Planting
What to Plant in Spring for Colour All Year
Spring is the big planting window. Here is what to put in the ground now for a garden that flowers all year.
Spring is when most of the garden goes in. The soil is warming, the rains help new roots settle, and anything you plant now has the whole season ahead to establish. The goal is to plant a mix that carries colour from early summer right through to fall, so the bed is never bare.
Plant perennials and summer bulbs once the danger of hard frost has passed, water them in well, and they will reward you for years. Browse the full plant library and use the bloom calendars to make sure you are covering every month.
Perennials to plant now for summer and fall
These go in as young plants in spring and flower the same year, then return bigger every season after. A handful gives you months of colour.
A tough native that blooms all summer, feeds pollinators, and comes back reliably for years.
Plant it in spring and it flowers from early summer into fall with almost no effort.
Quick to establish, with violet spikes that rebloom through summer if you shear them.
Reblooming and forgiving, throwing fresh golden flowers for months from a spring planting.
Easy, golden, and long-blooming, one of the most rewarding plants to start in spring.
Establishes fast in lean soil and flowers the first summer, tough and drought-proof.
Summer colour to add now
Spring is also the time for summer-flowering bulbs and quick annuals that fill gaps while perennials settle in.
A summer bulb planted in spring, sending up fiery red trumpets that hummingbirds chase.
Plant in spring for shaggy, aromatic summer flowers that bees and hummingbirds flock to.
Settles in over spring to give fragrant, colourful heads through mid- to late summer.
Sow from seed after frost for a nonstop, cut-and-come-again show all summer long.
A few spring planting tips
- Wait for frost to pass. Tender plants and summer bulbs go in only once the danger of hard frost is over for your area.
- Prepare the soil. Loosen it and mix in some compost so new roots can spread easily.
- Water in well and keep new plantings moist through their first few weeks while roots establish.
- Mulch after planting to lock in moisture and keep weeds down.
- Plant in groups of three or five of the same plant for a fuller, more natural look.
What should I plant in spring?
Spring is ideal for planting perennials, summer-flowering bulbs, and warm-season annuals. Choose a mix whose bloom times overlap so the garden flowers from early summer through fall.
When is it safe to plant in spring?
Wait until the danger of hard frost has passed for your area before planting tender plants and summer bulbs. Hardy perennials can usually go in a little earlier.
What are the easiest things to plant in spring?
Coneflowers, coreopsis, black-eyed susans, daylilies, and yarrow are all easy, fast to establish, and flower the same summer they are planted.
Design a garden with these plants
Open BloomsEye Studio with this guide's plants ready to drop onto a plan, then watch the whole bed bloom across the year.