19 of the Earliest Flowers You'll See Blooming in Spring

Cool weather is just what pansies prefer, blooming in cool spring weather or in the fall.  This short-lived perennial plant is usually treated as an annual for providing color in early-season flower beds, containers, and window boxes. Petals can be just about any color from white to almost black, and everything in between.

Light: Full sun or part shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: To 10 inches tall and 12 inches wide

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: 'Moulin Rouge' Pansy Seeds, $4.95, Burpee

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. If you're planting a woodland-style garden, pair it with other shade-lovers.

Light: Shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: To 16 inches tall and 12 inches wide

Zones: 5-8

Buy It: Yellow Trillium, $4.99, Native Wildflowers Nursery

Also known as a Lenten rose or Christmas rose, hellebores produce spring flowers with delicate beauty and surprising resilience. In warmer climates, it may even tolerate light frosts, making it one of the best flowers to plant in spring. For unusual flowers, ask at your nursery about double-bloom varieties.

Light: Shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: To 12 inches tall and 18 inches wide

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: 'Confetti Cake' Helleborus, $19.95, Wayside Gardens

This herbaceous spring perennial flower makes its appearance in March, shooting up white flowers that last until late spring. Bloodroot is a good fit for either a shaded or woodland garden.

Light: Shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: To 6 inches tall and 12 inches wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Bloodroot, $4.99, Native Wildflowers Nursery

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 can sometimes bloom for a second time.

Light: Full sun or part shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: To 6 inches tall and 12 inches wide

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Snowdrop Anemone, $6.99, Walmart

One of the first flowers to bloom in spring, celandine poppy produces beautiful yellow and orange flowers. Also called wood poppies, this plant looks like a delicate wildflower when it blooms.

Light: Shade or part shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 2 feet tall

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Yellow Wood Poppy, $4.99, Native Wildflowers Nursery

A variety of bleeding heart, the flowers on dutchman's breeches look more like an upside-down pair of pants than a heart (hence the name). The blooms can be pink or white, with clusters of 10 or more on a single stem.

Light: Part sun or shade

Water: Plant in well-drained soil

Size: Up to 3 feet tall

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Dutchman's Breeches, $5.69, Tennessee Wholesale Nursery

As much as any other spring bulbs, grape hyacinths trumpet the arrival of spring. Clustered flowers hang lusciously from sturdy stalks, resembling bundles of grapes; they're one of the best, most beautiful flowers to plant in spring.

Light: Full sun or part shade

Water: Plant in well-drained soil

Size: To 8 inches tall and 6 inches wide

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Grape Hyacinth Bulbs, $10.99, American Meadows

Announcing the departure of winter with lovely pink, purple, yellow, or white petals, crocuses are one of the best early spring flowers. Planted from corms (swollen stem bases, a little like tubers), crocuses also range in size from delicate blooms to more showy versions.

Light: Full sun

Water: Plant in well-drained soil

Size: To 6 inches tall and wide

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: King of the Striped Giant Crocus, $5.97, Holland Bulb Farms

If it's spring, it's time for a show of daffodils. The bright, cheerful spring flower has a range of shapes and sizes, including trumpet, small- and large-cupped, and double blooms. Deer find them less appetizing than other spring plants, but the foliage should be left to die back on its own to rejuvenate the plants for the following year.

Light: Full sun

Water: Plant in well-drained soil

Size: To 1 foot tall and wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: 'Pueblo' Daffodil Bulbs, $12.99, Breck's

With a huge variety of shades (including nearly every color of the rainbow), tulips lend themselves to a variety of garden settings, including formal border gardens and naturalistic, casual settings. And there's a tulip for every gardener, from tiny 4-inch-tall specimens to extravagant multi-foot-high blooms.

Light: Full sun

Water: Plant in well-drained soil

Size: To 2 feet tall and 1 foot wide

Zones: 3-7

Buy It: Classic Perennial Tulip Mix, $23.00, White Flower Farm

If the snow has melted, you can be sure that winter aconite is ready to burst into bloom in your 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.

Light: Full sun

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: To 3 inches tall and wide

Zones: 4-9

Buy It: Winter Aconite, $14.99, Breck's

The blooms of snowdrift have an exquisite surprise inside: Striped flowers that offer surprising color variation. Tall foliage stalks make these a good companion to lower spring growers such as crocus.

Light: Full sun or part shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: To 8 inches tall and 6 inches wide

Zones: 3-9

Buy It: Puschkinia scilloides, $12.75, White Flower Farm

Looking their best alongside other spring bloomers like daffodils and tulips, Virginia bluebells self-seed, so they can spread and pop up in between other perennials over time. At the beginning of summer, their foliage and blue flowers will die back, so make sure you plant a few summer bloomers nearby to fill the gap.

Light: Full sun or part sun

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 3 feet tall

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: Virginia Bluebells, $12.99, Spring Hill Nurseries

Also known as cowslip, marsh marigolds' flowers aren't quite as puffy as traditional marigolds. Instead, the small orange-yellow flowers look more like teeny-tiny hibiscus blooms, making hardy hibiscus a good choice for planting alongside this early spring blooming flower.

Light: Full sun or part sun

Water: Plant in consistently moist soil

Size: Up to 3 feet tall

Zones: 3-7

Buy It: Marsh Marigold, $10.95, Heritage Flower Farm

Not quite as large as other lily varieties, trout lily's early blooms make up for their smaller size. A common wildflower across most of the country, you might've seen these plants growing before even if you haven't included them in your garden.

Light: Part shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 6 inches tall

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: Trout Lily, $7.99, Prairie Nursery

Every spring, this perennial starts producing buds even before its fern-like foilage has fully unfolded. Pasque flower doesn't grow very tall, so if you're planting it in a flower bed, be sure to place it towards the front.

Light: Full sun

Water: Plant in well-drained soil

Size: Up to 12 inches tall

Zones: 4-7

Buy It: Pasque Flower, $8.99, High Country Gardens

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.

Light: Part shade

Water: Plant in moist but well-drained acidic soil

Size: To 10 feet tall and wide

Zones: 5-9

Buy It: Pink-a-Boo Azalea, $19.99, Spring Hill Nurseries

Not only does claytonia produce small, beautiful flowers in spring, but it's edible, too. Also called miner's lettuce, both the leaves and blooms are edible, and can be eaten like salad greens.

Light: Full sun or part shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 16 inches tall

Zones: 6-9

Buy It: Claytonia Seeds, $4.55, Johnny's Selected Seeds