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: Pansy Seeds ($3, Etsy)

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-loving plants.

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 Bulbs ($7, Etsy)

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: Hellebore Collection ($55, Breck's)

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 Systems ($8, Etsy)

Growing from a hard, lumpy tuber best planted in fall, Grecian windflower is a type of anemone. It produces daisy-like blooms for weeks, and so profusely that they all but hide the ferny foliage. You can find windflowers in shades of blue, pink, white, and even bicolors.

Light: Full sun to part shade

Water: Plant in moist, well-drained soil

Size: To 6 inches tall

Zones: 4-10

Buy It: Anemone Mixed Grecian Windflower Bulbs (from $5, Etsy)

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: Celandine Poppy Plants ($5, Etsy)

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 Bulbs ($17, Etsy)

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: Blue Grape Hyacinth ($20, Breck's)

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: Crocus Bulbs (from $6, Etsy)

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: Daffodil Bulbs ($30, The Home Depot)

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: Cream-of-the-Crop Tulip Mixture ($30, Breck's)

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 ($15, Breck's)

The blooms of this small bulb have a sweet surprise inside: a distinct stripe of darker color runs down the center of each tiny petal. Puschkinia is also known as striped squill for this reason. Its taller foliage makes it a good companion for 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: Early Stardrift Bulbs ($14, Breck's)

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 Seeds ($3, Etsy)

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: Double Marsh Marigold ($17, Breck's)

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 Bulbs (from $11, Etsy)

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 Seeds ($8, Etsy)

Distinctive white flowers with green markings dangle like charms among narrow leaves that sprout up from small bulbs planted in fall. Though they are tiny plants, they look stunning when grown in large groups. You can also amp up the effect by pairing them with purple rock garden iris that bloom at the same time.

Light: Full sun to part shade

Water: Plant in moist but well-drained soil

Size: 6-8 inches

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: Early Snowdrops Bulbs ($16, Breck's)

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: Pink Claytonia Seeds ($3, Etsy)