Last week I kicked off my series of blogs looking at how to have more sustainable cut flowers in our homes. The idea is to grow the flowers ourselves rather than buying them in. But doing this all year round means having something display-worthy growing in the garden 365 days of the year! That requires some serious forward planning. Hence this series. My last blog covered the tricky months of January to March. This week I’m covering what’s in flower in April, May and June.
What’s in Flower in April, May & June
Once we get to these months things are certainly easier for me, as my garden has much more to offer in Spring and early Summer. But for this blog I don’t want to solely rely on the plants I already have. So my suggestions are first a mix of my current garden favourites but followed by some new plants I’m going to try. And if you forgive me, I’m going to particularly concentrate on April and May as I feel June is so much easier for growing cut flowers!
Primulas
When it comes to a flower in April, few little plants give you so many options as primulas. Indeed I have dedicated a whole blog to them in the past. So if you want a serious deep dive into their delights do check it out.
The primula we all know is the primrose. They’re meant to flower from March through to May. Though I have to say mine have been lovely in the garden since January this year! A posy of primroses certainly looks very sweet in the home. However, if you want a display with a little more height, I think our native Primula veris (cowslip to you and me) and candelabra primulas are probably better options. Both plants like a moist spot, but while the cowslip is happy in full sun or dappled partial shade, the candelabra primula definitely prefers shade.
I have Cowslips growing at the base of my trees.
I also have them popping up between the cracks on my patio. I’m going to move some of these ‘patio cowslips’ to the tree area, as I’d like to create a bigger colony for picking.
Bluebells – a classic flower in April
Bluebells are also in flower in April and look wonderful in a vase.
While I have a number of them in my garden, I don’t have near enough bluebells to feel happy picking them. So, as in previous years, I’m going to keep increasing my stock by planting more bluebell bulbs under my beech tree in October. You can see an example of my October bulb planting plans here Once I have grown enough to have a proper swathe of them, I’ll include them in my weekly vases.
If you’re going to join me in planting bluebells as part of your cut garden plans please make sure you go for the British ones, native to this country – hyacinthoides non-scripta. Avoid the Spanish type (Hyacinthoides hispanica) or a hybrid (Hyacinthoides x massartiana) which garden centres often sell. They’re at risk of out competing our lovely native bluebells.
Tulips, Irises and Alliums
While I may not have enough bluebells, my garden is certainly awash with tulips. I have them in containers and in a special raised bed at the bottom of the garden.
Sandwiched between the compost heap and the area where we have our bonfire, the raised bed is not a place of beauty for a large chunk of the year. But from April through to June it’s a blooming paradise – packed with about 8 varieties of tulips, the Iris Carmen and Allium Purple Sensation. So if I don’t get some decent showy vases of flowers from this bed during these months I’ll eat my hat!
You can read more about how I planted up the raised tulip bed. But in essence the plants I’ve mentioned are all bulbs. The good news is they will all look fantastic in containers. So if you want plants that flower in April, May and June on your patio, these will work really nicely.
However, the bad news is, if you don’t have these in your garden already, you’re going to need to wait until Autumn to add them.
How to plant tulips, irises and alliums
I plant my tulips in November or December. I leave it until then as I want there to have been a good cold snap before I plant them. This minimises the chance of the tulips suffering from something called tulip fire, a disease which distorts the bulbs. Also, over time tulips can lose their ‘va va voom’ in a border. So you will need to be prepared to replenish your stock regularly.
The Iris Carmen I would plant in early Autumn, putting the bulbs at a depth that is a good twice the height of the bulb. I have mine growing in amongs Stachys – I think the combination is one of the best I’ve ever created in my garden.
For best results, you should grow Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ in fertile, well-drained soil in full sun. The experts suggest planting the bulbs up to three times their diameter, in Autumn. The Allium is not fully hardy and so in colder regions I’d make sure the bulbs are planted at a good depth and I add a good layer of mulch to keep them cosy over Winter. Or if you’re growing them in a container, move it to a frost free area in Autumn.
Plants Which Flower in April I’ve Yet to Try
Grape Hyacinths (Muscari)
Now for some plants I don’t have yet but which flower in April or would look fantastic in a Spring vase. First up is grape hyacinths aka muscari. I have a confession. I don’t much like muscari, as I feel their leaves can look a bit of a mess. I’ve also found they can be a bit invasive (more about how to tackle that in a moment).
But there’s no denying their beauty in the vase above – and so I need to get over myself. After all that’s what we’re trying to create! We want 52 gorgeous vases of flowers, all grown in our gardens, so that we can avoid the shop bought flowers which have involved oodles of air miles, chemicals and plastic wrap!
Some Varieties to Try
So let’s add some muscari to the mix! Although the inky blue colour is what I mostly associate them with, there are lots of subtle and beautiful differences in varieties. For instance Muscari azureum is a Turkish variety with soft sky blue flowers. Muscari pallens has amazing soft translucent pale blue and white flowers. If you want a bigger variety, Muscari armeniacum grows to 20cm in height, with spikes of white-tipped, deep violet-blue flowers.
