Flowers for Spring?

[katie]

I am just starting to get a passion for growing flowers and I don't know really anything about it. I planted some different kinds of flowers this last spring and they did wonderful! They are beautiful! I was curious about planting flowers through the winter that will bloom in early spring such as tulips and other early bloomers. Does anyone have any tips?

[Jim Kingdon]

I'm sure others will chip in, but in most temperate climates, among commonly grown flowers, the first to come up are the crocuses and the second are the daffodils (narcissuses). Both of those are earlier than tulips.

You buy those as bulbs and plant them in the fall (well, crocuses are technically corms but are grown the same way). See for example

or your local garden store. Growing instructions at .

In my own garden, I'm also trying to figure out what the native plants which come up first in the spring are, and incorporating some of them. Here in the Washington, DC, area, that's things like Hepatica, Mayapple (which comes up fairly early although it flowers later), Sanguinaria, Trillium (a few weeks later), probably some others I'm forgetting right now. (Your region may vary). But that's a bit more investigation than just running out and buying some garden store crocuses. Even when/if I have a lot of natives I doubt I'll give up the crocuses entirely.

[dr-solo]

[dr-solo]

anybody know where I could buy Claytonia virginica?

Ingrid

[Jim Kingdon]

It is listed at

't know if they do mail-order (either in general, or for this plant), but you could ask them, or look at native plant nurseries near you.

Seeing it one place is a good sign - it means that other native plant nurseries might have it too.

This species is native to the United States (roughly) east of the Rockies - in other parts of the country (or to a smaller extent, world) you may have a different native Claytonia - see maps at

[jangchub]