By: Olive Dawson
Adding spring plants to your yard or home can help you fix up the place without breaking your budget. Lancaster is home to a number of outdoor places filled with wildflowers, inspiring local gardeners to utilize such native plants for easy and inexpensive cultivation. Check out these spring plants that flourish in Lancaster to add natural charm to your home.
Columbine
This gorgeous perennial offers showy flowers that come in a wide variety of colors. Columbine won’t get too large in your garden and should only be about 1-2 feet high at maturity. You’ll find that this plant’s easy-to-spot flowers are also an attractant for area pollinators like hummingbirds and butterflies. Choosing to plant Columbine in your garden or in a container is a great way to encourage pollinators to stop by your garden. This also helps strengthen the local environment which is an added bonus to its beauty and color that can be showcased in the garden.
Virginia Bluebells
This delicate plant offers a wide range of benefits for the frugal gardener. Virginia Bluebells are notorious for their light blue bell-shaped blooms that are easy to see in early Spring. You’ll notice that many bees will stop by the plant as well as butterflies since this perennial is a natural favorite of pollinators. Virginia Bluebells prefer slightly wet soil and do very well under trees or shaded parts of the garden. The plant grows to about 2 feet high at maturity making this an excellent option for both garden borders and containers.
Jacob’s Ladder
Another delicately blue colored plant, Jacob’s Ladder is a native wildflower that can be spotted in shady spots under trees or in the forest. The plant only grows to 6”-18” high making it a smaller perennial. Jacob’s Ladder features five-petaled, light blueish-purple blooms with crisp white stamens. You’ll spot them blooming for a few weeks during the late spring. This variety doesn’t grow very aggressively but will seed itself at the end of the season. Jacob’s ladder does especially well mixed in with other flowers or even alongside ground cover for some added color.
Primula
Known for its early spring blooming, Primula is a perennial that features small flowers that come in a wide range of colors. This pint-sized flower is used in cultivated gardens as a border around trees where other plants don’t usually thrive. You’ll find Primula in shaded areas of nature and they should be given ample shade in the garden as well. They love cooler temperatures making spring the perfect season for Primula to grow.
Hydrangea
This massive plant is a favorite for many Lancaster residents thanks to its prolific and beautiful rounded blooms. Hydrangea come in a wide variety of colors ranging from light pink to blue. The many tiny blossoms produced on each flower head offer a punch of color to any garden and will begin to bloom during the spring season. The plant isn’t picky about soil conditions and produce enough blooms to keep your kitchen table adorned with cuttings all season long.
No matter how large or small your garden area, there are plenty of options to choose from when adding spring plants to your yard or window sill. All of these plants are multi-purposed with either beautiful blooms, pollinator activity, or as a barrier near outdoor living space, and carry all the benefits of low maintenance, native plants. The best part? You only have to buy a few since these spring plants will grow on you (literally) and multiply in Lancaster.
Olive Dawson is a gardening and landscape design writer and environmentalist. She is always searching for new ways to reduce waste and grow food organically. She is most proud of her homemade beauty products.