I don’t have muscari in my garden yet but I do have some in containers. But they haven’t flowered yet. I actually took the plunge with muscari back in October when planting up containers full of white flowering bulbs. I found there’s a beautiful variety called White Magic. It’s a stunner and apparently isn’t fussy. Music to my gardening ears! So I popped a few bulbs into my white flowering containers.
The containers will surely give me lots of muscari to pick for my April vases and the muscari bulbs will naturalise easily when I come to plant out the contents of my containers into the garden later in the year. So I’ll hopefully have lovely white muscari in my vases for years to come.
If you want muscari to pick next year you’ll need to plant the bulbs in the Autumn.
Tackling Their Invasiveness
“But what about them being invasive,” I hear you cry. Well, they do have a tendency to spread, both by seed and underground, via little bulb offsets.
If you deadhead the spent blooms (or pick the blooms for your vases) you will stop seeds developing. Beyond this you simply need to keep an eye on established clumps – if they look like they’re spreading too well, just dig them up and replant the bulbs in a pot! It’s not difficult. You need to take care to ensure you have gathered all the bulbs in the soil (they can be quite small) to avoid having to dig them up again. But even if the odd one pops up again, you can dig it up before it flowers. Or better still leave it! Muscari are popular with solitary bees so those you don’t pick for the home or dig up will keep the precious bees happy!
Pussy Willow
When it comes to floral arrangements, we don’t just want flowers do we? We want some taller elements and different shapes and textures.
Pussy Willow is a perfect contender for this. If space is limited, and you want a small ‘tree’ Salix caprea ‘Kilmarnock’, or ‘Kilmarnock willow’ is perhaps a good choice. It grows to around 1.8-2.4m high with a spread of up to 1.5m, and forms a gorgeous, stiff weeping ‘umbrella’ of branches. The stems are smothered in gorgeous fuzzy silver catkins from late winter to early spring on bare twigs. The lovely pollen-packed catkins are great for the bees too. Then to cap things off, rounded mid-green leaves appear after the catkins. At every stage this plant could add interest to a vase.
But I’m perhaps going to go for a different variety – the ‘Mount Aso’ – Japanese Pink Pussy Willow. I fancy this variety because it’s smaller (1.5m high by 1.5m wide) and has an upright habit. Added to this, the catkins are a gorgeous soft fuzzy pink.
These look amazing as they start to swell in mid- to late Winter, so will add some much needed interest to my Winter garden. I also like the foilage of this variety which has a silvery reverse.
But what’s sealing the deal for me is that the variety was introduced by a breeder who specialises in cut flowers. Surely the stems will look tip top when cut and added to a vase!
Cow Parsley
Cow Parsley looks lovely on a verge and in a vase! It likes sun, though copes with a bit of shade, and is incredibly good for insects. I love this picture of it growing near trees, so may try to replicate that in my own garden by planting a cluster near my ash tree. Otherwise, I’m going to put some in my semi-shaded border, which isn’t so shaded any more since a near by tree came down!
I’m going to go for Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’ as it’s a particularly striking variety. It has clusters of tiny, cream-white slighly pinky flowers, these contrast with lacy, dark purple foliage and purply black stems. The effect is stunning and it flowers in Spring and Summer. So it will provide plenty of wafty, lovely drama in my vases from April through to June. Though if you leave it in the garden and don’t cut it back, the flower heads provide some much needed Winter interest too. What’s not to like!
Euphorbia wulfenii
Another interesting shape for vases is Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii. Now I already have this plant but I’m mentioning it because like Pussy Willow, this Euphorbia is architectural and adds heaps of drama. Its foliage is bluish-green and looks tip top all year round making it a valuable addition to your April and May vases. But nothing quite matches the period in early Summer (June) when the large, towering, dome-shaped, lime-yellow flowers do their thing.
Peonies, Roses, Lavender and the Rest!
When we get to June filling our vases is going to be a much easier exercise. We’re going to be positively freewheeling down hill with possibilities! (Sorry that’s a bit of a mixed metaphor!) Peonies, roses, lavender, aquilegia, astrantia and sweet peas – my sunny border is rammed with flowers once we hit June. And of course I also have aforementioned alliums and irises in flower in June too.
But even if you don’t have a lot of space, you can create amazing combinations in pots. I’ve achillea, helianthemum, erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve,’ geraniums, gaura, foxgloves, verbena, lavender, scabious, you name it all thriving in containers! And these will certainly supply contents for June vases.
I hope these suggestions help you get over the trickier months of April and May and well into June. I really believe, whether you’ve just a patio or have a bigger plot, with a bit of forethought, we really can enjoy incredible vases full of flowers we’ve grown ourselves. For the planet’s sake, let’s try!
Happy gardening..X
At a Glance List – Some plants in Flower in April and May
- aquilegia
- bluebell
- pelargonium
- euphorbia wulfenii
- epimediums
- pussy willow
- magnolia soulangeana
- tulips
- muscari
- anemone
- ranunculus
- primula
- linaria
- forgetmenot
- cow parsley
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