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Time to get your hands dirty! Spring is a great time to plant a variety of flowering plants in the garden—and not just annual bedding plants. Summer-blooming bulbs and tropical bloomers thrive with the warmer soil and frequent rains spring brings. Perennial plants with evergreen foliage also perform best when planted in spring rather than fall, as winter can be hard on establishing evergreens. We’ve rounded up some of the best flowers to plant this spring for season-long blooms. Wait for the threat of frost to pass before you start planting, as many plants are coming from warm greenhouses.
Ever Sapphire™ Agapanthus
Southern Living Plant Collection
- Botanical Name: Agapanthus hybrid ‘ANDBIN’
- Sun Exposure: Part Sun
- Soil Type: Organic, medium moisture, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly acidic (5.5-7.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 8 to 11
This semi-dwarf agapanthus sparkles with clusters of violet-blue flowers atop sturdy stems that make excellent cuttings. Ever Sapphire™ Agapanthus begins blooming in late spring—much earlier than traditional varieties—and continues flowering throughout summer. The dazzling bell-shaped blossoms are a favorite of hummingbirds, bumblebees, and butterflies. Straplike evergreen foliage provides year-round color and texture in gardens and containers.
Calla Lily
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- Botanical Name: Zantedeschia sp.
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Soil Type: Rich, moist, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly acidic (5.5-6.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 8 to 10
Calla lilies are elegant plants with bold foliage and large funnel-shaped blooms, called spathes, which surround the true flowers inside. The spathes range in color from pure white to dark, velvety purple and include varieties with yellow, pink, orange, and red hues. The large, arrowhead-shaped leaves rise upward before arching gracefully, giving plants a lovely vase-like form.
Garden Jewels™ Gerbera Daisy
Southern Living Plant Collection
- Botanical Name: Gerbera jamesonii hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full Sun to Part Shade
- Soil Type: Rich, moist, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly Acidic (5.5-6.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 7 to 10
Gerbera daisies hare known to be finicky plants, particularly in the hot, humid South. The new Garden Jewels™ Gerbera challenges that reputation with varieties selected for improved garden performance, including increased heat and cold tolerance. Garden Jewels™ Gerberas also exhibit a more compact growth habit and incredible flowering potential. Plants produce up to 100 flowers in dazzling red, yellow, or pink hues, providing season-long color for gardens and containers. For continuous blooming, deadhead spent flowers.
Angelonia
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- Botanical Name: Angelonia angustifolia
- Sun Exposure: Full
- Soil Type: Fertile, moist, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly acidic to neutral (5.5-6.8)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 9 to 11
Commonly called summer snapdragon, this low-maintenance bloomer thrives in the heat and humidity of Southern gardens. Plants produce spikes of densely packed blooms all summer long without the need for deadheading. Upright and cascading varieties are available with white, pink, mauve, violet, or near-black flowers as well as some bi-color varieties. This tender perennial is hardy in zones 9 and up, and treated as an annual elsewhere.
Cannova® Canna Lily
Monrovia.com by Doreen Wynja
- Botanical Name: Canna hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full
- Soil Type: Rich, moist, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly acidic (6.0-6.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 8 to 10
Bring a touch of the tropics to any garden with Cannova® canna lily. Luxuriant foliage and bold blooms make a dramatic accent or mass planting in sunny beds. These long-blooming tropicals have a compact, upright habit, and dense branching for big impact in gardens and containers. The Cannova® series includes red, yellow, peach, orange, and pink varieties that bloom earlier than other cannas and continue through frost.
Little Lucky™ Lantana
Southern Living Plant Collection
- Botanical Name: Lantana camara hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full
- Soil Type: Average, medium moisture, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly Acidic to Alkaline (6.0-8.0)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 10 to 11
Say goodbye to sprawling, oversized lantanas with the Little Lucky™ series. These dwarf lantana selections boast all the flower power of larger varieties while growing in a compact mound just 12-inches across. Brightly colored blooms cover the plants spring through frost, attracting hummingbirds and butterflies to the garden. Lantana thrives in heat and humidity, and plants tolerate periods of drought.
Garden Peony
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- Botanical Name: Paeonia lactiflora
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Soil Type: Rich, medium moisture, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly Acidic (6.5-7.0)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 3 to 8
Peonies are beloved for their large blossoms and lush, lobed foliage. The petal-packed flowers of these late-spring bloomers reach up to five inches in diameter. They make stunning cut flowers with a delightful fragrance. Peonies are easy to grow and long-lived once established. Provide afternoon shade or filtered sunlight in hot climates.
