Choosing Spring Flowers: Adding Color to Your Landscape

After a long winter, the vibrant colors of spring flowers are a welcome sight. Strategically incorporating spring-blooming bulbs, annuals, perennials and shrubs into your landscape can create a spectacular spring display. Consider the wide variety of easy-care, cold-tolerant plants that burst into flower as temperatures warm.

With some thoughtful planning, you can enjoy waves of colorful blooms from early spring right through to summer.

Planting spring flowering bulbs in fall ensures a joyous spring display. Some top options include:

Crocuses – These hardy, low-growing flowers bloom in a rainbow of colors like purple, yellow, white and striped. They naturalize easily to create drifts of color.

Daffodils – Choose from over a dozen daffodil types. Plant en masse or mix with other bulbs. Most multiply quickly, blooming for many years.

Tulips – Vibrant tulips in single, double, fringed and parrot varieties flower after daffodils fade. Focus on Darwin and Triumph types that perennialize in beds.

Hyacinths – Fragrant, compact hyacinths flower in pink, blue, purple, yellow and white. Use them in beds and containers.

Alliums – Eye-catching alliums like Giant Purple Allium provide big, spherical blooms on strong 2-3 foot stems in early summer after most bulbs finish.

Layer bulbs that bloom in sequence for weeks of color. Plant them in October in well-draining soil enriched with compost or bulb fertilizer.

Many popular perennials kick into high gear in spring:

Bleeding Hearts – Old-fashioned bleeding hearts produce rows of dangling pink and white heart-shaped blooms in shady areas starting in late spring.

Irises – Reblooming iris varieties extend the season with repeated waves of colorful blooms into early summer after bearded iris finish.

Peonies – Huge, lush blossoms on herbaceous and intersectional peonies last for weeks in late spring. Most are wonderfully fragrant.

Columbines – Columbines supply intricate, nectar-rich blooms that attract pollinators. They thrive in part shade.

Hellebores – Early-blooming Lenten roses flower as early as late winter with rose-like blooms in white, pink, purple and burgundy.

Space perennials properly and provide good soil drainage for optimal spring performance.

Woody plants offer striking spring color too:

Flowering Dogwoods – Subtly showy dogwoods reveal white or pink flower bracts in mid to late spring followed by red fall color on horizontal branching forms.

Rhododendrons – These acid-loving shrubs produce large clusters of vibrantly colored blooms. Choose cold-hardy varieties best suited to your climate.

Lilacs – Fragrant old-fashioned lilac varieties flower profusely in May and make excellent informal hedges. opt for blight-resistant types.

Flowering Quince – Early blooming quince bursts with orange, red, pink or white blooms on zigzagging branches before leafing out. It adapts well to many sites.

Magnolias – Magnolias enchant with huge, fragrant blooms from early to late spring. Smaller types like star magnolia work well in residential landscapes.

Give spring-blooming trees and shrubs plenty of space to reach their mature sizes.

For continuous spring color, make sure to include annual flowers and vegetables:

Pansies and Violas – Available in every color, these cool weather favorites provide nonstop blooms all season when planted in fall or early spring. They combine beautifully with bulbs.

Snapdragons – Fragrant, hardy snapdragons produce spikes of tubular flowers that last through early summer. Good cuts flowers too.

Sweet Alyssum – Dainty white sweet alyssum flowers profusely in beds or containers with a light, honey-like scent. It attracts pollinators.

Poppies – Feathery, tissue-paper blooms of California poppies, Iceland poppies and oriental poppies give a cheerful spring display.

Cool Weather Vegetables – Extend spring garden interest by planting leafy greens, peas, radishes, kale and other quick-growing edibles as soon as soil can be worked.

Give your spring garden multi-season appeal by layering hardy annuals that flower from spring until first frost.

With some planning, you can have a dynamic landscape that evolves as one spring flower fades and the next takes center stage. Use bulbs, perennials, shrubs, trees and annuals that complement each other in form, color and bloom time for nonstop spring color.

Q: What are some good spring flowers for pots and containers?

A: Choose compact, free-flowering plants like pansies, violas, trailing snapdragons, dwarf daffodils, grape hyacinths, petunias, million bells, and flowering kale and cabbage. Make sure containers have drainage holes.

Q: When is the best time to plant spring flowering bulbs?

A: Most bulbs are planted in the fall from September through November before the ground freezes. This allows them to establish roots before top growth emerges in spring. Buying pre-cooled bulbs ensures they don’t start growing prematurely after planting.

Q: What type of soil do bulbs prefer?

A: Well-drained soil enriched with compost or bulb fertilizer is ideal. Good drainage prevents bulbs from rotting. Add gravel or perlite to heavy clay soils to improve aeration and drainage before planting.

Q: How often should spring flowers be watered?

A: Water thoroughly after planting and during initial growth. Established plants need about 1-1.5 inches of water weekly from rain or watering. Check soil around bulbs and perennials regularly, watering whenever the top few inches become dry.

Q: What is the best way to fertilize spring flowering plants?

A: Bulbs benefit from bulb fertilizer worked into soil before planting. For established plants, apply balanced flower fertilizer when growth resumes in early spring and again when they finish flowering. Avoid high nitrogen fertilizer that causes excessive foliage growth.