Christina here with this month’s Ask A Wench. Where I live, near the Welsh border in the UK, spring is definitely here even if the days are sometimes a bit cold still. I love this time of year and find it so uplifting to see the spring flowers emerging to add a bit of colour after the long winter, so this month’s question to the Wenches was: “What is your favourite spring flower?”
Pat here: When we lived in the Midwest, I waited eagerly every snowy gray February for the first daffodil shoots, hovered over them obsessively, waiting for them to grow and sprout their cheerful yellow noses. I was so enthralled with their hardiness, their willingness to spread everywhere, that I kept adding different varieties, frilly ones, white ones, red-trimmed, early, late … I adore daffodils.
Here in SoCal, we have tropical flowers all winter, so a spring flower … Right now, we have bougainvillea, birds of paradise, huge mounds of daisy-like flowers in blues and purples as well as whites, geraniums, the list is pretty endless and nothing that actually says “spring.”
Anne here, and though it’s not really a spring flower, I love daphne, not just because of its beautiful scent, but because it’s a harbinger of spring-to-come. Probably my second favorite is japonica — flowering quince, with its blossoms on bare spiky, elegant branches. A couple of twigs and you have a gorgeous arrangement.
Other than that I love the various bulbs that start popping up, ready to burst into flower with the increasing sunshine. When I was a little girl and we’d moved to Scotland for a year, we arrived in an especially bitter winter, and though the house we were living in had an extensive garden, it was just bare, dead-looking sticks poking out of hard crusted snow. I didn’t believe anything could survive that — but then one day I saw tiny green shoots poking through. It was my “Secret Garden” moment and I’ve never forgotten it.
Nicola here, and although it’s still chilly here in Oxfordshire at the moment, we have snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils around to brighten the gardens. There are also lots of lovely hellebores; I particularly love the pink ones.
However, my favourite spring flower is the Anemone Blanda. The name apparently means “charming” which is exactly what they are. We have the delicate purple ones growing in a pot on our patio and I love the way that they open up to follow the sun. They were amongst the first bulbs I ever planted when I had a garden and they spread under all the trees to create a gorgeous spring carpet that came up year after year. I particularly like them because there is a wild version of the anemone as well, Anemone Nemorosa. This is the one that I see in the woods when I take Rainbow for a walk and it mingles in with the wild primroses and other spring flowers. Again, it has very delicate petals and but bright white flowers rather than purple ones. Gorgeous!
Andrea here. One of the little of joys of early springtime is spotting the first colorful crocuses pushing up from the winter-brown earth and scattering of last year’s fallen leaves as I take my daily walk by the harbor. They really are the harbinger that winter is almost over and the new season is ready to burst into bloom. The daffodils follow shortly after, and then the popping of various other flowers fills the landscape with a riot of bright colors and many shades of green. (Not being an avid gardener, I can’t name them all, but I appreciate the sights and scents they bring to the neighborhood.)
I’m also very partial to hellebores — or Lenten roses — especially the dusky pink and purple variety. My sister-in-law has a profusion of them growing in her rock garden, and I love their quiet, understated beauty.
Mary Jo here. What is my favorite spring flower? An impossible question since I love them all! I look forward to the first purple crocuses that bloom on a south facing embankment as our first heralds of spring. Then glorious daffodils trumpeting the new season with golden splendor. Almost the same golden color as the daffs are the forsythia blossoms which bloom on shrubs. There are whole banks of them in this neighborhood.
I’ll also mention lilacs, which are more early summer than spring, but I do love them. We had a giant lilac bush on the farm, and it blossomed magnificently right around my birthday. And the scent! Very few other flowers can match that exquisite fragrance. And then come the vibrant azaleas … I told you I couldn’t choose just one!
Susan here. I’m happy with any flowers all year, though flowers in March are truly lovely promises of spring after a long, bleak winter. Just now in our front garden, the tiny grape hyacinths are popping up with their delicate purple blooms. Nearby I just spotted the vinca starting to bloom too; in a few weeks those small blue-purple petals and bouncy green leaves will create a thick groundcover in the front garden and along our back hill. The tulip bulbs are bursting out of the ground, though the stalks and flowers haven’t emerged yet, but the daffodils are well out, bright yellow clusters swaying in the breeze and the sunshine. I love them all!
I especially love the cherry blossoms that we see in our area every spring, though it will be a couple of weeks yet before those pale pink blossoms are full out. We have a huge old cherry tree down at the front of the yard, its blooms so thick that by April we can hardly see the street, and when the winds blow, the yard and drive are covered in lovely pink snow. Walking around the neighborhood and driving out, cherry trees are everywhere, long avenues of them stretching pink and fluffy along streets and roads. In DC, less than an hour from here, the cherry blossoms famously draw thousands who come to the Tidal Basin to see the fresh blooms during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The local news regularly reports on the cherry blossom watch, so we know when they’re expected to appear, which varies depending on weather. The original trees were a gift from the Japanese over a hundred years ago, and much beloved as a symbol of friendship and peace, and we surely need that just now. In our neighborhood, the cherry trees are a pale pink variety, very pretty and cheerful. It wouldn’t be spring without them!