Dianthus Pickables™ ‘ColorPop’
Southern Living Plant Collection
- Botanical Name: Dianthus hybrid ‘Pie-168’
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Soil Type: Average, medium, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly acidic to neutral (6.0-7.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 5 to 10
Dianthus is an underutilized landscape plant that deserves some attention. Fragrant blooms cover plants in spring, with repeat blooming through summer and fall, peppering the air with their distinctive clove-like scent. Butterflies and bees adore the raspberry pink blooms, that also make delightful cut flowers. Gorgeous, blue-tinged foliage grows in a dense mat covering the ground, providing evergreen color and stabilizing the soil.
Dahlia
- Botanical Name: Dahlia spp. and hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full
- Soil Type: Rich, medium moisture, well-draining
- Soil pH: Neutral (6.5-7.0)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 7 to 10
Blooming in a rainbow of colors with flowers ranging in size and shape from 2-inch pompoms to dinnerplate sized blooms, dahlias are breathtaking in every way. Plant size and foliage traits can be just a variable, making it hard to choose your favorite variety from the hundreds available. Whichever dazzling specimen you choose, wait for the soil to warm in spring before planting . In colder regions of the South (below zone 7), dig dahlia tubers in the fall and overwinter them indoors under cool, slightly damp conditions.
Million Bells
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- Botanical Name: Calibrachoa hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Soil Type: Rich, medium to moist, well-draining
- Soil pH: Acidic (5.0-6.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 9 to 11
Known as million bells, mini petunia, or simply calibrachoa, this tender perennial is commonly grown as an annual in mixed containers and hanging baskets, or as a groundcover in planting beds. These compact plants are prolific bloomers, producing hundreds (or millions!) of one-inch petunia-like blooms from spring through frost without deadheading. Plant them in a location where you can enjoy hummingbirds darting among the blooms.
Gladiolus
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- Botanical Name: Gladiolus hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full
- Soil Type: Rich, medium to moist, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly acidic to neutral (6.0-7.0)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 7 to 10
Gladiolus is a cherished cut flower that brings long lasting color to the vase or garden. Blooming late in the summer from spring-planted corms, gladiolus produce tall, slender flowerstalks bearing funnel-shaped blooms that open one at a time, progressing upward. Long and upright leaf blades give gladiolus the common name sword lily. Plants grow from bulb-like corms that can be dug and stored over the winter in areas where plants are not winter gardy (Zones 6 and lower).
Blanket Flower
- Botanical Name: Gaillardia spp. and hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full
- Soil Type: Average, dry to medium, well-draining
- Soil pH: Acidic to alkaline (5.5-8.0)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 3 to 9
Blanket flower is a beloved wildflower grown for their vibrant red and yellow blooms that cover plants from early summer through fall. Both annual and perennial species of blanket flower are available commercially, along with numerous cultivars that push the color range. Gaillardias are best planted in spring as these plants thrive on summer heat. Perennial species tend to be short-lived but often reseed. Plant this native beauty in pollinator gardens to treat bees and butterflies.
Begonia
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- Botanical Name: Begonia spp.
- Sun Exposure: Partial to full shade; dappled sunlight
- Soil Type: Rich, moist, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly Acidic (5.5-6.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 7 to 11
A great diversity of begonias is grown in the garden, from floriferous wax and tuberous begonias to the handsome rex types known for their dramatic foliage . Though all are tender perennials, many begonias are treated as annuals. The new Lunar Lights™ series pushes the boundaries on winter hardiness, with varieties hardy to zone 7, so you can plant begonias once and reap the rewards for years to come.
Peruvian Lily
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- Botanical Name: Alstroemeria spp. and hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full to partial sun
- Soil Type: Rich, medium, well-draining
- Soil pH: Slightly Acidic (5.5-6.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 6 to 10
You may recognize these frilly blooms from bouquets, where their bright colors and distinctive speckled petals are highly prized. Blooming in white, pink, yellow, orange, lavender, and red hues, and with a range of plant sizes available, these spectacular cut flowers also make a gorgeous addition to the garden. The more compact varieties are also well suited to containers. Butterflies and hummingbirds frequent plants, which are resistant to deer browsing.
Asiatic Lily
Yulia Naumenko/Getty
- Botanical Name: Lilium Asiatic hybrids
- Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Soil Type: Average, medium moisture, well-draining
- Soil pH: Acidic to neutral (5.5-7.5)
- USDA Hardiness Zones: 4 to 9
Asiatic lilies stand very upright, on thick stems that seldom need staking, and which
make excellent cut flowers. They are the first lilies to flower each year and have the widest range of flower colors including red, lavender, pink, orange, yellow, cream, and white, along with many speckled, streaked, or bi-color varieties. The large flowers are produced at the end of stems that stand from from one foot tall to over four feet. Compact varieties make great container plants. Mass taller varieties in mixed borders.
