Spring is just around the corner.

With this in mind I would like to talk about some of the plants you should be looking at to make the early spring part of your garden.

First is a new forsythia called gold tide. This has the spectacular golden flowers in early early spring that makes forsythia such a stand out. The difference is it only grows to about 5’ tall and wide. This allows it to be used in lots of gardens that can’t hold regular forsythia.

An old favorite of mine is the traditional shoe button bridal wreath. I am not sure why its called Bridal wreath when the traditional bridal month is June but… shoe button bridal wreath is another harbinger of spring with its sprays of white shoe button flowers in February. This does take a lot of room and doesn’t fit in many of our smaller gardens. If you have room for 1 6 or 8’ shrub it says spring early.

A vine I enjoy in the spring is Carolina Jessamine (note the spelling Jessamine not Jasmine) this often starts showing color in mid December as the buds start to break and is spectacular in February. After blooming prune to the framework to avoid letting it get too thick.

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