Top 5 Early Spring Flowering Trees
IT’S SPRING!
Among our favorite early spring blooming trees are: Japanese magnolia (like the Ann or Jane), eastern redbud, flowering dogwood(white and pink), Taiwan cherry, and wild plum.
The Japanese magnolias are among the first bloomers of spring flowering trees. Three important types of early blooming Japanese magnolias are: The star magnolias (Magnolia stellata) and their cultivars; the saucer magnolias (M. x soulangiana) and their cultivars; and the lily magnolias (M. liliiflora) and their cultivars.
Star Magnolia
The star magnolias (M. stellata) and their many hybrids and cultivars are very popular in American gardens. These are small trees with white flowers that open in very early spring before their dark green leaves emerge. The large pure white flowers are held on low branches where their sweet fragrance can be appreciated as much as their innocent beauty. The fragrant white flowers will last until the summer sun comes out. Full sun is needed for these guys!
Alexandrina Magnolia The saucer magnolias are the most widely cultivated of the Japanese mags. Perfect Plants offers the ‘Alexandrina‘ magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana ‘Alexandrina’), a saucer cultivar noted for its robust vigor in the landscape. This very early blooming tree has rose-pink flowers with dark purple streaks up to four inches across and gets up to 20 feet tall.
Lily Magnolia The lily magnolias (M. liliiflora) and their hybrids have been cultivated in the United States longer than the others, and can sometimes be found persisting on old, abandoned home sites. Their goblet shaped pink flowers open in early to mid spring and are often the first sign that winter is almost over.
Perfect Plants offers the ‘Jane’ magnolia, which is a cross between the lily magnolia,M. liliiflora ‘Nigra’, and one of the star magnolias, M. stellata ‘Rosea’. ‘Jane’ flowers a couple weeks later than the star and saucer types, which reduces the chance of damage from a late frost.
‘Jane’ is smaller than some of the others, getting just 10-15 feet high. She has large purplish flowers with white interiors, up to 8 inches across. Hardy in zones 4-8, this spring flowering trees starts it’s bloom time right before the last frost! It can be planted in part shade too.
Best Selling Flowering Trees
Jane Magnolia
Other Early Spring Flowering Trees:
Forest Pansy Redbud Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is a small, sometimes multi-stemmed spring flowering tree grows to 20 to 30 feet tall. They are native in the eastern United States. Redbuds delight with reddish purple flowers in very early spring, before the heart shaped leaves emerge. In the fall, the leaves often turn yellow before dropping.Perfect Plants offers the standard wild type redbud as well as the cultivar, ‘Forest Pansy’, noted for its pretty purplish leaves. This tree prefers well drained soils.
Pink Dogwood The iconic flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and its cultivars are small trees growing with horizontal branches that make an appealing silhouette when leafless in winter. They get up to 20-40 feet tall making it perfect for small spaces.
In fall the leaves turn purplish and the bright red fruits make their own statement – perfect fall color. Perfect Plants has the typical white flowered dogwood tree and also one with pink flowers. Both of these early spring blooming trees make outstanding lawn ornaments.
Taiwan Cherry blossoms The beautiful Taiwan flowering cherry tree (Prunus campanulata) blooms in late winter and very early spring with neon pink clouds of joy. This is probably the first tree to bloom in most areas. Growing 15-25 feet tall and wide, Taiwan cherry is considered the most beautiful of the many flowering cherries.
Chickasaw wild plum There are several species of native American wild plums that bloom very early in the spring. Our favorites are Chickasaw plum (Prunus angustifolia) and Flatwoods plum (P. umbellata). These two species are so similar, we treat them as one. They both have pure white blooms that open before the leaves. Look for these harbingers of spring along road shoulders and fields throughout the eastern United States. Perfect Plants also has a few plum varieties you might be interested in that are early spring blooming trees.
Perfect Plants also offers several other flowering trees to fill out the rest of spring, including flowering pear, tulip poplar, crabapple trees, and several varieties of crape myrtle, southern magnolia, and apple trees. Check them out to see which one you like the best.
Everyone needs flowering trees in the spring time! Be sure to pick your Perfect specimen tree before spring is over. All of our trees are easy to grow and produce the most beautiful springtime flowers you will ever see!
Japanese magnolia blooms in full force at the nursery this year!