These perennials bloom during the early growing season and are a welcome sight after a long-cold winter. Mix these spring flowering perennials in with your summer and fall-blooming flowers for a show of sequential blooms all gardening season.
Bergenia a.k.a Pigsqueak
Bloom time is April and May. This plant is called Pigsqueak because if you rub two leaves together it makes a squeaking sound. Bergenia love shade or dappled sunlight and a great alternative to the hosta. Bleeding Heart
These hearts bloom mid-May to June. Heart-shaped pink flowers that dangle from outstretched stems. Cool-moist areas are best with morning sun.Ajuga a.k.a Bugleweed.
These flowers bloom early May through June. It’s an aggressive spreading ground cover that helps choke out weeds. Commonly used for hard-to-grow shady area, erosion control or under Black Walnut trees since it’s resistant to Juglone.Fernleaf Peony
Deep red large flowers grow on fine-textured fern-like foliage that grows in a 1′-2′ foot mound. Provide 6 hrs of sun and they will bloom in late-spring. May need stem support to prevent drooping. Forget-Me-Not
They start blooming in May and can re-bloom later in the season. Pink or blue flowers of Forget-Me-Not create a blanket of small flowers over a short 5 inch to 12 inch plant. Used as a ground-cover in landscapes, this perennial is biennial and reseeds itself. Deadhead blooms to prevent re-seeding if you want to inhibit spreading. Squaw Weed a.k.a Round-Leaved Ragwort
Blooms late-spring to early-summer. Excellent ground cover with sea of long-lasting yellow flowers. Will flower in full sun to part shade and spreads slowly and easy to contain. Columbine
Blooms mid-spring. Blue, pink, or purple bell-shaped flowers great for part shade and woodland areas. Native Columbine has smaller red and yellow flowers that tend to have slightly more nodding in the flowers. Sweet Woodruff
Forms thick mats of foliage with small white flowers blooms April and May. Best grown in moist, shady areas. Can handle dry shade but won’t grow as prolific. Poppy
Poppies can bloom in cooler weather April through June. A shorter lived plant that easily reseeds itself for year-after-year blooms. These delicate flowers love growing in full-sun. Geum
This is a member of the rose family that loves full morning sun and afternoon shade. Mid-spring flowers perch atop fuzzy stems. Long-blooming flowers that butterflies adore! Dead-head old flowers to push more blooms.Cushion Spurge
The tiny yellows flowers are insignificant but the bright yellow bracts surrounding the blooms is what makes this cushion-shaped plant a lovely spring perennial. The leaves will also turn orange in the fall. Grow in full sun to avoid legginess. As part of the Eupohorbia family, it can handle drought once established.Lungwort
This early spring bloomer is a low growing plant with fuzzy white speckled leaves. Creates a clump of textured foliage with flower stalks that rise above the foliage. Great for shady locations and deer resistance.Vinca Minor
Prolific bloomer with deep lilac color flowers. Vining habitat that creates a blanket of gorgeous glossy dark leaves. Shade tolerant but produces more blooms in mostly sunny locations.Primerose
These extremely colorful flowers that come in multiple colors will bloom early to mid spring. They are perfectly happy blooming before deciduous shrubs leaf out. Great for moist, partly shady garden areas!
We hope you have found a perennial that caught your eye! Look for the perennials above in our nursery as well these other spring flowering perennials, listed below, when you are adding to your landscape this season.
If you are looking for more perennials to add to your garden, especially ones that can handle drought, give Top 8 Tough as Nails Perennials a read!
Walk and Talk: Fall Color with Trees and Shrubs
August 23, 2022 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
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Take a walk around with our Nursery Lot managers and explore the trees and shrubs that will give your landscape and gardens a phenomenal show of fall colors.
Fall Landscape Shrubs for Autumn Color
Don’t overlook these shrubs that will give you a wonderful show and variety to your garden in the fall! We can help you look ahead into the fall (summer isn’t over yet!) and pick out some plants that have wonderful autumn color.
Here are a just a few examples of shrubs that have pleasant fall colors you can plant now if you want to keep the colors going all the way to snowfall – and some beyond!
Shrubs
Tiger Eyes® Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac
This sumac grows about 6′ wide and 6′ tall and the foliage is beautiful all season long! The brilliant chartreuse green foliage is in the summer giving way to the fall when it’s leaves turns orange, yellow, and scarlet color. This plant definitely has an oriental look to it! It’s drought resistant, can take full sun, and is a zone 4 so it will survive the winters here!
This native deciduous shrub grows about 5′-7′ tall and wide and starts off the spring season with small white flowers! It is adaptable to most soils, wet or dry, and can grow full sun to full shade! *However, more berries will be produced and growth in full sun. The 1/4″ black superberry fruit it produces has 400% more antioxidants then blueberries. Great for pollinators and birds, there is plenty to love about this plant. Autumn colors are orange, red, and purple and their natural fullness make a great informal hedge planted in mass.
We wanted to add this shrub because it provides color from spring through fall. The new leaves come out coral orange, turn green, and then a bright red in the fall, always adding warmth and a pop of brightness to your landscape. It grows 4′-5′ tall and 2′-3′ wide and likes full to partial sun. Tolerant of most soils other than slow draining/wet areas. Can take drought conditions once established and great can tolerate road salts and pollution well. Most barberries have wonderful fall color transitions so check out barberry as a great barrier plant in your contemporary or rustic garden.
Bailey Red Twigged Dogwood
This one we are also focusing further into the fall season and winter. We don’t want to take away from the adorable white berries that adorn the plant in late summer but sometimes it’s what’s within that gives us the real beauty. The dropping of its dramatic red and orange foliage in fall reveal bright red twigs that stand upright against the mostly colorless landscape. They can get fairly big at 9′ tall and 5′ wide. It’s great for mass planting, wetter areas, and its roots work well to create an embankment for erosion control. Plant in full to partial sun and hopefully somewhere you see often in the winter! Really easy care and cutting back old stems in the spring will give you best color on new growth.
Winter photo: Courtesy of Monrovia
Spirea
Birch leaf spirea autumn colors
Spirea is a spring/summer flowering shrub that works well for your border plantings and provides spring blossoms as well as great fall foliage. Some spirea varieties can also bloom spring and fall. Two Spirea came to mind when thinking of fall color. Magic Carpet Spirea (See image on the right ) that turns a rich russet red in the fall after its summer season mature bright gold foliage or the Tor Birchleaf Spirea that turns gold, red, and purple in the fall. The Tor Birchleaf grows in compacted mounds and is deer resistant, fragrant, and attracts butterflies. The Magic Carpet grows full and bushy, is an early bloomer, and has brightest colors in full sun. Planting them en masse and paired with other perennials would create a more dramatic effect in your landscape. Ask us about which varieties can be pruned after first flowering to try for continued blooming into fall.
There are many plants, other than shrubs, that can provide you extended seasonal color and eye appeal in your landscape or garden. The garden is an evolving thing so when you have time to take tabs on when plants are blooming or changing color, why not add more plants for fall interest?
Spirea is a spring/summer flowering shrub that works well for your border plantings and provides spring blossoms as well as great fall foliage. Some spirea varieties can also bloom spring and fall. Two Spirea came to mind when thinking of fall color.