Spring flowers are an essential part of a beautiful garden, offering color and scent from the first blooms of the season until the sun warms the ground again. Many of the best flowers to plant in spring are perennials that come back year after year. They can brighten up a bare spot in your yard or add a splash of color to a container garden.
Tulips
Tulips offer classic springtime beauty. They come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. The best tulip varieties for your garden are those that grow in full sun. They also perform well in part sun and beneath deciduous trees. If you want a full flowering effect, plant bulbs in groups of about 50 or more. Dig a hole 6 inches deep, place the bulb in with the pointy end up, cover it with soil, and water. These flowers aren’t just easy to grow, they’re also a long-lasting addition to your vase. You can even pull tulips out of the ground, trim the stems a bit and place them in warm water to rehydrate! The most popular tulips are red and yellow, but they also come in shades of white, rose, mahogany, and violet. For example, ‘Persian Pearl’ has magenta-rose blooms that turn to bright yellow on warm days. ‘Queen of Night’ produces velvety purple blossoms.
Hyacinths
Hyacinths are an easy and fragrant way to add color and beauty to your garden. They come in a wide variety of colors and can be planted with other spring bloomers such as tulips or daffodils. They grow best in full sun, but are also tolerant of partial shade. They can be planted in a flower bed, in pots, or as a border along the edge of a garden path. When planting hyacinth bulbs, prepare the soil well. Till, mix in sand or compost, and add a handful of bone meal for fertility. Make sure the soil drains well and does not rot. Before planting, dig a trench and water it to test its drainage. If it takes more than a half hour to drain, add water or sand to improve it. When hyacinths finish flowering, remove them, but don’t cut off the foliage. The leaves provide energy to the bulb for the following growing season.
Snowdrops
The snowdrop is one of the earliest spring flowers to bloom. It’s also called the “fair maids of February” and “Candlemas bells.” This small genus (Galanthus) is characterized by 20 species that grow to 3-6 inches tall. They are herbaceous perennials in the Amaryllidaceae family. They have two linear leaves and a single small white drooping bell-shaped flower with six petal-like (petaloid) tepals in two circles (whorls). The inner petals have green markings. To get snowdrops to bloom, provide full sun and moist soil in an area with a pH that’s organically rich and well-drained. This hardy plant naturalizes readily in Zones 3 to 8 and forms large clumps that can eventually carpet the ground. Once a clump of snowdrops has become established, it rarely needs to be divided. But if you want to move a group or share them with a friend, dig and divide them in early spring after they’ve finished blooming. Be sure to lift and replant in sections of at least four or five bulbs each.
Creeping Phlox
Unlike most spring flowers, creeping phlox is a perennial ground cover that thrives in a variety of soil conditions. It can even be grown in partial shade if you’re careful to provide adequate sunlight. Depending on which species you choose, creeping phlox can be easily propagated by taking cuttings. Using a sharp, sterile spade, dig up the root ball and divide it in half, placing each halves back into the ground in an appropriate growing site and watering lightly to get them started. Plant creeping phlox in full sun or partial shade, though it prefers the former. It also tolerates a bit of drought once established, so it can be surrounded by a layer of mulch to help keep soil moisture consistent. Creeping phlox flowers in early spring and produces long, spreading stems that become woody with age. However, pruning the thicker growths will encourage new, softer stems that will bloom. Pruning can also prevent powdery mildew.