Planning Your Spring Flower Garden: 7 Pro Tips

The time for spring planting is fast approaching, and it's time to start planning! You can finally take out that seed catalog and pour over the beautiful possibilities. Join gardening expert Melissa Strauss for some tips on getting off on the right foot!

A vibrant bed filled with multicolored Dahlias, featuring large, layered blooms in shades of pink, red, yellow, orange, and white, surrounded by lush green foliage under sunlight, ideal to plan spring flower garden layouts.

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With those last expected frost dates fast approaching, it’s almost time to start planning your spring flower garden! As soon as you can work the ground, you can start planting seeds and seeing those sweet little sprouts pop their heads up and reach for the sun. 

My flower beds are the most joyful parts of my garden. Sure, fresh ripe tomatoes are delicious, but have you ever seen a ‘Kelvin Floodlight’ dahlia up close? They are simply magnificent! Checking each day to see what new beauties decided to unfurl is the ideal way to enjoy my morning coffee. 

There are a few steps you can take to plan an extra beautiful flower garden this spring. With just a bit of foresight, the results might come as a surprise! Here are some tips I’ve learned from growing my own extensive cutting garden. I hope they help you on your road to success.

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Choose the Right Location

Close-up of a gardener in yellow rubber boots cultivating brown soil in a garden bed with a large garden fork.
Good sun exposure and drainage make all the difference.

Any time you plant something, location is one of the most fundamentally important factors in success. Still, what you plant has a bearing on the ideal location. But if you can find a spot with a mixture of morning sun and afternoon shade, it should work well for most flowers. If you know that you want to plant specific things that prefer more shade, take that into consideration. 

Equally as important as sun exposure, drainage can make or break your beds. There are few plants that don’t mind wet feet—that is, wet soil around their roots. Make sure that the location you choose has proper drainage, or your seedlings are apt to rot before they’re big enough to pinch. 

There are solutions to poor drainage, but they are labor-intensive and ongoing. It’s much easier to choose a location that doesn’t have this issue, if possible. Often, ground with a slight slope is ideal, as the water will not stand in this space. 

Test Your Soil

Close-up of a gardener's hand holding a test tube filled with soil.
Healthy soil starts with a simple and informative test.

Soil composition testing is important to the success of your flower garden, and a key component of spring planning. Composition includes the actual make-up of the soil in addition to the nutrient content and its ability to retain them. Even if your soil has supported a garden in the past, it’s a good idea to test it once in a while. Good soil can still become depleted over time. 

A soil test is an easy way to find out whether the earth in your yard is rich and will support new plants or if it needs some beefing up. It will also tell you the pH of the soil, which is important for many of the things we grow. For example, hydrangeas and gardenias perform best in slightly acidic soil. 

It’s as simple as collecting a sample and sending it off for analysis. What you’ll get in return is a comprehensive look at what your soil has going for it and what it could use to better support what you want to grow. It will tell you the composition and percentage of organic material present. 

Other information a soil test will provide includes the nutrients present and in what amounts. You’ll get an idea of how well your soil retains nutrients, too. Once you have this information, you can amend the soil to create the ideal foundation for your new flowers.

Create a Layout

A woman with curly hair holding a laptop stands in front of a vibrant green garden.
Mapping your space makes plant care and growth easier.

A layout or map of your space is an incredibly helpful tool. This is especially true if you are directly sowing seeds in your beds. Creating a layout makes it easy to identify what is popping up and what is taking longer than expected. It’s important to know which flowers are in which areas because some need pinching, while others won’t benefit and may suffer from this practice.

Our new and innovative garden planner makes it a cinch to create a functional and editable layout for your flower garden. You can use it to create a customized map of your specific space. Add in the dimensions you’re working with, and plan out exactly where you want everything. 

In addition to giving you the ideal space to organize your garden according to height, color, texture, or any other factor, the planner offers grow guides and suggestions for just about every plant you can grow! It’s a great way to determine whether a flower will thrive in your Zone and environment before you get started. 

Choose Beautiful Varieties

Blooming multicolored Zinnias showcase vibrant, layered petals in pink, red, orange, yellow, and purple, with a butterfly pollinating one of the flowers atop sturdy green stems.
Zinnias are easy to grow and add lovely colors.

Choosing varieties is my favorite part of planning my flower beds for the year. With the advent of online shopping, we are no longer limited by what the local retailers carry. It still stuns me sometimes to see some of the amazing hybrid varieties of my favorite blooms that I can order with a tap of the fingers.

Make sure that the seeds you choose come from a reputable source. That’s the best way to get a good germination rate. Another helpful bit of information is whether or not a particular type of seed needs cold stratification. Many need this process of freezing and thawing to help break down their hard outer shell. 

Zinnias are a favorite of mine. They are so easy to grow and make wonderful cut flowers. Botanical Interests has some gorgeous new varieties this year that I can’t wait to get started! ‘Zinderella’ zinnias are incredible, with fluffy heads in soft shades of pink and lavender. I also love ‘Peppermint Stick.’ This variety includes many colors that are each flecked with a different contrasting shade. 

Plant for All Seasons

A vibrant blooming flowerbed filled with a colorful mix of petunias, marigolds, phlox, zinnias, salvias, scarlet sage, dahlias, and other flowers in full bloom.
Mix bloomers for a garden that flowers all season.

While you’re selecting seeds, make sure you consider the seasonality of what you’re planting. Sure, you can pull spent spring annuals and plant your summer flowers afterward, but you’ll get a longer blooming season if you plan ahead and get them all growing early.

Look for a variety of plants that bloom during different seasons. Place them strategically so that as your spring blooms are fading, the summer ones are starting to show off. Make sure to get some fall bloomers as well. You can start these after your spring bloomers fade in their place. 

Track Your Progress

A young woman wearing a striped apron holds a tablet while observing and monitoring plants in a lush garden.
Record and review your garden’s progress throughout the season.

Another great feature of our new garden planter is the journal section. This is a space with an entry for each day where you can track all things related to a particular bed. You can keep track of when you planted when seeds germinated, and when they began to bloom. You can look back if it seems like things are off to a slow start to make sure you’re on the right track. 

In addition to space for keeping track of details, the journal also provides useful information. You can see the past, current, and predicted weather, so you know how much you’ll need to water in a particular time span. The temperature feature helps give you a heads-up if you have a frost coming, so you’ll have time to protect your garden. 

Set Reminders for Fertilizing and Maintenance

Close-up of a gardener's gloved hand carefully sprinkling white granular fertilizer around flowering Snowdrops in a garden bed.
Never forget to fertilize or water with helpful reminders.

The journal feature of the garden planner is also great for reminding you when it’s time to fertilize your flower garden in the spring, summer, and fall. You can set reminders to water, treat for pests, and when to repeat treatments. You can even set a reminder to let you know when it’s the right time to prune each individual plant and which to avoid pruning altogether. 

Having such a comprehensive tool at your fingertips makes planning and executing a flower garden so much easier. I know I personally am not good at remembering dates and estimating things isn’t always best. No more forgetting to fertilize or neglecting to water when needed!

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