Rosy Hardy of Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants shares her favourite plants with GROW London for the month of March. Which will you be planting?

CORONILLA VALENTINA SP.GLAUCA ‘CITRINA’ AGM
This has to be the most fragrant shrub for winter/spring perfume and the lovely pale lemon flowers brighten up a dull day too.

A Mediterranean native, it finds our winters rather damp and draughty, so it does best in a pot, in a protected site, and needs only minimal watering. It has not read the books and is unaware that it is meant to stop flowering, which makes it tricky to know when to prune. Nevertheless, you must steel yourself and prune it hard in April and July, even if there are flowers there.

ANEMONE NEMOROSA ‘ROYAL BLUE’
Fabulous little blue gems that carpet the ground under deciduous trees and shrubs. I just love the way these plants reappear in March, flower amazingly in a sea of blue then disappear until the following spring.

All Anemone nemorosa are best planted as growing plants as they will establish far better. If you opt instead for the dry packaged rhizomes sold and planted in October, make sure that they are given a soak in water prior to planting. Plant with chicken wire around the rhizomes to protect from squirrels and mice, and place a label underground as, rodents aside, the other main culprit of them disappearing is YOU digging them up! The rhizomes look like twigs and are often thrown away after a tidy up.

DICENTRA FORMOSA
My mother loves this plant and grew it in all her borders in her Yorkshire cottage garden. A very easygoing perennial with wonderful blue-grey fernlike foliage contrasting well with the beautiful heart-shaped pink flowers, it tolerates a lot of growing conditions, is not too tall and can be used at the front of a border.

Sometimes it tends towards thuggishness but it is easy to pull up if it starts romping off in the wrong direction. Best divided in autumn. Although this plant starts flowering in spring if you get the correct clone it will continue to flower well on into the summer.

GERANIUM MALVIFLORUM
This hardy geranium is slightly different from others, in that the foliage appears in winter, it flowers in early spring and then is summer deciduous, meaning you can accommodate another summer flowering plant in the same spot – very handy!

The wonderfully cut foliage makes fabulous patches of green in the winter months, before being covered with large blue flowers in March. Good under deciduous shrubs, too.

PRIMULA ‘GUINIVERE (PR/POLY)’ AGM
A fabulous pink primrose with purple foliage, this is a winning combination for the early flower border and always makes me smile. Masses of flowers produced over a long period means this small plant punches well above its weight, especially as it is easy to grow in any reasonable soil (in part shade preferably).

If you want to split it to produce some more, do so after it has finished flowering.

PULMONARIA ‘DIANA CLARE’
I love this wonderful lungwort for its extended season of interest. Not only do you get a fabulous display of blue, mauve and pink flowers throughout winter and early spring but, once it has finished flowering, the beautiful silver foliage expands to full size, making a striking feature of its own.

The foliage mounds left after flowering are useful ground cover in semi shady areas and better than hostas as the leaves are hairy and less prone to slug damage.

You can buy each of these plants and much more at Hardys Cottage Garden Plants:
Priory Lane Nursery
Freefolk Priors
Whitchurch
Hampshire
RG28 7NJ

Or you will be able to visit their stand at GROW London on Hampstead Heath in June.