Colorful Spring Gardens

When trees and shrubs are still showing their first pale green, it's the bulbs and the earliest perennials carrying color in the garden.

The Earliest Color

Spring bulbs — tulips, daffodils, bluebells, crocuses — are planted in fall and open as early as March, offering the season's very first blooms. Some early-flowering shrubs join them: forsythia and witch-hazel bloom well before most perennials have even emerged from the soil. Bulbs are versatile enough for the perennial bed, a shrub border, or even the lawn, and look best planted in generous masses rather than singly.

Shade-Loving Early Perennials

Many early bloomers thrive in the dappled light beneath deciduous trees that haven't leafed out yet, which is why woodland gardens are often the most colorful spot in the whole landscape this time of year. Iris, bleeding heart, columbine, poppy, peony, and lupine are reliable early performers — though several, poppies and lupine especially, fade fast and lose their foliage quickly, so plan for annuals and later perennials to take over as they go. Hostas and evergreens fill the gap with foliage interest while everything else gets started.