Garden Starters: What to Plant in SPRING for Early Season Colour

“Can I plant yet?” It’s the most-asked question in TERRA stores this time of year, and for most of what’s in stock by the middle of April, the answer is YES! With a large selection of cool-season annuals, early-blooming perennials, and hardy trees, evergreens and shrubs, there are plenty of things to plant. Some of our favourite plants are those that bring that spring brightness back into the garden! Here are our favourite garden starters – they’re what to plant in April for early season colour.

Perennial Creeping Phlox creates a blanket of colour in the garden in May.

Pretty Perennials

Perennial plants get bigger and better with each passing year. Add them to your garden and they’ll return with each season, bringing weeks of bloom to your landscape. By planting different types of perennials that bloom in spring, summer, and late summer, you can have a garden view that flows and changes with the seasons. Here are a few of the best spring-blooming perennials that add colour and life as the gardening season begins.

Columbine is available in a variety of soft colours, and blooms for weeks in May and June.

Hellebores are some of the earliest blooming perennials, appearing in March & April in Ontario gardens.

Perennial Dianthus are available in different shades of pinks, reds and whites. They’re delightfully fragrant and can range in height from 6″ to 24″.

Garden Peonies add romance to the garden in June, and make for spectacular cut flower bouquets.

Spring Flowering Shrubs

Woody shrubs are worry-free additions to any landscape, providing the garden with structure and shape. Shrubs that BLOOM, though, are even better! Seasonally flowering shrubs add shape, colour and fragrance, and once established, most of them require very little maintenance. Here are just a handful of our favourite shrubs that bloom in Spring.