Planning Your Spring Border: Plants to Order in January

There's a particular kind of gardening clarity that arrives in January. The borders are bare, the catalogues have landed, and — crucially — you can still remember exactly which gaps annoyed you last spring. That combination of empty borders and fresh frustration is the best possible starting point for good planting decisions.

January is also, practically speaking, the best time to order spring-flowering plants. Not because nurseries are desperate to shift stock (though some are), but because availability is genuinely better now than it will be in March or April. Popular hellebore varieties, the better allium selections, and tulip bulbs that are still widely available today will have sold out in many places by the time your neighbours start thinking about gardening.

What to Order Now

Hellebores

Hellebores are the most compelling plant you can add to a winter-into-spring garden. They flower from December through April depending on the variety, they're evergreen, they tolerate shade remarkably well, and once established they ask for almost nothing. The hybrids sold as Helleborus x hybridus — Lenten roses — cover an extraordinary range of colours from near-white through soft pinks, smoky purples, and almost black.

The catch with hellebores is that seed-raised plants can vary considerably, so if you want a specific colour you need to buy named varieties that have been vegetatively propagated. These cost more — typically £14 to £22 for a good named variety — but you know exactly what you're getting. Unnamed seedlings are cheaper (£8 to £12) and often excellent; you're just trusting the nursery's selection rather than specifying a colour yourself.

Order hellebores now. The good named varieties from specialist nurseries like Ashwood tend to sell out by mid-February.

Alliums

Alliums are the structural plants that make a border look designed rather than just planted. The tall varieties — Allium 'Purple Sensation', Allium hollandicum, and the giant Allium giganteum — produce spherical flower heads on long stems in late May and June, and they work especially well coming up through low perennial growth.

Bulbs need to be in the ground before the end of February at the latest, and ordering in January gives you the best selection. A bag of 10 Allium 'Purple Sensation' bulbs will typically cost £6 to £12 depending on the supplier and bulb size. Giganteum is considerably more expensive — £3 to £5 per bulb is common — but a few strategically placed plants make a significant statement.

Tulips

If you didn't get tulip bulbs in the ground in autumn, it's too late — they need that cold period. But January is the right time to start planning for next year and, if you're growing in containers, you can often source forced or late-started tulip bulbs in January and February for spring pots, though at a premium.

For the main garden planting, mark out what worked and what didn't while it's fresh in your mind, and set a reminder to order bulbs in September. Some of the better suppliers — Sarah Raven, Jacques Amand, Bloms — sell out of popular varieties well before planting season.

How to Think About the Border

Rather than filling gaps reactively, January is the moment to think about the border as a sequence. What's happening in each month from February to May? Where are the gaps — not just in space but in time? A border that's spectacular in April but has nothing going on in February is a missed opportunity.

For a continuous spring display, consider layering:

• February–March: Hellebores, Pulmonaria, snowdrops, early Narcissus
• March–April: Muscari, Chionodoxa, mid-season Narcissus, Epimedium
• April–May: Tulips, Alliums starting to emerge, Aquilegia, Geranium macrorrhizum beginning

Each of these categories has plants available to order right now. The full plant listings on ComparePlants cover most of these genera, with current stock and pricing pulled from our nursery partners.

A Note on Ordering Early

The main argument for ordering in January rather than waiting until you're ready to plant is simple: plants don't wait for your schedule. A hellebore variety that's available at three nurseries in January might be down to one by March, and that one might charge significantly more. Nurseries that grow their own stock know exactly how many plants they have, and they don't make more when they run out.

Early ordering also gives you time to compare. Prices for the same hellebore variety can vary by £8 between nurseries. For a spring border project involving eight or ten plants, that kind of comparison is worth doing before you commit to the first place you find.

The garden will be unrecognisable in April. It starts with decisions made in January.