Types of Spring Flowers

There are so many types of spring flowers, you may feel overwhelmed when trying to choose the perfect additions to your garden. Delightful fragrances, sparkling colors, and personality-infused blossoms greet you this spring as you shop for spring flowers. Knowing the names of spring flowers and more about them will help you make good choices as you plan your spring garden. After a winter starved of color, adding spring flowers provides an instant boost to welcome the new season.

There are many beautiful choices of spring flowers

Overview of Types of Spring Flowers

Spring is the time when many trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials burst forth in blossom. Nearly every plant creates a flower of some kind. Most gardeners, when speaking of spring flowers, refer to annuals and perennials that bloom March through May. These types of spring flowers are the most common seen in landscapes and gardens.

Tulips

Flowering Bulbs

From among the spring flowers, flowering bulbs are the quintessential harbinger of spring. With their sturdy beauty, bulbs provide gardeners with plant-and-forget flowers.

Most spring flowering bulbs are actually planted in the fall, but if you forgot to plant yours, don’t fret. Many garden centers now carry forced bulbs. These bulbs are gently coaxed into blooming in pots by cooling them for a period of time, then increasing the warmth to mimic springtime. The results are bulbs such as daffodils, tulips and hyacinth available for purchase fully in bloom.

Enjoy these delights of spring as indoor flowers much the same way you would enjoy a flower arrangement. After they’re done blooming, you can plant them in the garden and try to get them to come back next year. Just be sure not to trim off the green leaves. The plants need these to build their flowers for next year and grow a strong, healthy root system and bulb.

Pansies

Nothing says spring like pansies. With their nodding faces and velvety colors, the lightly scented annuals thrive in shivering cold, resist sudden frosts, and provide a welcome burst of color.

In most gardening zones, pansies should be treated as annuals. In zones 7 and higher, they may over-winter, especially in warmer garden microclimates, or areas that are sheltered and warm. An area next to a home’s foundation, for example, that faces south may in fact be warmer than the surrounding area, especially if sunlight warms stone or brick and the surface radiates heat back towards plants located nearby.

Pansies can reseed themselves too, so you may see some coming up in parts of the garden where you grew them last year. Seeds are easily collected if you’d like to try your hand at saving seeds. Plants are found throughout the country during spring and pansies don’t mind transplanting. They do not like heat at all, and as the days grow warmer, the plants get spindlier. Plan to replace pansies by late spring.

Stocks

If you’re looking for a taller, cool-season annual, stocks may be the perfect choice. While some dwarf varieties are available, most people choose taller stocks, and the traditional stocks flowers are two feet or taller. They can be grown from seed or from plants. Stocks have a spiky appearance and a strong, clove-like scent similar to carnations. Like many annual flowers, stocks need full sun. They can withstand cooler temperatures and will blossom throughout the spring. Choose white, pink, crimson, yellow or lavender flowering stocks.

Snapdragons

Snapdragons are perhaps one of the most overlooked spring flowers. Many people choose them for summer color, but they work well as a mid to late spring flower, and will keep blooming until the heavy fall frosts finally kill them. Snapdragons are available in a wide range of sizes and colors ranging from dwarf snapdragon plants only inches tall to towering garden monsters that need staking to remain upright. With their spiky flowers and hot colors, snapdragons can be a good plant to bridge the seasons as the garden transitions from spring into summer.

Spring Flowering Trees and Shrubs

Harbingers of spring also include flowering trees and shrubs. Some that you might want to explore for your own garden include:

• Redbud
• Dogwoods
• Witch Hazel
• Flowering or Ornamental Pear Trees
• Cherry Trees
• Forsythia
• Azalea

Whatever you choose for your spring garden, don’t rush the season. Garden centers often grow plants in controlled climates and tempt buyers with flowering plants that may be too choosy to plant during spring’s temperamental weather. Select plants suited to the climate, soil and light conditions of your garden. Here’s to your blooming success!

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