide a focal point, give the soothing sound effect, increase biodiveristy, or give reflection.

Plant materials are probably what we focus on the most, and they provide the finishing touches to the design. Less is more, using more of the same plant material throughout the garden to create more unity and continuity in the planting.

It’s an interesting approach and one that Linda adopts herself in her own garden, growing lots of Acers, Viburnums and Hydranges in particular.

Acers provide interest all year round with attractive fresh new foliage in summer, delicate coloured foliage during summer, spectacular autumn colour and winter interest with their bark.

A lot of Acers do not get too large in size, making them suitable for a suburban garden setting.

Viburnums are a great genus of plants, some evergreen and some deciduous with many producing flowers in late winter and early spring which are highly scented.

Hydranges are a great summer stalwart, producing colour from midsummer into the autumn, and they do well in our damp climate, they are useful for layering, creating an under-storey layer beneath the Acers.

There was some discussion about screening and how to effectively achieve this in an urban setting, with trellising used for immediate results and growing climbing roses, clematis and other wall shrubs on the trellis to soften the effect.

It certainly was a thought-provoking lecture and reinforced that we all have a different approach to garden design and what we are ultimately trying to achieve in our own gardens.

Attending these talks does make us reflect on our own gardens and the direction that we are going, and how to get there! It is great to see these garden talks happening once more with gardeners gathering in numbers and exchanging ideas and plants.

The Cork Alpine/Hardy Plants Society have a speaker every month, with Carl Wright next month speaking about his garden and Caher Bridge, check out their facebook page for more details.

Plant of the Week

Viburnum Carlesii is a deciduous shrub also known as Korean spice bush.

It bears rounded clusters of white flowers which emerge from pink buds in springtime and they are heavenly fragranced.

This shrub will grow in full sun or partial shade, getting to about two metres in height and spread.

It will do best in a good free-draining soil and produces some good autumn leaf colour also. A worthy shrub for the garden!