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Waiting for your favorite flowers to blossom can make early spring seem endless. Luckily, there are a few annuals you can plant nice and early that prefer to bloom in the cooler spring temperatures. These tough and energetic bloomers will add some vibrancy to your yard early in the spring. You can pop these into your flower beds as soon as the soil is warm enough to dig in with your trowel!
These are some of the best flowers to plant for spring in Northwest Arkansas.
Pansies are one of our favorite signs of spring. They're so easy to care for, and they're tough enough to withstand the extremes of spring weather. Their cheerful faces make everyone smile, and the flowers are edible! Pansies perform best in the cooler spring weather. They prefer lots of morning sunshine, but shade from the heat of the afternoon. They're generally pretty vigorous, but if you find they're not blooming as much as you like, check if they need watering more frequently. Offer them a fertilizer formula for flowering plants, and avoid fertilizer with high nitrogen as that will mostly encourage foliage instead of blossoms.
Violas are another cheerful spring bloomer that often volunteer themselves in our gardens, and they're usually the very first blooms in early spring. They're in the same family as, and very similar to, pansies, with slightly smaller flowers. You can use them to brighten up spring salads, cocktails, and baking with pretty petals. Violas like the same locations and care tactics as pansies, and when planted together, the variation in color and blossom sizes makes for beautiful texture and variety.
The tall spikes of snapdragons are another example of colorful cool-weather bloomers. These unique plants feature blooms that look like miniature calves' mouths that can open and close. Snapdragons start blooming from the bottom of the stalk, and gradually open up new flowers all the way to the top for an extended bloom period. They'll also go dormant in the summer, but if you cut them back and keep watering, they'll start to bloom again in the fall.
Pinks, or Sweet Williams, are another pretty spring bloomer. Their simple and elegant petals come in a variety of shades, from white to bright pink to dark red, with dainty scalloped edges. Luckily, pinks will bloom all summer long, from the start of spring until the first frost. They do need lots of sun, at least 6 hours, and they prefer slightly alkaline soil.
Even if you missed out on fall bulb planting, you can still enjoy a few spring-blooming bulbs in your garden. Pots of hyacinths and daffodils already blooming can be transplanted into the garden and containers in spring. You can simply leave them in their new home to return the following year. If the weather is going to freeze overnight, wrap your pots in a blanket overnight to protect the bulbs.
Towards the end of March, in the last two weeks, you can add a couple more spring color options to hanging baskets or window boxes. Million Bells and Petunias are abundant bloomers that come in many colors. They're not quite as hardy as the flowers above, so keep an eye on the weather. If you think it's going to freeze hard, bring them indoors or cover them well overnight.
At first glance, African Daisies may appear similar to the more common Shasta daisies. But a closer inspection shows they're very different, despite being closely related. African daisies come in a much wider range of colors, with different centers that often feature interesting textures and metallic coloring. African daisy petals also vary widely in shape. These cool-season bloomers are a vibrant choice for spring color before the weather gets too hot. They prefer full sun exposure but will benefit from a bit of shade to protect them from the afternoon heat. They'll go dormant when the summer heat shows up, and if you cut them back, they'll come back for another round of blooms when it cools off in the fall.
You can easily extend the season of colorful blossoms in your garden with these bright spring-blooming flowers. Stop by one of our four garden center locations to pick out a few to brighten up your flower beds this spring!
