Colours spring into action at last

The garden is, very gradually, filing with flowers. Although the weather is still not terribly good, when I look around there are quite a lot blooming already.

The pieris is superb this year. The leaves have not yet shown red, too soon for that, but the white flowers stand out really well against the glossy evergreen foliage.

Pieris taiwanensis is one which does not get a lot of the red foliage appearing, for which the other types are mainly grown.

It is a little hardier than the ones like forest flame, which also has lovely flowers making an archway across the pathway into the shrubbery.

For a real glitzy show, the quince, or chaenomeles knaphill scarlet, is a real stunner.

This one is scarlet in colour, and comes out first of all. It does well on an east wall, where it can be trained, and has been out for some time now.

There are other colours as well. Pink lady is also out, but mine is growing in the garden and makes an untidy bush, standing by itself.

It would pay to take more trouble to train it, but I do not have enough walls.

Sophora sun king I only acquired last year, hoping it would survive with the slightly warmer weather we are having now.

I love the evergreen foliage, dark green and glossy, the flowers are brilliant yellow and one or two have shown this year, so next I hope for a really spectacular sight.

Yellow seems to be the dominant colour for early spring, and forsythia always shines. The trouble is that it is so good we all seem to take it for granted.

I also have a variegated form, which is just a bit more interesting when the flowers have gone.

A softer yellow is the colour of corylopsis, which is beautiful until the frost browns the petals. That is the good thing about forsythia - the frost rarely tinges it.

In my garden I only grow the white daphne mezereum, because then I know that all the seedlings will be white, which is not as common as the purple one.

But the purple type is so good, so I took a picture of a neighbour's plant.

My last shrub for this time of year is a cherry - a small one, but so pretty.

It is prunus cistena crimson dwarf, which is hardy and delightful for a small garden. It never gets very big, so would look good on a rockery.

By Pat Edwards