Stephen Albert
Springtime is a season of bare earth as well as a season of flowers and abounding life. Whether it is an entire garden devoted to spring flowers that is being planned or just a small portion of the garden, spring bloomers can interrupt the sparseness of vegetation and a mix of color.
Bulbs will usually dominate in early spring and many will remain until the end of spring. Early wildflowers such as iris, trillium, and anemone should be encouraged in spring; this is their natural season.
Low growing perennials such as creeping phlox and hardy candytuft can supplement spring bulbs.
Flowers planted in spring are likely to give a second and even third bloom if the faded blossoms are removed promptly. Many will continue to grow into summer.
Not listed here are spring-blooming shrubs and trees. They are listed separately in other articles; go to the Index to find those articles.
This list of spring-blooming flowers is aimed at gardens near 40 degrees North latitude (this latitude runs from Toms River, New Jersey, through Philadelphia, through Columbus Ohio, through Boulder, Colorado to Humboldt County in far northern California).
You may find that the plants on this list bloom a bit earlier or later than the time designated. Gardeners further north will find that their flowers will bloom later, and gardeners to the south will have earlier blooms.
Annuals and perennials assigned to early spring may bloom through spring and some may bloom into summer, especially if blooms are deadhead. Deadhead means to remove spent blossoms so that a plant can produce more.
If you find a plant named in an early list repeated in a later list that simply means the plant can be set in the garden if it was not introduced earlier. It can also mean if the plant was listed earlier, it is long blooming.
Here are separate lists for early spring, mid-spring, and late spring. These lists include annuals, bulbs, perennials, and roses.
Early spring blooming flowers
- Adonis, amur Adonis
- Anemone, pasque flower
- Arabis, rock cress
- Aubrieta, false rock cress
- Aurinia, basket-of-gold
- Calochortus, white globe lily
- Chionodoxa, glory-of-the-snow
- Claytonia, spring beauty
- Clivia, Kaffir lily
- Crocus, species and hybrid crocuses
- Erthyronium, lawn lily
- Fritillaria, checker lily
- Helleborus, Lenten rose
- Hepatica
- Ipheion, spring starflower
- Iris, danfordiae, netted iris
- Lachenalia, Cape cowslip
- Lecojum, spring snowflake
- Mertensia, Virginia bluebells
- Muscari, grape hyacinth
- Myosotis, forget-me-not
- Narcissus, daffodils, and narcissus
- Ornithogalum, star-of-Bethlehem
- Primula, polyanthus primrose
- Pulmonaria, blue lungwort
- Puschkinia, striped squill
- Ranunculus, Persian buttercup
- Scilla, Siberian squill
- Trillium, purple trillium
- Tulipa, tulip
- Tussilago, coltsfoot
- Veltheimia, unicorn root
- Vinca, periwinkle
- Viola, pansy
- Zephyranthes, atamasco lily
Mid-spring blooming flowers
- Amsonia, blue star
- Anemone, garden anemone
- Aquilegia, columbine
- Astrantia, masterwort
- Baptisia, false indigo
- Campanula, Carpathian harebell, Dalmatian bellflower
- Centaurea, bachelor’s button
- Cerastium, snow-in-summer
- Chrysogonum, goldenstar
- Dianthus, pink, sweet William
- Dodecatheon, shooting star
- Geranium, cranesbill
- Hemerocallis, daylily
- Heuchera, coralbells
- Incarvillea, hardy gloxinia
- Iris, bearded iris, Pacific Coast iris, yellow flag
- Lathyrus, sweet pea
- Leucojum, giant snowflake
- Lilium, Turk’s cap lilies
- Linaria, toadflax
- Lychnis, German catchfly
- Lysimachia, yellow loosestrife
- Myosotis, annual forget-me-not
- Nemesia
- Nigella, love-in-a-mist
- Paeonia, peony
- Papaver, Iceland poppy, oriental poppy
- Physalis, Chinese lantern
- Potentilla, staghorn cinquefoil
- Primula, Japanese primrose
- Ranunculus, creeping buttercup
- Saponaria, rock soapwort
- Stylophorum, celandine poppy
- Thalictrum, meadow rue
- Thermopsis, Carolina false lupine
- Tradescantia, spiderwort
- Tulipa, Fringed tulips, Parrot tulip, Viridiflora hybrid tulips
- Uvularia, big merrybells
- Valeriana, valerian
- Veronica, speedwell
- Viola, sweet violet, Johnny-jump up
- Zantedeschia, calla lily
Late-spring blooming flowers
- Acontium, monkshood
- Anemone, Japanese anemone
- Aster, A. x frikartii
- Chelone, pink turtlehead
- Coreopsis, pink tickseed
- Dendrathema, garden chrysanthemum
- Eryngium, Mediterranean sea holly
- Gentiana
- Helenium, sneezeweed
- Hosta, plantain lily
- Hyssopus, hyssop
- Ligularia, lepoard plant
- Lilium, various hybrid lilies, tiger lily, late-blooming forms of L. formosanum
- Lobelia, great blue lobelia
- Salvia, blue sage, azure sage
- Sanguisorba, great burnet
- Sedum, ‘Autumn joy’
- Thalictrum, lavender
- Zauschneria, California fuchsia
