Early Spring Flowering Shrubs for your Garden

I discovered this plant two weeks ago on one of my routine garden audits. I walked into a client’s back garden and was overwhelmed by the sweet fragrance.  As I walked around the garden I came across a fabulous evergreen medium sized shrub flowering its little heart out. It had variegated long green glossy leaves with pale purple clusters of fragment flowers and it was growing very happily under the shadow of a neighbour’s conifer tree. The soil around it was damp and it did not seem to be getting a lot of sunlight. It was Daphne odora “Aureomarginata”.   I think it would make a superb addition to any garden, giving it a lift over the winter and early spring months. Needless to say I have now purchased one and have planted it in a semi-shady position in the garden.

Most Daphne prefers to be out of direct sunlight in a semi shade and neutral soil if possible.  If you have acidic soil when planting Daphne’s add some lime or lime free compost.  Prune with caution as Daphne does not respond well to hard pruning and can often suffer from die back so choose your variety carefully for the space you have in mind in your garden. Other varieties include Daphne X medfordensis which is smaller, a perfect addition to a rock garden and Daphne odora F. Alba, a good container plant.                                                                               

Kerria Japonica “Pleniflora”– (Bachelors Buttons) is a deciduous shrub that has lovely fluffy double yellow flowers on bear green stems in early spring.  It is my favourite spring flowering shrub as it gives the garden a lift is one of the first cut flowers of the year brought from garden to house. It will tolerate any soil types but prefers a moist and well-drained soil. It will take an exposed or sheltered site and can grow to a height of up to 3 metres if allowed.  It is recommended to prune Kerria immediately after flowering, cutting out 1 in every 3 stems to ground level each year.  It is a beautiful interesting shrub and is a prefect addition to a spring flower arrangement.


Sarcococca hookeriana produces fragrant aromatic white flowers in winter/spring and then black berries are carried on the stems throughout summer. It has dark glossy leaves and is usually slow growing up to 24 inches in height. It tolerates shade and is very easy to grow. It is also great plant for flower arranging.

 The other variety of Sarcococca is humilis also known as sweet box. This variety could soon be a replacement for Box hedging as box is becoming susceptible to a fungal disease (box blight) which needs to be treated with fungicides.  Sarcococca suckers freely so this could prove to be a nuisance, but seedlings can be dug out and propagated elsewhere.

There are many other spring flowering shrubs that will be making a splash of colour in the garden over the early weeks off spring; here are a few to try

Abelia chinensis, Camellias, Forsythias, Deutzias, Hamamelis X intermedia and Viburnums

Are your winter flowering containers and hanging baskets looking a bit weary after the harsh weather of the winter months?  It’s easy to forget about them as you are rushing in and out on cold dark mornings and evenings.  Winter flowering shrubs and bedding do require some care throughout the winter months to keep them flowering profusely. 

My advice is to remove all dead leaves and branches from trees that have fallen in recent storms.  Dead head flowers that have finished flowering to encourage new flowers and check the compost to make sure it is moist.  Sometimes we have our containers positioned too close to a wall or a house and this prevents any rain water penetrating the compost. If the compost is dry water it as plants do require a little in the wintertime.  When watering avoid contact with the leaves and flowers if possible,  water around the base of the plants as sometimes the water can sit on the leaves and petals of the flowers causing them to rot and infection can set in.

 In early spring when the first signs of new growth start, liquid feed your flowering containers and baskets with a good quality organic fertiliser to give them a boost and encourage further flowering throughout the spring months.

Colder weather and snow is forecast for this week so protect any delicate sensitive plants by wrapping with a fleece around the flowers and foliage to prevent frost damage.