Early Spring Planting Tips

With the advent of springtime, the temperatures become warmer awakening new life in dormant plants, and also creating new hopes for eager gardeners. Although most people cannot wait to get new plants in the ground, it always makes sense to take care of basic garden maintenance first. If gardeners have not cleaned garden debris and added soil amendments in the autumn months, it is time to do so in early spring. Since winter rains may have carried nutrients below the reach of the root zone, early spring is also a suitable time to fertilize lawns, shrubs, trees and planting beds. Such care is bound to result in a magnificent display in later months.

During the springtime, it is best to plant canned roses to enjoy blooms during the summer months, buy and plant summer bulbs, such as callas, cannas, dahlias, and gladiolus. During this period, try to replace winter-spring annuals with summer annuals, including asters, coleus, impatiens, lobelia, marigolds, petunias, and zinnias. Also, buy and plant perennials to provide structure to the garden. You can also start seeds or buy plants for the warm-season vegetable garden. Tomato, eggplant, melons, peppers and squashes will be a great choice.

Gardeners in cold climates can still enjoy colorful flowers as early as March and even February in some areas, where snow is still to be found on the ground. The time required for certain bulbs, perennials and shrubs to bloom varies from one zone to the next, and even on the location within your own garden (depending on sun, shelter, etc.). Given below are some early bloomers that are good bets for producing flowers in late winter and early spring.

You should plant these tiny early risers in the fall for late winter/early spring blooms. They will bloom well before your daffodils and tulips: Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa gigantea) – flower: blue, pink, or white; Siberian Squill ( Scilla sibirica) – flower: blue or white; Snow Crocus (Crocus chrysanthus) – flower: white, gold, blue or purple; Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) – flower: white; and Winter Aconite (Eranthus Hyemalis) – flower: yellow.

Among early blooming perennials are the following: Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectablis, D. eximia, D. formosana) – flower: red, pink, or white; Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) – flower: white; Primrose (Primula denticulata, P. vulgaris, P. veris) – flower: white, pink, yellow, or purple; Lenten Rose (Helleborus orientalis) – flower: white, pink, or purple; Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) – flower: white or purple; and Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) – flower: blue, purple, or pink.

For reliable, early blooms, many of these early flowering shrubs are as colorful as they are fragrant: Forsythia (Vermont Sun) (Forsythia mandschurica) – flower: yellow; Korean Spice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii) – flower: white; Rhododendron (Cornell Pink) (Rhododendron mucronulatum) – flower: pink; Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) – flower: yellow; Spring Heath (Springwood Pink & Springwood White) (Erica carnea) – flower: pink or white; and White Forsythia (Abeliophyllum distichum) – flower: white.

It is true that these plants all need to be in the ground before winter comes, but what is important is that you need not wait for the daffodils and tulips before you see some flowers in your garden to welcome the return of spring.