I love daffodils. I don't have any, but always smile when I see them because my grandmother grew them.

Also iris. We have some in the woods where an old house used to be and it is so delightful to see them blooming 'naturalized'.

#3 would be the crossvine. It blooms at the same time the hummingbirds migrate and I know that I can start feeding the hummers when the crossvine blooms.

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Since you gave a tree, I'll include one: crabapples. I have several here and love their blooms.

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And lastly, the lotus. Such an exotic and exquisite bloom. The flower slowly grows up its large stem until it finally opens. Such anticipation! I love seeing the first bloom on my lotus.

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This makes me yearn for spring!

tulips, daffodils, hycinths, fritallarias, service berries

Daffodils, peonies, lilacs, larkspur, poppies.

Hellebores, lilacs, peonies, lonicera fragrantissima, and a wide variety of annuals that seem to selfsow and come back on their own.

Does alliums count? It blooms a bit close to summer. I plant my daffodils, tulips and alliums all in the same vicinity so as one plant dies off, another one blooms. My alliums are the last of the group to flower.

Tulips, Tulips, Tulips, Tulips, and don't forget the Tulips! ;-)

I love them because they do so well for me and provide such wonderful color when the landscape is dull and dreary. And there are so many kinds to try out!

Well, Tulips arn't my only choice now that I think of it. I also love Chinodoxa (Glory of the Snow), Hyacinthoides hispanica (Spanish Bluebells), Crocus, and Muscari (Grape Hyacinth, which smells like grape soda to me, lol).

Haven't had any luck with the Daffs. My neighbor has an amazing patch of them, so I know they grow well here. I think I may disturb the bulbs too much the rest of the year when I dig in the beds. Not much luck with Hyacinths either. I adore the scent of them (every year I end up catching a whiff of their fragrance and go around the yard sniffing like a bloodhound and trying to figure out what it is from before I remember the Hyacinths, lol!), but they always seem to get smaller and smaller after the first year. Last year one of my older bulbs managed to crank out a grand total of two bells on a stem! Lol.
CMK

Has to be azaleas, Taiwan flowering cherry tree and Japanese magnolias. The trees have already started to bloom and the azaleas won't be far behind. In a couple more weeks the city will dressed in shades of pink.

I've tried but I don't seem to be able to pick a favorite, as each one blooms, it puts a smile on my face. Spring is such a wonderful time of year.

Annette

mmm lilac!!! I love it because my mom loves it too. I love to see tulips but i never got around to planting any. I love azealeas as well. I love rhodedendrons too. Ohh this thread has me ready for spring!!!

1. daffodils,(i get SO excited-spring's round the corner)

2. azaleas
3. forsythia
4. flowering cherry trees
5. redbud trees

Larkspur
Popies
Nigella
TX bluebonnets
Columbines
All favs, but I agree, hard to choose.

k

LL- Please post pics when your daffodils and lilacs are in bloom! They sound beautiful!

Tree peonies (herbaceous too!)
Double-bloodroot
Dwarf flowering almond
Hellebores
Deutzia

Let's see...

Daffodils will always be a favorite, and remind me of dd - we have pics of her in front of them the day we brought her home from the hospital.

The others are harder to pin down, and changeable.

Irises, peonies, tulips, lilacs...and a few other things!

I'm getting ready for spring, but I don't think spring is ready for us...

Crocus
Iris
a whole lot we can't grow here :)
roses
amaryllis

If I lived in a warmer climate I'd have a dogwood tree. Early and prolific flowers and so beautiful - one of my favs.

Our spring is very late here in zone 3 but my first perennial to bloom (probably late April, early May) is always Leopard's Bane, then Siberian Iris, and Johnny Jump-ups, by then I usually have a few annuals in the ground for color, then in June the early summer perennials (bleeding heart, bearded iris, lady's mantle, peony, mountain bluet, columbine, Jacob's ladder, poppies, etc. finally start blooming. So my favs are *anything* that's blooming! ;-) Almost all hardy plants are favs here.

I really should plant some bulbs and may in my new garden altho have a lot of squirrels and chipmunks so that eliminates a few even if I go to the trouble of covering them with mesh.

I have a few lilac bushes which have never flowered as the deer always "prune" them but we put mesh around them last fall so hopefully I'll see some blooms either this year or next depending on how much they were "pruned" last summer. *rolleyes* I love watching the deer but they are not my friends when they jump the fence into my house yard and eat my plants.

french lilacs
old european roses
lily of the valley
bomb-petaled peonies
Wisteria

I'm gonna cheat :)
old-fashioned bleeding heart
sweet violet
saucer magnolia
cherry trees

It's snow again.
ALL spring flowers are my favorites.

>:-

I meant it's snowING again. haha.

Wait a minute! I forgot to add bearded iris to my cheat list!