VINCA, COWSLIPS & FAIRY WINGS
A handful of pinky-purple Vinca ‘Jenny Pym’ with delicate spring flowers and foliage in a mixed complementary palette of mauve, pale yellow, peach, apricot and enlivening pops of acid green.
APRIL
INGREDIENTS
Heuchera (coral bells)
Spiraea japonica ‘Golden Princess’ (Japanese spirea)
Vinca difformis ‘Jenny Pym’ (periwinkle)
Muscari (grape hyacinth)
Tulipa saxatalis ‘Lilac Bakeri’ (species tulip)
Narcissus ‘Sophie Girl’ & ‘Blushing Lady’ (daffodil)
Geranium (cranesbill)
Epimedium sulphureum & x warleyense (fairy wings)
VASE
Ceramic beaker from Baileys Home Store
NOTES
March and April are months when we see a wide range of tiny varieties blooming in the garden. This arrangement is a mingling of all these intricate, minuscule details. While I’m indifferent to larger tulips, I adore the species varieties and ‘Lilac Bakeri’ is one of them - it’s dainty and, when closed, looks just like an ordinary tulip in miniature. But then it opens in a radiant star shape to display a golden centre and it’s just magical.
It was fun to use Vinca for the first time - we are introducing perwinkles to the garden as ground cover. Their rooting shoots mean they spread swiftly and create great mats of ground cover to suppress weeds. ‘Jenny Pym’ is a lovely variety, a cool mauve-pink with a distinctive white fade. It flowers from late autumn and will continue to bloom all the way through a mild winter into spring.
I love the Epimedium too - it has a slew of common names ranging from the romantic ‘fairy wings’ to the rather less flattering ‘barrenwort’, ‘horny goat’s beard’ and ‘randy beef grass’ and is used in Chinese herbal medicine to treat sexual dysfunction, cancers, osteoporosis and heart problems. In the spring and autumn the leaves take on red tints that are lovely in small arrangements. The species name warleyense is derived from Warley Place, the home of the famous gardener Miss Ellen Willmott. If you haven’t read it, we highly recommend Miss Willmott's Ghosts: the extraordinary life and gardens of a forgotten genius - a fascinating read.