21 Early-Season Flowers for Your Garden
From delicate annuals to hardy trees and shrubs, spring supplies continuous color for your yard.
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Cool weather is just what pansy prefers. It's an annual that gardeners flock to for early-season containers and window boxes, relishing the variety in bloom color as much as the cheery uplifted petals.
Name: Viola x wittrockiana
Growing conditions: Sun or part shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 10 inches tall and 12 inches wide
Zones: 4-8
Yellow trillium is a true spring plant: Once its flowers die back at the season's end in June, the foliage recedes, too. Even so, its marbled leaves and delicate yellow-white blooms are a welcome sight in April. In a woodland garden, pair it with other shade-lovers.
Name: Trillium luteum
Growing conditions: Shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 16 inches tall and 12 inches wide
Zones: 5-8
Also known as a Lenten rose or Christmas rose, hellebore is a plant of delicate beauty and surprising resilience. In warmer climates, it may even tolerate light frosts. For unusual flowers, ask at your nursery about double-bloom varieties.
Name: Helleborus niger
Growing conditions: Shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 12 inches tall and 18 inches wide
Zones: 4-8
This herbaceous perennial makes its appearance in March, shooting up white flowers that last until late spring. It's a good fit for either a shaded or woodland garden.
Name: Sanguinaria canadensis
Growing conditions: Shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 6 inches tall and 12 inches wide
Zones: 3-9
Fragrant and festive, the bright clusters of snowdrop anemone work well even in a spring garden that's slightly shaded. Bonus: Once the cooler temperatures of fall arrive, the plant may put on a second bloom show in the garden.
Name: Anemone nemorosa
Growing conditions: Full sun or part shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 6 inches tall and 12 inches wide
Zones: 4-8
Flowers get lots of press, but plenty of trees offer springtime feasts for the eyes. One of them is the eastern redbud, a tree that puts on a riotous display of pink beginning in March.
Name: Cercis canadensis
Growing conditions: Sun or part shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 30 feet tall and wide
Zones: 5-9
There's no sweeter spring fragrance than the blooms of this cottage-garden favorite. Lilac varieties come in all shapes and sizes, from dwarf shrubs to taller trees. One tip: The lilac blooms on old wood, so hold off on pruning until right after the same year's flowering is finished.
Name: Syringa vulgaris
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 20 feet tall and wide
Zones: 4-8
Pick your favorite color, and there's likely an iris to fill your garden need. Most put on their bloom show toward the end of spring, but the plants' tall growth and delectable petal variations make them pretty additions to a variety of garden styles.
Name: Iris 'Acoma'
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 34 inches tall and 12 inches wide
Zones: 3-9
As much as any other spring bulbs, hyacinths trumpet the arrival of spring. Clustered flowers hang lusciously from sturdy stalks, resembling bundles of grapes.
Name: Muscari armeniacum
Growing conditions: Full sun or part shade and well-drained soil
Size: To 8 inches tall and 6 inches wide
Zones: 4-8
As much a late-winter plant as it is an early-spring bloomer, dwarf wild iris pops with deep, wild purple or blue -- a welcome contrast to many of spring's pastel flowers. Cut a clutch of the iris to put in a vase and take the pleasing fragrance inside.
Name: Iris reticulata 'Harmony'
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 6 inches tall and wide
Zones: 5-8
Crocuses herald spring, announcing the departure of winter with lovely pink, purple, yellow, or white petals. Planted from corms, crocuses also range in size from delicate blooms to more showy versions.
Name: Crocus 'Grand Maitre'
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 6 inches tall and wide
Zones: 3-8
If it's spring, it's time for a show of daffodils. The bright, jovial flower has a range of shapes and sizes, from trumpet to small- and large-cupped to double. Deer find them less palatable than other spring plants, but the foliage should be left to die back on its own to rejuvenate the plants for the following year.
Name: Narcissus selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 1 foot tall and wide
Zones: 3-9
With innate cheerfulness and beauty, a springtime tulip lends itself to a variety of garden settings -- from formal border gardens to naturalistic, casual settings. And there's a tulip for every gardener, from diminutive 4-inch-tall specimens to extravagant multifoot-high blooms.
Name: Tulipa selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 2 feet tall and 1 foot wide
Zones: 3-7
If the snow has melted, you can be sure that winter aconite is ready to burst forth from the garden. Its growth time is limited -- the plant dies back once spring transitions to summer -- but its pretty, open blooms make it a showpiece in a woodland garden.
Name: Eranthis cilicica
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 3 inches tall and wide
Zones: 4-9
Inside the blooms of snowdrift is an exquisite surprise: striped flowers that offer surprising color variation. Tall foliage stalks make these a good companion to lower spring growers such as crocus.
Name: Puschkinia scilloides
Growing conditions: Sun or part shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 8 inches tall and 6 inches wide
Zones: 3-9
The delicate blooms of sweet mock orange belie its easy-growing nature. After planting it, you hardly have to do a thing to this compact shrub! In addition to pretty white flowers, the plant supplies an intoxicating fragrance.
Name: Philadelphus 'Miniature Snowflake'
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall and wide
Zones: 3-7
The rewards of Arkansas bluestar bridge the gap between spring and fall: The plant puts on a restrained color show in spring with star-shape, light blue flowers. Then in the fall, the foliage takes a turn for the brilliant, transforming into a golden-yellow display.
Name: Amsonia hubrictii
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide
Zones: 5-9
A drooping bell shape distinguishes the diminutive blooms on summer snowflake. In a flowerbed, group several of the plants to create a focal point.
Name: Leucojum aestivum
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall and 1 foot wide
Zones: 4-9
Big flowers and oversize foliage ensure the oakleaf hydrangea has a unique presence in the garden. For flower lovers, the late-spring-blooming shrub offers reliable, vigorous growth, but the plant also supplies visual interest throughout the growing season.
Name: Hydrangea quercifolia
Growing conditions: Part shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 6 feet tall and 8 feet wide
Zones: 5-9
Its bright color burst is short-lived, but 'Pink Discovery' azalea's solid mass of flamboyant flowers provides a just-right transition from spring to summer bloomers. Pair the shrubs with hellebores, as in this sidewalk border, for an early-season showstopper.
Name: Rhododendron yedoense var. poukhanensis 'Pink Discovery'
Growing conditions: Part shade and moist but well-drained acidic soil
Size: To 10 feet tall and wide
Zones: 5-9
Rock rose makes spring-flower lovers wait until late in the season for blooms, but that extra dose of patience is worth it. Double varieties such as this one supply spring and early summer with a profusion of petals on low-growing shrubs.
Name: Helianthemum 'Annabel'
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 1 foot tall and 2 feet wide
Zones: 6-8
