Looking for spring planting inspiration? Designer and plantsperson Dan Pearson picks the flowers and plants he loves the most for this time of year, direct from his beautiful garden at Hillside in Somerset.
Looking for more ideas for your spring garden? Why not download this planting plan from designer Sarah Price, or try planting up Jo Thompson's spring pot.
Top plants for spring as chosen by expert designer Dan Pearson
Gladiolus tristis
Wintergreen foliage spearing the ground is welcome when the garden is dormant in autumn, but this plant can be susceptible to cold, so it’s best planted in a warm, free-draining position and worth staking with twiggery to keep it upright in winter weather. In March, the flowering shoots angle their way upward from kinks in the grassy foliage. The blooms are strongly scented at night, so plant where the sweet perfume can be savoured or caught on still evening air. Retreats to summer dormancy, so plan for its absence with later-to-emerge perennials such as asters. Easily flowers in two years from seed, and creates a long-lived cluster of corms.
Height and spread 60-80cm x 20cm.
Origin South Africa.
Conditions Well-drained soil; full sun. Hardiness RHS H4, USDA 7b-11.
Season of interest Late spring.
Ipheion ‘Alberto Castillo’
A favourite springstar with perfumed, chalk-white flowers, each with the faintest green midrib; a variant on the usual mauves. Leafing up in autumn, the low, glaucous foliage should not be overshadowed and is worth a position in the open, close to the front of a bed. The first flowers push through with breaks in the weather from as early as February, but continue profusely for the full month of April, after which they retreat into dormancy to leave room for later perennials such as Erigeron or Geranium sanguineum, which cover for their apparent absence. Best grown in full sun and a well-drained soil.
Height and spread 20cm x 20cm.
Origin Argentina and Uruguay.
Conditions Well-drained soil, full sun.
Hardiness RHS H5, USDA 5a-9b.
Season of interest Spring.
Anemone x lipsiensis ‘Pallida’
This delicate primrose-yellow anemone expresses all the optimism of April. A long-lived woodlander, once spring is underway it emerges quickly from a slowly spreading network of rhizomatous roots. First the crook of a young leaf and then, as the foliage fills out, cupped flowers held above it. Happiest where it can receive spring sunshine and then drop back into shade and cooler living once it becomes summer-dormant. Requires spring moisture, though happy to take drier conditions in summer if kept cool.
Height and spread 10cm x 40cm.
Origin Garden hybrid of A. nemorosa x A. ranunculoides.
Conditions Moisture-retentive but free-draining soil; semi-shade.
Hardiness RHS H5, USDA 5a-9b.
Season of interest Spring.
Epimedium myrianthum
Chinese epimediums are particular about a cool position, shelter from wind and not drying out during the growing season. While European epimediums are happy in drier soils and to have their foliage cut back just before flowering, I cut away only the tattiest leaves on Chinese forms like this, in the belief it helps new growth from being overexposed while it’s forming. The fresh foliage of E. myrianthum is its most remarkable asset; oval leaves are crazed with plum-and-brown marbling as they expand. The flowers are a constellation of myriad tiny, white stars. Slowly spreading and good beneath Hydrangea aspera.
Height and spread 40cm x 50cm.
Origin China.
Conditions Moist but well-drained soil; part shade and sheltered.
Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 5a-8b.
Season of interest Spring – summer.
Paeonia delavayi
This long-lived tree peony has presence in its leafy growing season and pared back stand of vertical winter ‘canes’. A ruff of sepals frames a cup of deep, mahogany-red petals, which in turn shelters a boss of violet stamens. Beloved of bumble bees with a strong and spicy scent of citrus. Voluminous summer foliage provides cool for spring erythroniums and shade-loving groundcovers. Happiest in sunshine and deep, hearty soil, but takes shade for part of the day, so a good plant for stepping from higher canopies down into a perennial layer.
Height and spread 1.5m x 2.5m.
Origin China.
Conditions Moist, well-drained soil; full sun to part shade in sheltered position.
Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 3a-8b.
Season of interest Spring (foliage and flower), summer and autumn.
Camassia leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii ‘Lady Eve Price’
The first of all the camassias to flower, and also one of the richest in colour. Slender stems rise up to 60cm and yield inky buds that open to a deep-indigo/blue-violet and contrast well against yellow stamens. Its starry flowers last just a day and travel up the stem in succession over the ten days or so that they are in flower. Their early start coincides with Paeonia mlokosewitschii and honesty. Seeds freely in a border situation, but less so in grass, where the strappy foliage goes unnoticed as it goes into summer dormancy.
Height and spread 60cm x 50cm.
Origin Garden (species western North America).
Conditions Moist, well-drained soil; full sun or part shade.
Hardiness RHS H4, USDA 5a-9b.
Season of interest Spring.
