Instant Color For Spring Planters

Columbines (Aquilegia) can be added to containers to extend color interest once tulips have finished blooming. By purchasing columbines that are ready to flower, you will be assured of color for the current season.
Soft pink double flowering 'Angelique' tulips echo the emerging buttons of English daisies (Bellis perennis) and are ideal companions for a mid-season spring container or garden planting. The tulips can be cut back after blooming and the English daisies will continue to bloom until early summer.
A simple pairing of apricot colored violas and Lamium maculatum topped with a few curly twigs in an ornate square planter makes for a very sophisticated display.
Periwinkle (Vinca) can be used to create an early soft blue carpet beneath spring bulbs in containers and in the garden. As the seasons progress, its shiny green leaves will trail over the edges of planters and hanging baskets. Like many perennials used in containers, periwinkle can be transferred into the garden at the end of the growing season.
An unusual collection of planters can be pulled together by filling them with different plants in one color. Hardy perenials such as donkey tail spurge, coral bells and sedum can be set out early and enjoyed from spring all the way through to late fall.

It's finally time to dust off the planters and fill them with something pretty. In the northern states and southern Canada there's no need to wait until May to start planting. By selecting plants that enjoy cool temperatures one can safely add instant color to containers, window boxes or well drained gardens early in April.

Visiting public gardens renowned for their spring displays is a terrific way to get ideas for extending the blooming season at home. These colorful gardens, which have to look spectacular day in and day out, are planted on a scale that is intended to WOW visitors.

Combination plantings
How do the experts keep the interest level high? When studied in small sections, each garden is filled with ideas that can successfully be translated to home gardens. For example, spring flowering bulbs such as tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and minor bulbs are planted in combinations that take advantage of their early-, mid- and late-season blooming habits. The displays often include a carpet of hardy plants such as English daisies, primroses, forget-me-nots and violas in shades that echo the colors of their companion bulbs.

Among the earliest blooming mat-forming perennials are Bugleweed (Ajuga), Sweet Woodruff (Galium adoratum), Periwinkle (Vinca minor) and Rock Cress (Aubrieta). Varieties that offer interesting foliage after they finish blooming will earn their space in the garden, or container, for the entire year. For example, chocolate lovers will covet the unusual Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' which offers narrow, dark green foliage with chocolate brown overtones. It slowly forms a low mound, displays short spikes of showy blue flowers in the spring, makes a good edging plant for a moist shady spot and works beautifully with spring-flowering bulbs in containers.

For a change from the standard green periwinkle, Vinca minor 'Ralph Shugert' is worth a try. Its distinctive creamy white edges will surely brighten a shady corner, or could be used to echo creamy white tulips in a planter. Once established, Vinca will even tolerate the dry shade under shrubs and trees. For added interest, intersperse Viola 'Painted Porcelain' to extend the blooming period.

Violas
Violas resemble their larger blooming cousins, pansies, are generally more tolerant of colder temperatures and are known to withstand a little more summer heat. Adaptable violas can also be tucked into containers or hanging baskets where they will provide early color and then stay long enough to poke their cheerful faces through the summer blooms, echoing the chosen color scheme.

Public gardens take full advantage of the versatility of violas and their range of gentle colors which include lemon yellow, apricot, purple, violet, white and black and a myriad of artistic color blends.

Columbines and English daisies
Columbines and English daisies are also hardy candidates for the early spring garden. The blue-green, tightly curled foliage of Columbines (Aquilegia) begin to optimistically unfurl as the tulips are blooming. Columbines are biennials, meaning they grow a rosette of leaves the first year and do not bloom until their second year. By purchasing flowering Columbines, you will be assured of color for the current season. When happily situated, they will self seed and return year after year.

English daisies (Bellis perennis) in shades of white, pink and red have an old-fashioned appeal. Best treated as short lived perennials, they will sometimes self seed if conditions are right. Just as the hot weather arrives English daisies finish their blooming cycle, therefore it's best to position them so that the leaves of later blooming perennials, such as echinacea, will cover them as they wind down.

Primroses
Finally, don't forget the family of early blooming Primroses when searching for unusual, early spring plants to try in planters. Primroses love cool temperatures and rich, moist soil. Drumstick Primroses (Primula denticulate) are reliable, hardy plants that offer globe shaped blooms atop narrow stems. Gentle pastel shades of pink, lilac, and white look lovely in a woodland setting. Double Primroses look like double African violets at first glance although their leaves look more like those of a miniature romaine lettuce.

For economy's sake, many of these selections can be transferred from the planter into the garden to ensure a return engagement next spring. And, just in case you didn't plant spring bulbs in containers last fall, or live in zones where overwintering bulbs in containers is just too much effort, you can always purchase forced, potted bulbs to add to your planters.

For displays which will seamlessly transition the seasons, it is sound planning to match the colors of early season container blossoms to those of early blooming perennials.