10 tough plants for early February joy
Useful first wave of the year plants for plant community design
February is often the coldest, bleakest month and yet it’s also when the first flowers and leaves of the year emerge. What it lacks in warmth, February makes up for with exciting anticipation for the year ahead.
1) Crocus ‘Orange Monarch’
When it comes to colour schemes, while I love the clash and fun of chucking everything in, I lean more to toned down colour pairing. Which is why Crocus ‘Orange Monarch’ isn’t allowed in our main garden. Yet, where it grows in a trough next to our front door, I am excited to see the bright buttery yellow flowers of this tough little crocus. It won’t self sow, instead it gently increases in number by producing more corms. Corms are like bulbs but are made of swollen underground stems, rather than swollen underground leaf buds, which make true bulbs. Crocus corms are inexpensive to buy and in autumn, when they are planted, returning reliably every single year, slowly increasing in flower power.