Spring Flowers That Will Give You Months of Beautiful Blooms

Written by Kelsey W.

Southern California is famous for its long growing seasons and the greenery that seems to last all year. The middle of December doesn’t look gray and barren like it does in other parts of the country, and many plants keep their leaves all year.

However, just because many plants in Southern California remain green all year, that doesn’t mean they produce flowers all year or even during the entirety of the spring and summer. Therefore, if you want beautiful blooms for a large chunk of the year, you must choose carefully what to plant.

As we march through spring and start renewing our gardens for the year, it’s a great time to start choosing some beautiful flowering plants that will provide blooms all throughout the summer and even longer into the fall months.

Let’s discuss a few options you have for growing plants with long-lasting blooms that will last from spring all the way into the late months of the year.

Enjoy Months of Blooms with a Geranium

Geraniums are a common sight throughout Southern California, and with good reason. They’re quite at home in the region’s Mediterranean climate and do exceedingly well once established in the ground. They’re also excellent container plants and look great in hanging baskets.

For the most part, you can expect geraniums to start growing in May and continue blooming all the way into October, but some particularly happy plants will start blooming earlier in the spring and continue well into the fall.

To keep your geraniums happy and blooming for as long as possible, you should place them in a spot that receives at least six hours of sunlight a day. Make sure their soil is well-draining and try to avoid overwatering them as they don’t like sitting in soggy soil.

Grow an Easy, Long-Lasting Garden with Catmint

Also known as Nepeta, Catmint is a plant that even the most novice gardener can master. The plant is an excellent lure for pollinators and offers months of blooms, starting its growing season in early spring and continuing until fall.

Catmint is also a great choice for water-wise planting as it’s drought-resistant, requiring almost no external water once it’s established. Right after you plant it, Catmint needs water about once a week, but it soon develops roots that can absorb water from the environment.

Catmint is an excellent choice when you live near the coast, but you might need to give it a little extra water if your home is located inland or in the deserts of Southern California. Too much sun can burn the plant, so it’s important to consider placement.

Get the Longest Blooms with Marguerite Daisies

In northern climes, the Marguerite daisy blooms all summer, but planting it in Southern California is an excellent way to enjoy blooms that will actually last all year long. These daisies are so happy to grow in SoCal gardens that they’ll literally remain green and flowering for just about the entire year.

Like the other flowers on this list, Marguerite daisies are quite easy to grow, so not only do they offer beautiful blooms for many months, but they also do so without a lot of effort from you. Fertilizing the plants every few weeks during the summer ensures long-lasting blooms.

As a drought-resistant plant, Marguerite daisies don’t enjoy sitting in soggy soil, so they don’t require frequent watering, but it’s important to lightly water them before and after you fertilize them. You can also encourage extra blooms and a long blooming season by trimming them regularly.

Cover Your Garden with Beautiful Potato Vine

Growing up to 30 feet long, the ornamental potato vine is a beautiful flowering plant that offers a beautiful alternative to the traditional plant in a pot. As the name would suggest, potato vine can grow very long and cover a large area.

Potato vine or “Solanum laxum,” is most often grown in white, but you may sometimes find it in other colors like light blue and purple. It grows best along a fence or arbor, so you’ll want to erect something it can climb on if you don’t already have a wall for it.

The one caveat with potato vine is that it doesn’t like to get particularly dry, so it helps to put it on a wall where it won’t get direct sunlight all day, which can help keep its soil from getting too dried out. It’s tolerant of many soil types, but just try to keep its soil a little moist with frequent small watering.

Enjoy Beautiful, Easy Alyssum

In some areas of the country, alyssum is considered an annual, but Southern California residents get to enjoy this beautiful plant as a perennial. In some areas, particularly close to the coast, alyssum will actually bloom all year long, taking only short periodic breaks before sending out new blooms.

Alyssum is a modestly easy plant to grow, but it does require some specific placement and care to thrive, especially if you want it to bloom all year long. The plant doesn’t do particularly well in drought conditions and in extreme heat, so place it in an area with some shade if you’re inland.

It also likes well-draining soil that doesn’t remain waterlogged. If you’re able to get the watering schedule right for your SoCal location, your alyssum plants may very well bloom all year long and never stop.

Earn Easy Blooms with Salvia

Offering blooms from early spring until late fall, salvia is an easy-to-grow plant that gets quickly established and becomes quite drought-tolerant as the season progresses. If you don’t have a lot of time to spend in your garden, salvia is an excellent option.

Salvia has a nice, long growing season, but the plant reacts particularly well to deadheading, growing many new blooms when you rid the plant of its spent flowers regularly. They don’t need a lot of fertilizer, but they can benefit from the occasional application. Just don’t overdo it with the food.

As a drought-resistant plant, salvia doesn’t like sitting in waterlogged soil, but they don’t need particularly healthy soil to thrive. In fact, they’ll grow in just about any soil as their nutrient demands aren’t that significant.

Ensuring Long Lasting Blooms

Even if you’re not planting one of these long-lasting blooms, you can still squeeze as many days as possible out of your current garden of blooming plants by taking these simple steps to encourage flower growth:

1. Remove dead blooms regularly: Clip away any dead blooms that you see on the plants, so they can get to work making new blooms rather than spending their energy trying to keep fading blooms alive.
2. Maintain a good watering schedule: Don’t let the plants get too dry or remain too soggy. Get them used to a good, optimized watering schedule and try to maintain it throughout the summer.
3. Consider reducing nitrogen: Try a fertilizer with lower nitrogen content since high levels of nitrogen are great for growing big leaves, but can end up reducing the number of flowers the plant produces.
4. Add compost when planting: Add compost to your fresh soil when you first put your flowers into the ground, since compost helps plants grow big, healthy roots, which are necessary for flower growth.
5. Try a phosphorus-rich fertilizer: If the plant you’re growing isn’t too particular with its fertilizer needs, try a high phosphorus fertilizer, which should lead to the maximum amount of flower production.

As always, when it comes to flowers, getting the most blooms out of your plants usually means paying a little more attention to them than you might otherwise. Many SoCal native plants and plants that grow happily in the Mediterranean climate of the region don’t need a lot of care and are easy to grow, but spending just a little extra time with your plants can have a dramatic impact on their ability to grow flowers.

Let Green Thumb Nursery Help With Your Flowers

Are you searching for some beautiful flowers to fill your spring garden? Do you want to greet the summer with some gorgeous blooms? Would you like to enjoy those flowers all the way into the fall? Visit Green Thumb Nursery for ideas and inspiration for all your plant and gardening projects. Your local Southern California location is ready to help you make your garden beautiful this year.

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