Amid my garden overhaul and the establishment of new beds, I’ve been given a priceless opportunity to plan and plant this autumn for a year-round display. A spring show has always been my weakness as my pathway into creating a garden has been led by a focus and fascination of summer flowering perennials. In my first years, I tried haphazard planting of anemones and a scattering of muscari with mistakes made in planting too few for a nice effect and forcing many of them into uncomfortable conditions in shade. The muscari has never really even attempted to naturalise and the anemones, in their tortured state, were all terrible colours that I regretted immediately!

My new beds with most perennials in and ready for spring planting.
*Autumn 2022*

From there I dabbled in tulips and daffodils in pots. Again, too few were ever planted for the lush vibe I envisaged and I inevitably lost most bulbs as I forgot “who was where” and repurposed pots for summer. Lacking satisfaction, I am still yet to attempt the bulb lasagne concept. All in all, my skill at bringing spring to my garden has been lacking!

So, in an attempt to right my wrongs, from the beginning of planning my planting in the new beds I have done my best to map out spring heroes that will melt into a summer/autumn show. Within this, with my limited experience, I am also attempting to create two distinct colour stories that will move from one to the other with the seasons.

For summer I am trying to curate airy beds with a focus on tall sculptural forms, a wide variety of flower/seed head shapes and a romantic scheme of pinks, violets, rust reds with splashes of yellow broken up by white and the softness of grasses. My list includes gaura, echinacea, knautia, Verbena bonariensis, sanguisorba, coreopsis, penstemon, Dierama pulcherrimum (Angel’s fishing rod) and fennel amongst others.
With this main list in mind, it has been somewhat mind-bending to take into account the staggered flowering of all the spring plants that precede them and how they might play in with the bolstering green clumps of these perennials preparing to flower next.

*Narcisuss* ‘Grand Monarch’ *- ordered from Bulbs Direct*

*Narcisuss* ‘Hawera’ - I purchased mine online from Bulbs Direct
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*Phlomis russeliana* with its green buds in mid Spring.

Spring, with a shifting backdrop of blossom from my large old cherry tree and plums, will concentrate on freshness. I can see in my mind’s eye, a canvas of textural green with accents of yellow, white and blue. I imagine daffodils scattering softly around the islands of Phlomis russeliana, which will shoot up acid green towers before bursting into bright yellow balls of bloom in late spring. Their large soft leaves at ground level meeting low spikes of dwarf daffodil ‘Hawera’ and delicious jonquil ‘Grand Monarch’ which will be first to bloom. Somewhere I will find my forgotten bulbs of sweet little white ‘Thalia” and gorgeous ‘Mt Hood’ to sporadically add to the mix. I can’t remember if I placed my bulb order for later flowering Narcissus poeticus (Pheasant’s Eye), but I guess they’ll turn up or won’t!

*Iris hollandica* ‘Blue Magic’ (Dutch iris)- I purchased mine from Bulbs Direct
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*Aquilegia caerulea* ‘McKana Hybrid’ (I have planted yellow only)
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*Phlomis russeliana* in late spring bloom

Inspired by my visits to ‘Flaxmere’ and ‘Saddlewood’ gardens in Hurunui, I am gratefully importing gifts of fancy aquilegia from each one respectively to take over the mid-spring display. I’ve only ever had the common mix of self-seeded purples and pinks in my garden and am excited about the elegance of these new ones. I will plant Aquilegia caerulea ‘McKana Hybrid’ with its long spurred, primrose yellow blooms in stands with Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Clementine White’ which sports delightful little concertina flowers. Intermingled with these taller, foliage heavy plants I will support the delicate long stems of Ixia elivira ‘Duck Egg Blue’ and create clumps of zingy Iris hollandica ‘Blue Magic’ (Dutch iris).

Despite my best intentions, I can’t really be sure of the timing of each plant’s flowering or if the whole story, so to speak, will be occurring in any kind of unison! So, I’ll be crossing my fingers and hoping for the best as I get planting the aquilegia, bulbs and corms this coming week. The opportunity to get them in the ground now while the perennials are still visible, with no risk of digging up forgotten plants, feels like a treat!

This is an expanded version of the article featured in my Stuff ‘Homed’ gardening column for beginners , The Press, Dominion Post and other regional papers on April 28th 2022
All words and images are my own, taken in my home and garden in Christchurch, New Zealand unless otherwise captioned.

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Planning my spring garden

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