Spring has finally sprung! Well okay, maybe it hasn’t fully arrived, but it is most certainly on its way, and what better indication than the sudden burst of colour in our gardens, woodlands, and even roadside verges? The snowdrops started lifting their delicate heads a few weeks ago, and now it’s the daffodils’ turn. These simple yet beautiful flowers are easily distinguished from other springs bulbs by the long flat leaves, and tall flower stem which ends in an elongated bud, soon to open out into that wonderful yellow and gold trumpet. Particularly rewarding are our little native daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus); smaller and far more delicate than the common cultivars that usually fill a border.
Spring bulbs like the daffodils mostly originate in deciduous woodland, where they fill a specialised niche. Nothing much grows under the dense, summer canopy of leaves, nor can much survive through the cold months of winter when the sky above them is bare. However, the warmer yet still leafless months of spring provide the ideal opportunity for our various native bulbs to commandeer the woodland floor and carpet it in colour, at a time when nothing much else is really bothered.
This is evident in the Flatford Wildlife Garden, where the mass of snowdrops put on a wonderful show earlier this month, and although they haven’t quite finished yet, already the crocuses have sprung up around them, dotting the brilliant white with splashes of purple, yellow and cream. There are also a few irises (Iris histrioides 'George') nestled in the garden; well worth looking for when you next pop by.
After the daffodils comes the second show of white in the form of wood anemone, a speciality of our own Stour Wood at Wrabness, and then to end it all with a bang, the brilliant blue sweeping of our native English bluebells. Why not replicate the spectacle in your own garden? Perhaps there’s an unoccupied spot in some shady corner that could benefit from some early spring colour, or maybe you’d just like to get an impressed ‘wow’ from passers-by when they lay eyes on the mass of colour.
It goes without saying that the flowering bulbs are a great source of nectar for our garden insects, but what makes them particularly valuable is the fact that they are in flower much sooner than anything else. On the odd early spring day when the sun shines just warm enough to wake up the bugs and bees, a flowering crocus or early daffodil can provide a vital energy boost.
The wildlife value of bulbs isn’t just restricted to our native plants, but given how they’ve developed alongside the insects that feed on them, it’s well worth looking out for native varieties when choosing your bulbs. Plant them in nice big clusters in the autumn in a shady spot where they can spread and thrive, and give yourself something to look forward to at the end of winter!
Photos: Daffodil (Shirley Boyle); Snowdrops; Crocus (Sarah Manning)