Early Spring Flowering Trees and Shrubs for Your Landscape

After a long, dark winter, the beautiful blooms of April are a delight for our eyes. There are so many beautiful flowering shrubs and trees that are magnificent this time of year. Plant these beauties now to enjoy in your yard this spring and for years to come!

One of the first shrubs to bloom in spring is Forsythia; their beautiful yellow flowers are a ray of sunshine! Plant them individually to draw attention to an area of your yard, or group them together as a border. As an added bonus, you can bring the sunshine inside by adding a few branches to a glass vase and waiting for them to bloom inside!

For bright shades of pink and purple flowers, plant some azaleas! These beauties make great privacy hedges and accents to any landscape. Not only are they gorgeous in the spring, but since they are also evergreens, you can enjoy them all year long!

This early bloomer produces flowers before any foliage, meaning its blooms really stand out! Flowering quince adds warm summery colors to your landscape with shades of red, orange, salmon, and white to choose from. It pairs great with Forsythia to really brighten up a landscape!

With so many options to choose from, it is no wonder why flowering cherry trees are the stars of spring. We have tons of options from the traditional cherry trees you see all over Washington, D.C. in the spring, to the emerging famous weeping cherry trees.

Japanese Yoshino Cherry is a tree of fame in the Washington, D.C. area at the Cherry Blossom Festival and was originally introduced to America as a gift from the mayor of Tokyo in 1902. They put on a memorable show of soft pink-white color. Meanwhile, Kwanzan Cherry is one of the showiest of all Japanese Cherry trees with large dark pink double blooms. This flowering tree is also a delight in the fall when it turns a nice yellow.

Dogwoods explode every spring with beautiful blooms in white, pink, or red. In the fall, the green leaves turn a fiery red and the fruit of the dogwood tree are a good source of winter food for many birds including robins and cardinals.

Crabapple trees are just just for producing fruit, they also display stunning red, pink, or white flowers in the spring. These trees produce many seasons of interest from bright spring blooms, to crabapples in the summer, to gorgeous fall foliage.

Another stunning tree that is in full bloom in April is the Redbud. The Redbud has been called “one of our most beautiful native trees” by tree expert Michael Dirr. Its showy dark pink flowers emerge with reddish-purple color and are at their peak in April offering lasting color for several weeks. As an added bonus, the Redbud turns a striking yellow in the fall with its heart-shaped leaves.

The Cleveland Select Pear is a wonderful early spring blooming tree that offers a beautiful display of large white flowers. Once it is finished blooming, its bright green foliage emerges. Its foliage will stay bright green until fall when its leave will turn warm autumn colors.

The Saucer Magnolia tree is a must-have. With large tulip-shaped flowers in shades of pink and purple, the surprisingly sweet fragrance that lofts in the air as you walk by reminds us that summer is around the corner.

Are you looking to add flowering trees and shrubs to your landscape this spring? Stop by Patuxent and speak with our plant experts today!