Which plants to buy at Easter
What plants to buy at Easter might seem like an unnecessary question. But it’s surprising how many gardens look great around springtime but them lack colour at other times of the year.
For most Easter is the beginning of the garden season.
It’s traditional to plant spuds, mow the lawn, plant up pots and impulsively buying new plants! We all do it but here’s my thoughts on which plants to buy at Easter to avoid this mistake!
What if you do only buy plants in flower
Buying those great looking Easter plants in bloom will only end up with a garden that looks great every Easter and perhaps dull for the rest of the year!
So by all means buy that Forsythia, primrose, heather and hellebore but add to these others that are going to give you a great show later in the year!
I would recommend the following hardy plants to buy at Easter and they will ensure that you get a good show at times other than Easter in the future –
Plants to buy at Easter for early summer –

Foxgloves and summer perennials
Foxgloves; these add height to your borders and will grow well in sun or shade.
Pieris; this evergreen likes shade, needs acid soil but does really well in a pot. The new growth can be spectacularly coloured and you get masses of blooms too.
Mexican Orange Blossom [Choisya]; an easy to grow evergreen shrub with attractive foliage options too.
Day lilies [Hemerocallis]; such a tough and easy perennial plant with many colour variations.
Perennial Wallflowers; especially Bowles Mauve but all will feed those early butterflies and feast the eye too.
Climbers and wall shrubs for early summer –

Coronilla glauca citrina
Coronilla glauca citrina; less common but worth planting in a sheltered well drained sunny corner where it will have a flower almost every month of the calendar!
Clematis montana; this climber has many newer improved and more compact varieties.
Honeysuckle; make sure that you plant a variety that is scented.
Plants to buy at Easter for summer –
Catmint; especially the new longer flowering variety called Nepeta Summer Magic
Salvias; great hardy perennials with long blooming time and real insect pulling power! More about Salvia here.
Penstemon; long flowering with mini foxglove shaped blooms of almost any colour you could imagine.

Erigeron karvinskianus
Mexican Fleabane [Erigeron karvinskianus]; a no trouble colonizer with dainty daisy flowers for months.
Buddleja; especially the new dwarf varieties that still attract the butterflies as well as their bigger cousins.
Potentilla; a really tough deciduous shrub with staying power.
Russian Sage [Perovskia]; wispy, long flowering and tough, this semi-woody perennial is a must!
Hydrangeas; these do particularly well on the coast and where there is some shade and acid [lime free] moist soil. Some get surprisingly large so are good gap fillers. More about Hydrangea here.
Don’t forget to buy for scent too!
Lavender; plant English or Dutch lavender [French are not as hardy] and be prepared to replace them every now in then. The ideal combination plant for growing with roses.
Mock Orange Blossom [Philadelphus] has a fabulous heavy scent that equals lilac but a far neater garden shrub.
Roses; whether they are bush, climbing, rambling, English or even ground covering, roses are inseparable from summer gardens.
Plants to buy at Easter for late summer –

Cone flower – Echinacea Julia
Cone Flowers [Echinacea]; many exciting new colours and popular with bees too.
Black-eyed Susan [Rudbeckia]; startling yellow daisies with black centres.
Aster x frikartii Monch and New England Michaelmas daisies which are mildew resistant types.
Abelia; one of my favourite shrubs because it performs for so long.
Hardy Fuchsia; choose a truly hardy one and it will give such great colour in cooler shaded spots.
Verbena bonariensis; a perfect plant for combining with ornamental grasses.
Dahlia; especially the single flowered hardy types such as the Mystic and the Bishop. Read more about Dahlias here.
Don’t forget climbing plants

Clematis viticella Kermesina
Clematis viticella varieties; so long flowering, trouble free and easy to prune too. Plant these to grow over spring flowering shrubs such as Forsythia [if you must buy it!]
Naturally, there are many more great plants to buy at Easter that will extend the show beyond that weekend in your garden but, whatever you fill your shopping trolley with, do enjoy yourselves this Easter weekend!
You may care to read my blog on extending the garden display with berries or perhaps which plants give good winter stem colour.
If you have room for trees then coloured bark will interest you.
But if your garden is small then perhaps winter flowering heathers will appeal?