I can’t be the only person eyeing the beautiful, warm, sunny weather last week and daydreaming about summer adventures and days on the lake. While we have quite a while until we officially hit summer, it’s only a month until March 20, the official equinox that starts the spring season and the promise of new growth and pretty colors in the landscape.
As we start to move away from cold, wet weather, we start to see our early blooming plants making an appearance. From daffodils to Lenten rose and saucer magnolias, there are showy plants starting to bloom and add visual interest and can help our pollinator populations in a mostly dull and dreary winter landscape.
Daffodils can appear in a large number of varieties and cultivars ranging in size and colors, though most are white or yellow. Daffodils are fairly easy to grow from bulbs and quickly naturalize in a landscape, making them a great addition.
Lenten rose is a perennial that provides late winter and early spring color with flowers ranging from maroon to white in color. This plant does well in light shade and therefore can be placed beneath deciduous trees or shrubs. They can also naturalize in woodland settings and thankfully, are not very attractive to deer and wildlife populations. Lenten rose does not propagate well from seed and should be purchased or propagated by division of a more mature plant.
Saucer magnolias are another tree alight with beautiful pink blooms this time of year. They tend to be small to medium sized and function well in the landscape or even as a container plant. Saucer magnolias prefer full sun but can tolerate some shade, and do best in rich, well-drained soils. Like all trees, it’s important to prune appropriately to maintain good shape and form, and we always recommend keeping an eye out for any pest or disease issues. The only issue with these trees is that if they bloom too early in the season, they can experience significant frost damage.
As we start to appreciate some spring color, I do want to take a moment to chat about spring planting. While it has been pretty and warm in the last weeks, we do need to be careful not to plant until after the last frost this winter. Our closest weather station in Washington has our average last frost as April 2nd. We typically recommend waiting at least a week after this date, just to be sure we won’t run into any issues. Plants that are transplanted or started outside before the last frost date are prone to significant damage and even death. Instead of planting, now is a great time to be working on soil fertility and health, making amendments, pruning fruit trees, and clearing out old plantings.
If you have questions about plants that are suitable for our area of Georgia or other horticulture topics, please let us know at uge3181@uga.edu or 706-359-3233.
