Plants offer a variety of benefits to homes such as increasing air quality, adding color or depth to landscaping, and can help alleviate stress. While some plants are fragile and require special care and others can grow just about anywhere, they all require basic needs like water, soil, and tolerable temperatures.

Two very common annual flowers are pansies and violas. These two can handle frost and can produce violet, blue, yellow, white and cream color petals. An evergreen that is both an annual or perennial, Phlox, can bring out vibrant blues, pinks, purples, and whites to your garden.

Perennials are different, there is no need to replant perennials, as they come back each year. Virginia bluebells and hellebores are perennials and are able to handle very low temperatures. Purcellville Southern States Garden Center Manager Carol Pfeffer says, “Hellebore leaves will stay green, and they bloom depending on the temperature. They are also deer and rabbit resistant.” Hellebores are also able to withstand temperatures as low as negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit and bloom based on its temperature. 

Flower bulbs are another popular choice for spring time. They are similar to large seeds, but they contain almost everything a flower needs to grow. Carol Pfeffer recommends, “Spring bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Keep an eye out for tulips because deer eat them, but daffodils are poisonous to them and the deer won’t touch them.” 

Different plants can require different soils such as dense, loose, grainy, rocky, these factors all affect a plant’s growth. It’s important to know how your soil drains and retains moisture levels. This is to know where to put the plants and how often they need to be watered. Sunlight also affects plants. Plants will either need very little, some, or a lot of sunlight depending on the type of plant. Temperature also plays a large role in how plants grow and survive and is categorized by numbers from one to ten. The larger the number, the warmer the temperature and the lower the number, the colder. During the spring, Loudoun County usually has a temperature rating of about seven. 

No matter your aesthetic, flowers can be the perfect addition to interior or exterior designs of your home. Flowers can come in all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes. Talk to a local garden center or nursery for more information about what plants to get this spring.