Cut flower corner - early spring bounty

You’d be surprised how much there is in the garden in February to pick and bring inside.  Snowdrops, primroses, violets, aconites, or anything else you can find, make pretty posies.  You could also float hellebore heads in a bowl of water – their stalks tend to droop, so this is a gorgeous way to show them off, like a miniature lily pond.

A jug of early daffodils such as Narcissus ‘February Gold’ is always fresh and gorgeous – their sticky sap can stop other plants absorbing water, so they’re best on their own.  Or, seal them by putting the bottom 2cm in just off boiling water for around 30 seconds.  Then they can be used in bigger arrangements, bulked out with foliage plants such as choisya, sarcococca, Viburnum tinus and frothy, zingy Euphorbia characias subsp wulfenii (this will also need sealing to stop drooping). 

And simply displaying a few sprigs of any flowering shrubs you have in the garden such as daphne varieties, winter-flowering honeysuckle, Viburnum x bodnantense, hazel catkins or blazing witch hazel varieties such as ‘Jelena’ will fill your room with colour and scent.  Remember to strip off the bottom leaves so that they don’t rot under the water.