Regional Picks: Spring Color—Northwest

If your first few trips to the greenhouse can be overwhelming and chaotic , agree out our plant recommendations for springtime people of color in your region . There ’s no doubtfulness that these spring flowers will cure the winter blues .

1. ‘Pacific Frost’ Corsican hellebore

Helleborus argutifolius‘Paciﬁc Frost’

Zones:5–8

Size:24 inches grandiloquent and 30 inch wide

Conditions : fond to full spectre ; average , well - drain soil

Native stove : Corsica and Sardinia

‘ Paciﬁc Frost ’ is a snazzy little hellebore that blooms in winter and early spring , attracting former bees looking for food . It has wondrous variegated foliation that steals the spotlight from more terrestrial false hellebore , with a crazy pinkish color that tally the pink edge of its ﬂowers . As with otherH. argutifoliuscultivars , its ﬂowers stand proud above the foliation , radiate in the flabby leaping Lord’s Day . These blooms age out to soft apple green , lasting well into late natural spring . It wait best when rise in fond spook but grows well in sunlight to deep shade .

2. ‘Honey Butter’ rhododendron

Rhododendron‘Honey Butter’

Zones:6–9

Size:3 to 4 feet tall and blanket

Conditions : Partial shade ; evenly moist , rich , well - drain , acidic soil

Native range : loanblend

Rhododendrons are common in our region , so when this one came to me , I was bear to be underwhelmed . Instead , I was overwhelmed . This summary plant had tight trusses mightily below eye level that exploded with so many colors that I found it hard to decide which part I like well . Was it the tight bud of dark garden pink , the partially open bud with reddish pink on the outside and deep yellowish inside , or the to the full open ﬂower with sunny strong yellow and orange ? Even the glossy dark green leaf was accentuate by winered new growth . A recent introduction by hybridizer Jim Barlup , ‘ Honey Butter ’ deserves a place in your woodland garden .

3. Buttercup winter hazel

Corylopsis pauciﬂora

size of it : Up to 5 feet improbable and 8 feet broad

Conditions : fond shade ; fair to moist , well - drain filth

Native range : Japan and Taiwan

Buttercup winter hazel tree is a deciduous shrub with a cool horizontal branching pattern . It appreciates light or dappled shade and some supplemental water during wry menses . In early spring , before the folio come out , soft yellow blooms entirely cover the flora , providing early food for bees and hummingbirds . The dangle Alexander Melville Bell - shaped ﬂowers hang on through the toughest April storms . The leaves come forth in colors of pink , then transition to light scandalmongering - green and ﬁnally indulgent green . In fall , the foliage becomes a showy blaze of yellow and orange .

4. ‘Burning Hearts’ bleeding heart

Dicentra‘Burning Hearts’

Zones:4–9

Size:10 column inch tall and 12 in wide

Conditions : fond to full specter ; moist , well - run out grunge

aboriginal range of a function : cross of Asian and North American specie

‘ burn centre ’ pretend me imagine a little of rut and warmth , or Elvis , depending on the twenty-four hour period . It is a compact perennial , ideally suit for the Northwest neighborhood ’s moist springs and woodland gardens . The cryptic blood-red blooms have an overdone ticker shape , with a deeper purple - and - ashen sharpness that really stands out . The ferny foliage is a endearing shade of blue - green . This uncompromising cultivar does n’t go abeyant , so its shock is gallop into summertime .

— Susan Calhoun is the owner and principal architect at Plantswoman Design on Bainbridge Island , Washington .

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Honey Butter rhododendron

Photo: Joshua McCullough

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