There are a few tough individuals that seem impervious to to the recent snow, ice and biting easterly wind – and I don’t mean determined hikers. I have been taking note of plants that flower and look good even in adverse conditions.

A couple of really good flowering shrubs for early spring are Corylopsis paucifolia and Ribes ‘White Icicle’. I have R. ’White Icicle’ in my garden and it has been on the point of opening its flowers for a couple of weeks. It is earlier flowering than the more common pink varieties, which are at their peak in April. Mine is planted in front of an ivy hedge and the dangling white flowers and fresh green leaves show up well against the backdrop of dark green foliage. An upright, deciduous shrub with aromatic leaves, it flowers from March to April. Ht.1.5m.(5ft.).

Ribes White Icicle

Corylopsis pauciflora, also known as winter hazel, is a dense, twiggy shrub with pendent clusters of sweetly scented, primrose-yellow flowers on bare stems in March and April. It has bronzed hazel-like young leaves that mature to bright green. Ideal for a partially shady shrub border or woodland edge, it is bushy and spreading in habit but compact enough for the smaller garden. Ht.1.5m. S. 2.0m. I love its gentle colour and it looks great when combined with blue flowers nearby, such as an underplanting of the little spring bulb Scilla siberica or the low growing perennial Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’.

Corylopsis paucifolia

Pulmonaria (lungwort) are early spring flowering perennials valued for their leaves as well as their pretty saucer-shaped flowers. Their foliage can be heavily spotted with white, tinged with a silver sheen or just plain green, in the case of P. ’Blue Ensign’, the best blue flowering form. Many pulmonaria are blue tinged with pink, soft red/pink or pure white, in the case of P. ’Sissinghurst White’. Pulmonaria ‘Opal’ is exactly the colour its name suggests. They are all great nectar plants for early flying bees, especially those giant bumble bees that you feel you have to duck from as they zoom by.

Pulmonaria saccharata

Pulmonaria require some shade and hummus rich soil. Lift and divide large clumps every three to five years after flowering or in autumn. Easy to grow, but their old leaves are prone to mildew. If this happens, cut back plants to the ground, water and feed – the plant will regenerate and produce new leaves later in the year.

A plant that delivers a bit of spring zing is Euphorbia myrsinites. Stems of blue-grey, dinosaur scale-like leaves with clusters of lime-green flowers. A plant that is somewhat untidy in it’s prostrate habit yet still manages to look highly ornamental. It likes poor soils and full sun. A front-of-border plant that looks good draped over rocks on an incline. Its natural habitat is 7,000ft up in the Apennines, so it’s tough. My photograph was taken on 20 March, three floors up on the balcony of an office block in Altrincham where I planted it as part of a scheme on an exposed balcony. It certainly qualifies as a tough, early performer.

Euphorbia myrsinites