Quick! Head out into the garden with a pen and paper. Make note of what is blooming, where there is color or where it is woefully lacking . We have had a long winter, are you happy with your Spring garden?
Come inside now, and sit down at the computer or with your plant catalogs if you have them. Why now? because summer is coming, you will be busy with BBQ’s, vacations to the beach, vegetable gardening and chilling in the hammock. By Fall you are tired , the garden has sucked the life out of you with watering, deadheading, weeding and pest control. You will be in no mood to think of Spring planning.
Here is a short list of plants you can add for very early color. Check out websites like Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, Odyssey Bulbs, John Scheepers, Old House Gardens to name but a few.
Order bulbs soon and you won’t have to remember a thing as most bulb sellers release their seasonal lists way ahead of the actual season for planting purposes, as a general rule Spring bulbs are planted in the Fall for Spring blooming , and the growers will ship them at correct planting time for your area. You will probably even forget you were so organized and thought ahead and will be pleasantly surprised when they arrive on your doorstop . Plants may ship at any time and you can plant them knowing the great service you are doing for next year’s winter weary soul.
Erantis or winter aconite
anemone nemerosa
Pasque flower or pusatilla vulgaris
corydalis like the lovely ‘Beth Evans’
daffodils and narcissus…look for those described by bloom time for early, mid and late season,Brent and Becky’s does a great job with descriptions of bloom time based on other flowering plants
species tulips …I grow t. clusiana and t. kaufmanniana but there are many more available . These perennialize much better than the hybrids and flower reliably year after year. Look here for more varieties
chionodoxa That is ‘Pink Giant’ below in a teeny ink well with the blushing leaves of Polemonium reptans’Stairway to Heaven’
siberian squill
gallanthus or snowdrops
fritillary
lonicera fragrantissima or fragrant honeysuckle
If you can possibly add a small tree , or even a large one ,always add a magnolia…in New England look for those who flower a tad later to avoid loosing the flowers to frost. Magnolia ‘Ricki’ is a great choice and her girlfriends that join her in the party fashionably late as well are described HERE
hamamelis or witch hazel,Click here for the Chicago Botanic Gardens Trail info …. Oh! the choices!
a beautiful early blooming shrub ( relative of the forsythia) abeliophyllum distichum is an wonderful addition
crocus, but be careful with these if you have squirrel or chipmunk problems
hellebores , SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM!!! choose spring bloomers by reading the plant description and shop here at Plant Delights Nursery
I already ordered a few more this year.
Won’t you be happy when your garden is carpeted in color just when you are so desperate to see it?