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. These early blooming perennials can also help pollinators get food before the trees start blooming and also attract pollinators to your fruiting trees. If you are interested in adding more pollinator friendly plants, see two garden designs that can help you plan your new garden spaces.
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.Hellebores
Best to plant these in raised beds, on slopes, or front of the garden to see their downward facing blooms, Hellebores can bloom very early spring into mid-May. 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!
When searching for perennials to enhance your landscape this season, be sure to keep an eye out for the ones mentioned above, as well as the additional spring flowering perennials listed below in our nursery.
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!
Landscape Shrubs for Autumn Color
Discover beautiful fall shrubs for your garden now! We can help you choose plants with amazing autumn colors. Don’t wait, add these shrubs and keep the colors going all the way to the snowfall!
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!
Barberry – The foliage of these shrubs are lovely! Orange, red, lime green, yellow, and purple leaf colors.
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 than the fall season. 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 the real beauty. The dropping of its dramatic red and orange foliage in fall reveals 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, in 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 the 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 the brightest colors in full sun. Planting them en masse and pairing them with other perennials would create a more dramatic effect on 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 with 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?
TOP 5 TIPS for Summer Plantings
1.MOST IMPORTANT! – WATERING
Proper watering is vital to plant survival. Proper watering doesn’t mean watering everyday. At least 1″ of water a week spring through fall season is the recommended amount. Frequency will vary depending on type of soil you have. For example, clay soils need infrequent yet thorough watering. This is because the water doesn’t percolate quickly through the soil. However in a sandy soil, water percolates easily. This requires thorough and more frequent watering.
Every one to two weeks, a slow stream of hose water for 5-10 min around the root zone should give you a deep thorough watering of trees and shrubs.
Perennials should be watered every 3-7 days depending on soil type and weather.
Check the soil regularly by pushing your finger a couple inches into the soil before you water. If the soil is moist, wait to water. Remember, even drought tolerant plants need a couple of years to become fully established and need deep thorough watering. Searing heat and windy days may require increased watering frequency.
2. PROPER PLANTING TECHNIQUE
Make sure to follow our planting guide (See image below) on the back of our Winter Hardiness Warranty Slip that comes with all trees and shrubs. Mix in compost and slow release fertilizer with beneficial fungi, bacteria, and nutrients, like Bio-Tone, into your native soil to help newly planted shrubs, trees, and perennials get off on a strong start.
3. MULCHING
Use 2-3 inches of mulch around your plants to help retain water and keep soil cool during hot and dry days. Mulch around the root zone and keep the mulch 2 inches away from the stem or trunk of the plant.
4.READ THE LEAVES
Summer-planted plants may wilt regularly if you are under- or over-watering, or from heat stress. Water sensitive plants, especially new perennials with shallow root systems, will tell you if they need more water. If there is slight wilting during the day yet they have moist soil, they may be succumbing to heat/light stress if no other signs of pests or disease are present.
If they are still wilting after the sun is going down, they are most likely under-watered if the soil is dry or the roots have already been stressed from over-watering. The best method to quickly learn how much water you plant needs is to check it regularly. Your plant will start establishing it’s roots and watering frequency may decrease.
5. PLANTING TIME
Planting on a cloudy day is less stressful on new plants. If the cloudy day is followed by a day or two of rain, all the better! You can also plant in the evening. That gives it half a day before it gets blasted with the summer sun.
We also made a video of planting a shrub to show how to properly plant.
Additional landscape plant heat stress remedies:
Perennial Parade in the Display Garden
Perennial Parade
June 27, 2019
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
We're sorry, but all tickets sales have ended because the event is expired.
Event Phone: 507-388-4877
View the beautiful mature perennials in our display gardens and learn more about each one with our resident Horticulturist.
