Stock up on spring bulbs to fill your garden with colour just when you need it most, as the chill of winter gives way to the warmth of a new gardening year. Plan your display carefully and you can have colour from December right through till May with bulbs you can buy and plant now.
Among the first to peep above ground are winter aconites and of course snowdrops. Add brilliant blue Scilla siberica, in flower from late February, for a cheery display of white, blue and yellow in early spring.
Crocus come next: 'Snow Bunting' is a fine pure white, while purple-and-yellow Crocus tommasinianus is among the best for naturalising in long grass. The starry flowers of Chionodoxa luciliae look lovely alongside.
Then it's daffodil time: plant carefully and you'll have varieties in flower from 'February Gold' to the beautiful stately pheasant's eye daffodils in May.
Finally, no spring display would be complete without sumptuously elegant tulips, stealing the show from April onwards. Plant in drifts of 50 or more for real impact: there's a huge selection of beauties available now.
