EDITION SPECIAL

Spring starts quietly in Tessa and Mike Crowe’s garden at The Oast, on the edge of Mayfield in East Sussex. The winter silhouettes of the willows disappear under a haze of new foliage, while beneath them, naturalised narcissi emerge from the long grass. The silken purses of magnolia buds fall to the ground as the flowers unfurl, golden marsh marigolds open to fringe the pond, and acid-green euphorbia flowers draw the eye. And then the tulips arrive. There’s something gloriously disruptive about these gorgeous flowers flaunting their hot high-summer colours and exotic shapes among their gentler companions. They are the catwalk models of the spring garden, strutting their stuff