3 Flowers To Grow In Spring with Nadine Brown
For Nadine Brown, flowers have been part of daily life for more than 30 years.
A florist, educator and Sustainable Floristry Advocate, Nadine’s career has taken her from formal floristry training and opening her first shop, Wildflower, at just 23, through weddings, events, motherhood and 17 years of teaching.
Today, she runs The Ivy Institute from an ivy-covered greenhouse at Cedar Creek Homestead on Dharawal Country in the NSW Southern Highlands, where she teaches and mentors fellow florists.
And when spring arrives, there are a few flowers she particularly looks forward to. Some are destined for a vase, while others are best left in the garden to enjoy every time you pass.
If you’re thinking about flowers to grow in spring, here are three of Nadine’s seasonal favourites.
1. Bearded iris
First on Nadine’s list is the bearded iris, and it isn’t difficult to understand why.
She loves them for their frilled petals, delicate tones and perfume. There is something wonderfully extravagant about an iris in full flower, particularly after the restraint of winter.
For the vase, Nadine recommends picking bearded iris while still in bud to encourage a longer vase life. But she admits she is just as inclined to leave them growing and enjoy them in the garden.
Of all the flowers to grow in spring, these are the ones she is particularly obsessed with and sometimes the pleasure is simply in leaving them where they are.
2. The last of the hellebores
Hellebores belong to that lovely overlap between seasons. They bring colour through late winter and continue flowering as the first signs of spring begin to appear around them.
For Nadine, seeing the last hellebores of the season is something to savour.
If picking them for the vase, she suggests giving them a good bath in water afterwards to help hydrate them, as they can wilt quickly once cut.
Among all the new spring plants making their entrance, there is something rather nice about pausing to appreciate the flowers that carried the garden through the colder months too.
3. Spring bulbs
Nadine readily admits that choosing just one bulb is asking rather a lot.
Daffodils, ranunculus, anemones... they all make her list.
Part of their charm is the surprise. Bulbs spend so much of the year tucked quietly beneath the soil, then suddenly those first green shoots emerge and the anticipation begins.
For anyone thinking about planting in spring, bulbs and their seasonal display are a lovely reminder that some of the best moments in a garden begin long before the flower itself appears.
And when they do arrive, they make spring feel well and truly here.
And one more… blossom
Three favourites became four, because Nadine couldn’t leave out blossom and we quite understand.
A single branch of blossom in a vase can hold its own without fuss or elaborate arranging. Outdoors, those first blossom-covered branches are one of spring’s most recognisable signals.
There are many flowers to grow in spring, but perhaps that is the real pleasure of the season: noticing what is flowering now, enjoying it while it lasts, and knowing something else is waiting just around the corner.
More from Nadine
Read Nadine’s Day in the Garden and get to know the woman behind the flowers. Her days, her inspirations and the things she returns to again and again.
And if you want more, you can follow her work through The Ivy Institute, where she shares more from her life, floristry and greenhouse.
She’s also generously sharing her FREE Cross-Stemmed Bouquet Tutorial, filmed inside the Ivy Greenhouse. Learn how Nadine creates space between each stem, allowing individual flowers to shine while giving the finished bouquet a wonderfully natural sense of movement.
It’s just one of more than 50 tutorials available inside her Greenhouse Membership library.
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