It is time to start thinking about spring planting. Depending on what type of flowers you are planting, most flowers should be installed in the spring. If you are planting early blooming bulb flowers, you should have planted those last fall. It is always a good idea to get these types of plants in the ground before the ground freezes so that they come up early in the spring. If you are planting perennial wild flowers by seed, fall is also a good time to get the seeds worked in the soil before winter. If you didn’t plant the wild flower seeds in the fall, it is not too late. You can install the seeds in the spring, they just might take a little extra work.
Spring planting should start in May.
When considering when to start spring planting, the most important thing to keep in mind is frost. Frost is the worst enemy of annual flowers. If you install your flowers too early in the spring, you risk the chance of sustaining frost damage. There is no real way to know when the frost is done, all you can do is pay attention to the weather. In Iowa, early to mid May is the optimal time to for spring planting. Annual flowers especially do well when the are planted around this time frame. Perennials on the other hand are much hardier and can be installed earlier if need be. If you get your flowers in the ground too early, you might have to spend some time covering the plants to keep the frost off of them. Make sure to uncover your plants during the day so that they do not suffocate. We have had several customers in the past that forgot to remove the coverings and the plants started to wilt. Once sun breaks, it is usually fine to remove the cover on your plants.