Christina here: My favourite colours are primrose yellow and lilac, so there is no question but that primroses have to be my favourite spring flowers. They add such cheerful splashes and usually come out fairly early. Only the snowdrops and crocuses beat them to it. We have lots of lilac crocuses in our garden so naturally I like those too. They are more subtle but still very pretty, and they seem to be spreading each year.
I had never seen primroses growing in the wild until I came to the UK – in Sweden their relative the cowslip can be found instead, and I used to go picking those with my grandmother every spring. They are much more delicate and a deeper yellow, so I prefer the UK’s primroses which are easier to spot.
Like Pat, I also love the daffodils – we have tonnes in our garden just coming into bloom right now. Living as I do close to Wales, all the roads around here are bordered by masses of daffodils this time of year. It’s an incredibly cheerful sight and I’m always happy to see them.
How about you – what’s your favourite?
I have a patch of daffodils in my back yard that I start checking in early February. They never fail me. I can see their green spouts fighting their way through the frozen earth and they always give me hope. And the forsythia bushes are one of the first most visible signs that Spring is here. I don’t have a favorite though, I love them all and the color they add to the gray landscape.
Thanks Mary! Yes it’s amazing how hardy they are, isn’t it! Our daffodils also start peeking out very early but they don’t flower until the weather has warmed up a bit, very sensible of them.
I don’t know the names of many flowers, but I do know the daffodil. They are a very welcome sight after a cold dark wet gloomy winter! Thank you, Word Wenches, for this lovely colorful post.
So glad you enjoyed it, Kareni! Spring flowers really do spread joy and light up the world don’t they!
My favorites are crocuses and coltsfoot (in Finnish it’s called “widow’s leaf”). They are always first flowers to bloom at spring.
Oh yes, I remember that from when I lived in Sweden but we called coltsfoot ‘tussilago’. I was in the local paper once when I was little because I found the first one in our town that spring 🙂 (Must have been a slow news day)
Tomorrow I’ll go to Lidl to buy some yellow hyacinths and Peach Swirl daffodils.
Sounds wonderful, Minna, and the scent will be lovely!
Pussywillows are the very first harbinger of spring for me. Followed by camellias and cherry blossoms and so very many more. I love watching as the various blooms appear in myriad colors to brighten up the world.
How could I forget those? They are very pretty indeed. Camellias are often the first flowers to come out in London and they add a lovely splash of colour.
My gardener knows I love purple & yellow flowers & flowering bushes. Every year when he puts in my bed of Spring flowers he goes with yellow & purple pansies. They make me so happy. I have a black thumb so I’m very happy to have him & his family. They can make anything grow or come back to life! He got me a lilac bush in a huge colorful pot when we needed work done around our new screen porch last summer/fall. I don’t see many of those in Fresno & I just love them. Here’s to hoping he can make it happen for me.
I do hope your lilac bush will flower for you Jeanne, they are gorgeous! And I love pansies too – any colour will do but like you, I prefer the yellow and purple ones. I must remember to buy some this year!
Definitely daffodils! Any size, any color, although I’m most fond of the classic large yellow-trumpeted varieties! On my list of “somedays” is a trip to Brodie Castle in Scotland, where an early 20th century laird hybridized and planted thousands of bulbs. A photo of them becomes my screensaver every year on the first day of Spring!
That sounds fantastic, Constance, I’d love to go there too! I will go and look for a photo right now. And I agree, I think the large yellow ones are the prettiest and brightest.
When i was in the Lake District-in the UK, i saw Wordsworth’s host, crowd of daffodils, “fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” A whole field of them, “beside the lake, beneath the trees.”
How wonderful Jane! I’ve never been to the Lake District in spring. Love that poem too!
I always try to visit Dymock and Kempley for the wild daffodils at this time of year.
https://www.uksouthwest.net/gloucestershire/gwen-and-veras-fields-nature-reserve/
Where the woodland is fairly open masses of the daffs grow in the dappled shade and can be seen together with primroses and wood anemones. A bonus is St Michael’s church which is 12th century and has a grass church yard full of the wild daffs.
As Christina says, the country lanes also have masses of (cultivated) daffs to admire.
Definitely my favourite spring flower!
I must remember to go there next year, it sounds perfect! Yes isn’t it lovely to see the daffodils along the roadside? So cheerful and just what we need after the winter months.
