What's up North^™, Charlie Nardozzi – Early Blooming Perennials for the Northeast

Are you ready to wake up to spring? When winters are long, it’s so important to have early blooming perennials in the landscape. As soon as the snow melts, those early spring beauties will cheer us up and provide an important food source for hungry pollinators and beneficial insects.

Certainly, everyone in the Northeast is familiar with early blooming shrubs such as forsythia and quince (Chaenomeles). But it's the early flowering perennials I want to focus on in this blog. Creeping phlox, bleeding heart, brunnera and primrose are some of the earliest flowering plants you'll see in your landscape. Plus, they are deer and rabbit resistant and easy to grow.

Bleeding hearts are a traditional standard in many spring gardens. Newer varieties add even more color and options for sunnier spaces. 'Hearts on Fire' (Dicentra spectabilis) features red, heart-shaped blooms and stems that really show up well against the chartreuse foliage. It’s the classic type of bleeding heart that thrives in the shade and rich, moist soil in zones 3-9. Planting other later blooming perennials like salvia and daylilies will hide the foliage as it fades away in the summer.

Sun Jewels^™ 'Pink Diamonds' (Dicentra) is a sun-loving alpine type of bleeding heart that blooms with heart-shaped, two-toned pink flowers and blue-green foliage. Sun Jewels^™ 'White Diamonds' is similar but with white flowers. Both are everblooming bleeding hearts that flower from spring through fall without going dormant in the summer like traditional bleeding hearts. They prefer leaner, drier soils even in the sun, and are hardy in zones 3-9.

Foamflower (Tiarella) is a native perennial for zones 4-9 that blooms early with delightful white, bottlebrush-shaped flowers. This is a shade-loving plant, so it has the added bonus of contributing brightness to a darker portion of your garden. 'Cutting Edge' foamflower is a nice selection with finely dissected, emerald green leaves with a dark purple splotch in the center. Its creamy white flowers bloom abundantly, covering the whole plant. This woodland perennial is evergreen in some climates.

Not all the colors of spring are found in flowers. Brunnera has heart-shaped green leaves overlayed with a metallic silver shimmer. 'Jack of Diamonds' (Brunnera macrophylla) has large, 9-inch diameter leaves that are stunning in the garden. This perennial needs the shade to look its best where it is hardy in zones 3-8, but in the North, it can take morning sun. Airy sprays of small, true blue flowers appear in mid-spring. Brunnera pairs nicely with spring bulbs, blooming around the same time but then covering up the bulbs’ foliage as it dies back.

Many gardeners think of primroses as potted plants, but many are good, early blooming perennials for the landscape as well. Bouquet Perfect^™ 'Mandarin' primrose features double, golden yellow flowers for several weeks in the spring and again in the fall in zones 4-8. In the Northeast, perennial primroses grow best in part shade and well-drained soil that stays consistently moist. Try growing them in rock gardens, along the front edges of flower borders, or in pots. In the North, primroses may need some winter protection in especially cold areas. If a late spring frost is coming, you may need to protect their tender flower buds.

The queen of color for early spring in zones 3-8 is creeping phlox. Native groundcover types of spring phlox bloom abundantly in a range of colors that attract pollinators. Spring Bling^® 'Pink Sparkles' is incredibly eye-catching in the garden with its blanket of bright pink flowers. 'Purple Sprite' bears purple flowers with a white halo in the center and blooms a little later than ‘Pink Sparkles’. Creeping phlox grows best in gravelly, well-drained soil and is salt tolerant.