Lighting up time

DESPITE the cold weather, gardens are responding to the increasing daylight. A close inspection of the soil reveals signs of new shoots.

Daffodils abound this month. Early flowering varieties have been blooming for a few weeks and their later flowering relatives will gradually join them.

As spring progresses, daffodils will fade and be replaced with bluebells and tulips, but at the moment they have centre stage, filling the garden with their yellow, white, orange and occasionally pink trumpets.

Two of my favourite spring-flowering plants are in bloom in our garden at the moment. Clematis armandii and Euphorbia wulfenii are in full swing and, although they have been written about before in this column, deserve another mention.

The clematis, which is the variety Apple Blossom, has been covered in slowly fattening buds for weeks and a few began opening last week. It is sited on a wall opposite our kitchen window. I have checked the buds' progress several times a day, impatiently waiting for them to open because the plant was new last spring and didn't flower.

The blooms of this variety are dusty pink on the back of the petals and greenish on the inside with pale, dull yellow stamens. They are not particularly big, about 4cm across when open, but this hardly matters when a single flower is accompanied by scores of others.

Euphorbia wulfenii is a great plant to have for dramatic impact. The long stems grow two metres or more high and form a large clump of evergreen, soft grey-green foliage topped with large heads of bright yellow green flowers in early spring.

Easy to grow, it will quickly develop into a large plant ideal for a dry sunny spot against a sheltered wall, where it will need little attention apart from the removal of old stems every now and then.

If space is limited, this euphorbia will need to be supported to stop the lower stems smothering smaller plants; but it is worth the effort for the height and movement it gives so early in the season.

Large specimens such as the two plants above muscle their way forward in the early spring garden and can overshadow the work being done by quieter members of the garden.

Among these is the common Pulmonaria officinalis, a low-growing plant with pink flowers that turn blue as they mature. The leaves are insignificant at the moment but as the flowers fade they will increase in size and develop their characteristic silver spots.

This plant will grow in most situations, but is best in moist soil as the leaves tend to get mildewed if the soil gets dry in summer.

Put it with small daffodils and crocus, but best of all with the pale yellow Primula vulgaris. This lovely combination of flower colour and leaf texture carries hints of a damp countryside bank, which is where these plants can be found in the wild.

Brunnera macrophylla Dawson's White is a lovely plant, usually grown for its large white-marked leaves rather than the sprays of small blue flowers in spring. It dies back in winter but by March has usually grown enough to form a small mound of pale foliage, with the beginnings of tiny flower stems and buds.

The leaves will get larger as the weeks pass, eventually forming a large clump that will last all summer.

It needs a rich soil in a sheltered shady place as the leaves tend to get scorched and spoilt in an exposed position.

Geranium x oxonianum Spring Fling is a one season plant with wonderful foliage in shades of pink, cream, green, brown and yellow lasting a few weeks from late February to April, depending on the weather.

As the leaves mature they fade to green and there are insignificant flowers, but that burst of colour at the beginning is worth the short season of interest.

Updated: 09:41 Saturday, March 13, 2004