The Best Springtime Flowers for Your Garden

Colorful bushes as borders

Every garden needs a border with bushes that add height and variety to smaller flowers and plants. Low-growing azaleas in shades of pink, red, and white blend beautifully with larger flowering bushes like purple rhododendron and sunshine yellow forsythia. When strategically placed around your garden, all of these bushes should offer a pallet of blooming colors throughout spring.

Early-blooming bulb plants

When planted according to directions in the fall, spring-blooming bulbs like the early bird crocus, rainbow-colored tulips, and radiant daffodils erupt to happily announce that winter is over. After their show is complete, they courteously pass on to make room for other spring bulb plants like dramatic daylilies that glow in shades of red, orange, and yellow, or the blue, white, and yellow iris. A smart gardening strategy is to space your plants by color, size, and blooming times to make your yard picture-perfect for the full growing season.

Perennial spring flowers

There are so many perennial springtime flowers to choose from, a visit to your local nursery can be confusing if you haven’t done your homework. Add the fragrant lavender plant along with a mixture of flowers from the amazing dahlia family. With over 30 species in a wide variety of colors and shapes, you won’t have a problem finding a few you like. You might also consider the old-fashioned, dainty, white bridal-wreath for another charming addition to your garden. Not as well-known is the lavender-colored pincushion flower with its always abundant spring blooms.

Spectacular blooming trees

Every garden needs an elegant, lofty tree that explodes with the best springtime flowers around your garden. Traditional favorites are the legendary white- or pink-flowered dogwood, the cherry blossom tree, and the pussy willow. Steeped in mythology and religious practices, pussy willow branches can be cut and mixed as accents with other flowers for an oriental decorative flair.

Hardy annual flowers

The smartest choices for annual plants will be hardy enough to handle cool nights and heat-tolerant enough not to wilt during a warm spring day. Color-rich petunias fit the profile and are adaptable on the ground or in hanging baskets. Add height to your annual display with color-variant snapdragons that also come in a trailing series called “Luminaire.” This type is a distinctive choice to mix with petunias in hanging baskets. Don’t forget another early spring performer: perky pansies, always a favorite of imaginative children.

When you think about gardening, think about the colors and textures of plants that please you. The best springtime flowers for your garden will be the ones you like the most and can cut to bring inside your home.