As we enter spring, our gardens are bursting into life. You can make the most of this by growing spring flowering shrubs. Perennial shrubs will give your garden a great structure with blooms year after year. Building up a frame of shrubs that flower in different seasons will help to give you year-round colour. Follow this guide to ensure your garden is full of beautiful springtime blooms.
Choosing the Right Spring Shrubs
Different factors go into picking the right spring shrubs. For example, you’ll need a good understanding of the growing conditions in your garden. These will be influenced by both the climate in your area and the microclimate in your garden. Click here to read our full article about analysing the microclimate in your garden. In short, you’ll need to know:
- How much sun the shrubs will get.
- The type of soil the shrubs will grow in.
- The pH of the soil.
Another factor to consider is the overall look you want from your shrubs. You’ll want to consider foliage colour, flower colour, growth habit, and texture. A more dynamic garden will have a variety of colours and textures, whereas a more uniform garden may have shrubs with similar qualities.
When to Plant Spring Shrubs
You can plant out container-grown shrubs throughout the year, but it’s best to plant them from October to April. This helps to ensure the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged when the roots are adapting to their new environment.
How to Plant Spring Shrubs
When planting spring flowering shrubs, you’ll need to follow the same basic steps for all outdoor planting. We have a detailed guide to planting you can read, but here are the basic steps:
1. Prepare your soil by loosening it with a garden fork, removing any debris like old roots.
2. Add any necessary amendments – like compost – into the soil.
3. Remove the shrub from its nursery pot and slightly loosen the roots. Only untangle the roots completely if they’re very overgrown or you are removing all of the original soil.
4. Dig a hole in the ground big enough to fit the root ball.
5. Place the shrub in the hole, holding it upright while you fill the excess space in with soil. Make sure that all of the roots are buried, but none of the above-ground plant. Pat down the soil as you go.
6. Thoroughly water the shrub and mulch the area.
Spring Flowering Shrubs by Colour
If you’re looking to follow a specific colour palette in your garden, check out these links to see some of our spring flowering shrubs in different colour categories.
Pink
- Camelia japonica Pink Perfection
- Camellia Nikisi Kerin
- Daphne Perfume Princess
- Pink Forsythia
- Rhododendron Wine and Roses
- Rhododendron Germania
Purple
- Daphne bholua x ‘Spring Beauty’
- Daphne Cneorum
- Deutzia ‘Raspberry Sundae’
- Rhododendron ‘Marcel Menard’
- Syringa Palibin – Lilac Bush
Blue
White
- Camellia japonica Brushfield Yellow
- Camellia japonica Yukimi Guruma – White Swan
- Daphne Perfume Princess White
- Philadelphus Mont Blanc – Mock Orange
- White Forsythia
Yellow
- Daphne gemmata Royal Crown
- Forsythia Fiesta
- Forsythia Goldrush
- Mahonia x media Winter Sun
- Rhododendron ‘Shamrock’
Orange
Red
- Camellia japonica Lady Campbell
- Chaenomeles x superba Crimson and Gold
- Fuchsia Brutus
- Witch Hazel – Hamamelis Twilight
Caring For Spring Flowering Shrubs
In terms of watering, treat these shrubs like any other garden plant. Research how much water they need and make sure the soil around them never completely dries out.
Prune spring flowering shrubs once a year once the blooms have died off. Annual pruning will promote strong, healthy growth and can improve flowering in the long run. These shrubs will often flower on the stems from the previous year; these stems can be pruned out after flowering, leaving the current year’s new stems to flower next year.