Disporum longistylum ‘Night Heron’
This Dan Hinkley selection is a delectable plant and worth finding a sheltered corner for in dappled light, but not overbearing shade. Long-lived in a loamy, well-drained soil with the addition of humus to retain moisture during the growing season. Spring growth sees plum-red spears rise vertically to about 1m before gently branching. Pendulous creamy bells hang beneath pleated foliage, which fades from bronze to apple-green in summer. Cut away old growth as new emerges. AGM.
Height and spread 90cm-1.2m x 40cm.
Origin China.
Conditions Humus-rich soil; part shade, sheltered position.
Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 5a-10b.
Season of interest Spring (emergent foliage), early summer (flower), autumn – winter (fruit).
Corydalis ochroleuca
The fresh, ferny foliage of this cream-flowered fumitory provides constancy throughout the year and is winter green in a sheltered position. An easy plant that looks most at home where it finds its own place on the shadier side of a garden. It conjures a mood of coolness and seeds about gently into cracks in walls and paving. Yellow-lipped flowers start early in the season and continue almost tirelessly until first frost. Not as riotous as its yellow cousin C. lutea, this gentle perennial is also happy in moderate sunshine and can be cut back hard when plants become tired or get burned in a hot spell.
Height and spread 30cm x 30cm.
Origin Southern and eastern Europe.
Conditions Moist but well-drained soil; any aspect, but best in part shade.
Hardiness RHS H5, USDA 4a-8b.
Season of interest Spring – autumn.
Tulipa orphanidea Whittallii Group
This diminutive tulip is thoroughly perennial given an open position with plenty of spring sunshine and summer baking. Discreet basal foliage throws a fine stem topped by onion-shaped buds, which open into cupped flowers that are yellow without and burnt orange within. When they splay open, an inky-green blotch is revealed at the base. Its punchy colouring makes a vivid presence, unusual in spring. At Hillside, we team it with acid-green Euphorbia cyparissias ‘Fens Ruby’. AGM*.
Height and spread 20cm x 15cm.
Origin Eastern Balkans, Greece and western Turkey.
Conditions Free-draining soil; full sun.
Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 4a-8b†.
Season of interest April – May.
Osmunda regalis ‘Purpurascens’
Happiest where it can get its feet into water or a steady supply of moisture, the royal fern soars to 1.5m in height, each frond arching out as the foliage expands and fills out a lush and generous splay of up to 1m across. ‘Purpurascens’ is a form selected for its cinnamon-coloured spring croziers with purple stems, most pronounced as they ascend from their mounding fibrous rootstock, paling to green as the fronds unfurl. Perhaps less vigorous than the standard green parent, but in no way diminished.
Height and spread 1.5m x 1m.
Origin Garden (species Europe, Middle East, Africa).
Conditions Moist, but well-drained soil; part shade in a sheltered position.
Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 4a-9b.
Season of interest Spring – autumn.
Salix candida
One of the last shrubby willows to catkin here at Hillside. A strong grower from North America, where it forms a fast-growing, rounded shrub, it responds well to biennial pruning and is useful in a damp spot but adaptable to a drier site. Offering bright-green shoots and plentiful silver catkins the size of broad beans, it is much loved by bees when the catkins rupture to a halo of primrose-yellow anthers. Its sage-green leaves are downy and light absorbing. Grown here on moist slopes where plants are happy among the giant horsetail.
Height and spread 2.5m x 2.5m.
Origin North America.
Conditions Moisture-retentive soil; full sun to part shade.
Hardiness RHS H5, USDA 2a-6b.
Season of interest Spring for catkins.
Pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’
Used as a silvery, light-reflecting undercurrent, ‘Diana Clare’ adds levity in shadow and bounces light where it is low. Long-lived and slowly clumping, the foliage makes a good contrast among evergreen perennials such as Tellima grandiflora and Tiarella cordifolia. Growth stirs in late winter, then deep-pink buds open into violet-blue flowers that attract early bees and maintain good poise above almost entirely silvered, speckled foliage. Flowering for eight weeks, it then goes on to flush fresh foliage, which retains health and vigour on moisture-retentive ground in a cool position. AGM.
Height and spread 30m x 30cm.
Origin Garden (species Europe).Conditions Moist but well-drained soil; full to part shade.
Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 4a-9b.
Season of interest February – May.
Ficaria verna ‘Brazen Hussy’
Christopher Lloyd named this purple-leaved form of what was then called Ranunculus ficaria, which he found in the coppice below the garden at Great Dixter. A welcome sight when it comes into leaf in January, shining liquorice-black and pristine against leaf mould. Though it likes a cool, retentive soil in spring, it’s best in a little sunshine where, in March, inky buds break to egg-yolk flowers that blink open to reflect back sunshine. Slowly clumping, it will seed true if it isn’t in the vicinity of the common green F. verna.
Height and spread 10cm x 80cm.
Origin Garden (species Europe and North Africa).
Conditions Moist but well-drained soil; full to part shade.
Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 4a-8b.
Season of interest March.