One of the first spring flowers that I usually see are grape hyacinths and scilla, both of which have started growing in my lawn. My favourites are tulips & tulipa. We still have snow so none of them has come up yet this spring.
Those are so pretty! Unfortunately I don’t have any in my garden – must do something about that!
In Central Park during spring, you can find a variety of flowers blooming, including tulips, magnolias, cherry blossoms, daffodils, and lilacs, with some blooming as early as mid-March and continuing through May.
Other than that, lovely flowers and plants can be seen along the borders outside buildings and around trees. I’ve seen gardeners tending to these plants that are hired by the building management.
Spring flowers seem to thrive everywhere don’t they! Great to have them brighten up urban areas.
What a wonderful post, I love springtime here in the UK. I am sitting in the garden enjoying the sunshine and thinking about all the new life popping through, I think my favourite flower q spring has to be the snowdrop.
Thank you Trish, so pleased you enjoyed it! Yes snowdrops are lovely and always the first to come out here.
I got very excited when I saw my first snowdrop appearing this year. There’s something so special about that first flower! Hot on it’s heels came the daffodils which are across from my kitchen window and then my two camellia bushes. It’s still relatively cold here in Southern Ireland and I’m quite close to the sea so I’m amazed at all the blooms that are out. I’ve even started planting some of my garden tubs and they’re doing ok.
Lovely post.
I’m glad spring has come early for you this year, Teresa, it does lift the mood doesn’t it! I too get very excited when the flowers start to appear. It’s so nice when the garden starts to look less dreary. I haven’t planted anything in tubs yet but will do in a couple of weeks.
Ha! We have crocuses growing in the middle of our lawn, as the squirrels have rearranged our landscaping. I love grape hyacinths, but they have yet to bloom. The same can be said for our daffodils, tulips (which the deer love to munch on), and forsythia. My favorites of later spring are the azaleas, rhododendron, but especially the peonies.
Squirrels do tend to rearrange things don’t they! I keep finding conkers buried in my planters 🙂 Our tulips aren’t out yet either but they are beautiful once they’re in full bloom.
Once upon a time, I had daffodils all over my front yard in big flower areas. I got every variety I could find. Now, I have moved to Arizona….I have described it as the only state with only one tree. Before I moved here, I had no idea about Arizona. I had flown over it and it looked barren from 30,000 feet.
The state has mountains – some much taller than others. Yes, there is desert… lots of sand. But, I live in Phoenix and there are trees here….native trees. And there are citrus trees – lots of citrus trees. Right now in spring the scent is amazing. Bees love those trees. I have gotten some plants that I love, and they are in pots. I am experimenting to see if I can have some of the plants I miss in at least a few small doses.
Northern Arizona has snow right now. I have not been there, so I don’t know if anyone in those mountains has a mass of beautiful daffodils growing all over the place. I hope so, cause if not, they have no idea what they are missing.
Thanks for this post. It is lovely to be reminded of the beauty spring holds for everyone.
Thank you Annette! I hope the plants in your pots thrive. Those citrusy scents sound amazing! Each place has its own unique charm.
I asore dlowers, but living in an apt and no green thumb,,,,i just have
tiasmirethw ines around town. Daisies have always been one of my favoeites.
I alao love hyacinths, lilacs, roses, daffodils, violets and so many ithers! I also love a field of wildflowers…so pretty!
I sympathise – I don’t have green fingers either so my garden is pretty wild. Fields of wildflowers are gorgeous and although they come later during summer, I love when there are poppies among them. All the other flowers you mentioned are wonderful too!
I’ve had some lovely early blooming primroses for 30 years, and they originally came from my father’s garden, but they’re pink, not yellow. For years, when I read an historical and a character wore a primrose colored dress, I thought they were wearing pink!
I have too many spring flowering favorites to list them all, but near the top would be my wisteria, lilacs, tulips, and peonies.
I’m sure the pink ones are gorgeous too Karin – and understandable that you would mistake the colours! I do love wisteria as well, we have lots climbing all over our house.
Daffodils can be found on the sides of the roads and in the woods at old home sites here in the southern part of the US. It always makes me wonder why/where the people went. A neighbor who is a surveyor is always bringing home huge buckets of daffodils to give away. He hates leaving them behind to be bulldozed.
As for me…daffodils yes but there are so many other plants I keep an eye on to see when they first start emerging. More signs of spring: when I see the noses of trilliums, fiddleheads, jewel weed seedlings, wood poppy flowers, bloodroot, elderberry leaves emerging. I used to have a daphne but it eventually did the up and die bit.
Then everything begins bloom, bloom blooming. Over the years I started a list so I’d know when to go out and see if X plant had started peeking out of the ground. There are years I need lots of encouragement and hope that winter really IS going to end.
Making a list sounds great Vicki! And you’re right there are so many beautiful spring flowers to look out for.