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The first flowers of spring

Plants that flower by the end of March in zone 5: snowdrops, hellebores, crocuses and the rest of the first wave.

The first flowers of the year come up through bare soil and dead leaves, before anything else has woken. Most are bulbs and woodland plants that do their growing before the trees leaf out and take the light.

Every plant here starts flowering by the end of March in zone 5; in zone 7 they are two weeks earlier, in zone 3 two weeks later. Plant them where you will see them from the house: nobody walks round the garden in February.

45 plants: 9 perennials, 15 bulbs and 21 shrubs.

The dozen to start with

  • Rosemary

    Rosemary

    4 ft · early March to early May

    The kitchen herb: a dense, aromatic, evergreen shrub with needle-like leaves and small, pale blue flowers from late winter into spring.

  • Lenten rose

    Lenten rose

    18 in · late March to early May

    One of the first perennials to flower, with nodding, long-lasting blooms that often open while snow is still melting.

  • Japanese pieris

    Japanese pieris

    8 ft · late March to late April

    An elegant evergreen with drooping chains of white or pink, lily-of-the-valley bells in early spring, and new leaves that open bronze or bright red.

  • Japanese camellia

    Japanese camellia

    10 ft · early February to early April

    Polished, dark evergreen leaves and large, formal flowers in red, pink or white from late winter into spring.

  • Snowdrop

    Snowdrop

    6 in · early March to late March

    Nodding white bells that push up through the last of the snow, weeks before anything else.

  • Crocus

    Crocus

    5 in · late March to mid April

    Goblet-shaped flowers that open wide in early spring sun and feed the first bees of the year.

  • Sweet box

    Sweet box

    18 in · early February to late March

    A low, slowly spreading evergreen with narrow, glossy leaves and tiny white flowers, hidden among them in late winter, that scent the air for metres around.

  • Sweet violet

    Sweet violet

    6 in · late March to early May · host plant

    The scented violet of florists and perfumers: small, deep violet or white flowers in late winter and early spring, with a sweet fragrance.

  • Winter aconite

    Winter aconite

    4 in · late February to mid March

    Bright yellow cups, each sitting on a green ruff, open at ground level in late winter, often through snow.

  • Mediterranean spurge

    Mediterranean spurge

    4 ft · late March to late May

    A dome of upright stems clothed in blue-grey leaves like bottlebrushes, each ending in early spring in a huge cylinder of lime-yellow flowers.

  • Netted iris

    Netted iris

    5 in · early March to late March

    Miniature irises in deep blue, violet or white, with gold markings, that open in the last days of winter.

  • Red lungwort

    Red lungwort

    14 in · mid March to late April

    The earliest lungwort: coral-red flowers from late winter, with soft, plain, light green leaves.

All 45 plants

Show all 45, by where they go in a bed

Front of a bed 24

Middle of a bed 2

Back of a bed 19

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