What to Plant In Your Spring Garden

The Spring season is here! If you're like me, you look forward to the warmer months and are glad when Spring rolls around to know you're pretty close to those warmer temperatures. With the Spring season comes garden and flower season. Who doesn't love to spruce up their garden or home with a little Spring color! There are some great annual flowers you can get started with in the early Spring to add that pop of color and to get your garden season going.

The cooler weather can be hard on a garden as you never know how long it might last. But there are several annual flowers you can plant in the early Spring. They prefer the cooler temperatures of Spring and Fall. They do well in containers and planted in the ground and can stretch the garden season to seem much longer by planting early and late in the season.

Here is a list of some great cool season annuals you can print in your Spring garden. Most garden centers and shops will have a variety of these annuals in stock in the early Spring for those who like to start early.

- Diasca
- Pansies
- Violas
- Primrose
- Marigolds
- Cosmos
- Lobelia
- Verbena
- Geranium
- Dahlia

Pansies and Violas area a popular one that I like to add around my garden area. I specifically like to add them to my porch of my little garden shed. I have some window boxes and like to just set some pots of pansies out to add some Spring color.

You'll also want to keep an eye on the weather in early Spring. Be sure to not "jump the gun" when purchasing. The Spring weather still sometimes surprises us with random cold spells or continued snow. If not ideal weather is expected and you have annual flowers planted or in pots, cover them during the period of time or bring them into a protected area. Also, when the weather gets warmer, these cool weather loving annuals don't always thrive as well. So you'll want to add more warmer temperature annuals.

There are also many Spring blooming bulbs that you can add to your garden in the Fall for new planting to enjoy the following season. I will talk more about Spring bulbs in a later post. Most garden centers will also have these available in pots. I like to set them out and about around my garden shed or inside the home while they are blooming. Then after they bloom, you can transplant them to your garden to have for next year. Some of them are:

- Tulips
- Daffodils
- Hyacinth
- Crocus
- Anemone
- Grape Hyacinth
 - Iris

Lengthen your garden season and add some beautiful color by adding some spring annuals! You'll love the fresh pop of color and spruce up you'll be doing!!

Are Fall Mums Hardy?

A little Q&A
Are Fall mums hardy?
To answer the question....it really just depends.

For mums to truly be hardy, they are best planted in the spring. The mums we enjoy in the fall are nursed to set their buds for September and October blooming and not growing their roots. They put all their energy into blooming. This results in not guaranteeing sufficient time to get their roots established before colder weather sets in.

This leads to the "it really just depends."

Every fall I get asked that question by several of our customers,

 "Are fall mums hardy?"

 "Will the mums come back next year?" 

I always answer with it really just depends. 

When are they planted into the ground? If you plant them right when they become available in Early to Mid September then they have more time for their roots to get established before winter as opposed to planting them at the end of the season. 

What is the weather like? Is it warm out when you plant your mums. With the warmer weather, will also help the roots get established before winter. 

Where are they planted? Mums planted against a building for example are more protected from the cold winter winds that we often get. 

What kind of winter will there be? How cold of a winter are you expecting for your area. 

All these factors are important to determine if your beautiful fall mums will come back and bloom next year. You can also mulch them good at the time of planting, leave foliage on them until the following spring, and plant them before the first hard frost to help protect them and increase the chances of them coming back. 

Often times some mums come back the next Spring. When you start to see new growth sprouting from them mums, remove the old dead parts from the last season. This will look nicer for the new foliage growing.

With any luck, you will get to enjoy your mums the following year, usually larger and just as beautiful in blooming color. But if they don't come back, you will know why.