I’m a flower girl! What I mean is that I love, love, love flowers. I try to fill my yard and home with flowers. Especially flowers that I can cut to bring inside. And I’m a little old-fashioned. Some of my favorites are old-style flowers like peonies, lilacs, and daffodils. Each year I work to create a vibrant spring garden and you can too.
April is the month that we’ll see more flowers blooming. The flowers on the fruit trees have tapered off, but now we begin to see buds and blooms on other plants. I love this slow unfolding that begins in early spring. It builds as the spring months pass, leading into summer. That’s when there’s a massive amount of flowers. Then it crescendos in August and slowly fades until we hit the winter months when our gardens lie dormant.
Here’s a list of some favorite flowers to grow in your garden for spring color.
Flowers Blooming in the April Garden…
Bulbs
- Daffodils
- Tulips
- Grape Hyacinths
- Hyacinths
Shrubs and Trees
- Lilac
- Ornamental Cherry
- Japanese Rose
Perennials
- Peonies (blooms in late May)
- Pansies
- Primroses
Is your garden still bare without a hint of yellow, pink, lavender, or red? You can find pansies to plant right now. And you can bring home potted daffodils and tulips from your local garden center. Or grab a bouquet or 2 of cut daffodils and tulips from your grocery store.
Cutting Garden Checklist
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I want to enjoy these colorful flowers all season long, starting in the early spring months. But it takes advance planning and preparation to enjoy a wide variety of spring flowers. It’s not too late to get started with flowering trees, shrubs, and perennials. If we spend some time analyzing our gardens now, then we can create an enjoyable place to relax for this season and for the future.
3 Steps To Planning a More Vibrant Spring Garden…
Step 1:
Really take a good hard look at your current garden. Does it provide all the flowers you would like to grow each year? Examine each garden area and bed. What are the micro-climates? Do your beds sit in full sun or shade? Do they get partial sun? This will impact what you can grow.
What garden zone do you live in? This will also affect the types of flowers you can grow. It’s difficult to grow a beautiful seasonal garden unless we understand what’s working and what’s wrong with our current garden.
Step 2:
Now spend some time dreaming about your garden. Visualize what you would like to see. Again, think about each garden bed or area. To help you imagine what your garden could be like, spend some time on Pinterest looking at garden and flower boards. Or if you have any garden books or magazines, spend some time browsing through the pages to get inspiration for your garden. Another activity that you can look for is a spring garden tour. Many communities have garden tours where homeowners showcase their beautiful spring and summer gardens.
Step 3:
Get started planning, and plant that beautiful garden. Here are some things to consider.
- The first place to start is with your trees and shrubs. Do you have an empty area where a spring blooming tree could accent your garden? Or a corner that might be enhanced with a flowering shrub? Trees are a long-term commitment. However, they can bring beauty to your yard year after year. As you plan, be sure to research the growing conditions and plant accordingly. For example, I have a huge lilac that is under the shade of a neighbor’s sycamore tree. No matter how much I fertilize and prune that shrub, I usually only get a handful of blooms each year because it doesn’t get enough sunshine. If I had planned appropriately, I would have chosen a different area for the lilac.
- If you want to add in some spring-blooming bulbs to your flower beds, you’ll need to plant in the fall. Decide now what you would like. Would you enjoy more smiling daffodils or a wide sweep of tulips? There are so many bulbs to choose from. You can pre-order them from a bulb company such as White Flower Farm, Michigan Bulbs or Holland Bulb Farms. Your other option is to put it on your calendar for September so you can purchase bulbs at your local garden center.
- Decide on any perennials to add into your garden now. Remember your micro-climates. For example, I have a shade garden that needs some spring color. I’ve been thinking of planting some Bleeding Hearts, Astilbe and Columbine because they do well in the shade. They also get along well with the Hostas that are currently in that area.
- Now you can fill in with some annuals for pops of color. Your trees, shrubs, bulbs, and perennials will return year after year. They form the bones of your long-term garden. But adding in violas, pansies, snapdragons, dianthus, and nemesia into pots or tucked into your beds can give you some flowers to enjoy as the bulbs fade. Many of these annuals will continue through the early summer until the heat of summer sets in. Some, like the snapdragons, can continue all season long.
It’s such a joy to walk through the spring garden. The birds are chirping in the flowering trees. The colors are finally starting to appear in the beds and flower pots. With a little planning, each spring can be a wonderful time to enjoy your garden. Take the time now to plan long term, but also to add in flowers that can be enjoyed this season as well. Sitting on the porch of Pinecone Cottage and looking over my yard and garden makes the planning and work well worth the effort. I hope that you too can plan, plant and grow lovely flowers that will make your heart sing. Happy Gardening and Happy Spring!