A Walk Through The Early Spring Garden

IF YOU’RE ANYTHING LIKE ME, THE LONG WINTER MAKES THOSE EARLY SPRING GARDEN ARRIVALS ALL THE MORE PRECIOUS AND WELCOME. 

If you had the foresight to plant bulbs last spring, or in previous years, then many, like Snowdrops (mine are already finishing up), Crocus, Eranthus, Scilla, Puschkinia, and Hyacinths are now blooming. My Chionodoxa are beginning to bloom a bit, too. All of these are true perennials and will come up each year.

My tulips have started to grow, with a few early ones already budded.  Bear in mind, that tulips are particularly delicious to deer and rabbits. My resident bunny has done a little nibbling already, but the minute I noticed, I ran out and gave all my tulips, and there are hundreds, a liberal sprinkling of Plantskydd granules, which I swear by.

Most of the Narcissus (daffodils) that I grow are late blooming ones. Along the outside of my stonewall are masses of white ones called N. ‘Pueblo’ and they have started to send up leaves.

I also grow a few with apricot trumpets and I’m starting to include more Poeticus types.

The buds on my Abeliophyllum distichum are plumping up nicely and it should be in bloom within a week.  This is an underused shrub that sports white flowers blushed with a whisper of pink.  It is also known as Korean Forsythia, although it is not a forsythia at all.

Witch Hazels are such a lovely sight in very early spring and some are fragrant, too.

Early spring garden talk must include Hellebores.

They are the earliest blooming perennials in my yard and a welcome sight, indeed. They are a bit pricey, I will admit, but there is a reason for that. They grow ever so slowly. The colors a can be mysterious, subtle, muted, and often watercolor-like. There are ruffled ones, doubles, semi- doubles, and singles in a range of shades from white, soft green, mauve, pink, golden, aubergine and slate. They even come spotted and speckled.  Every one of them is divine!

The very earliest is the Helleborus niger. This is the so-called Christmas Rose.  In warmer areas it may bloom at Christmas, but mine doesn’t wake up until early to mid-March, or so.  It blooms, at least, 3 weeks before my H. orientalis and other Hellebore species. It starts out white, and, over time, fades to a dreamy shade of warm pink. We have an outstanding collection Hellebores at Kennedy’s, right now. I advise getting in, as soon as you can, to gather the ones you have been fantasizing about.

I hope you will come into Kennedy’s and browse the amazing selection of both early bloomers and what’s coming along for May and June.  If you have requests for plants  that there may not be enough of on our benches or even something else we may not have, please let me know at perennials@kennedyscountrygardens.com

Happy Gardening!
The Staff at Kennedy’s