Primulas are flowering here, in a climate not too different from yours. Delphinium bellamosum is also flowering, but it shouldn't be - it's a new planting of greenhouse-grown plants.

Two years ago I started a thread about gaps in blooming, inspired by something written close to 50 years ago by Anne Scott-James. Many of the plants she recommended for the May gap flower later in this part of the U.S. than for her in England.

Gaps in blooming

Creeping phlox is in bloom right now here in NJ. Also, lilacs.

Here, too. Usually I am planting up all my pots for the deck and patio and would be about finished and enjoying the color, but with our stay-at-home situation now, I haven't even started. I have a couple of late azaleas still showing some color and the dicentra exima is still blooming. Oh, and the thalictrum and a viburnum look beautiful.

I did plant three heucherella 'Pink Revolution' that add a touch of color. I wish I had ordered a dozen of them!

Just thought of another plant I have blooming now-tradescantia. I love their purple flowers floating throughout the gardens.

Creeping phlox! I need to add that one although it's also blue... or at least the one my neighbor has is blue, and that's the one I was eyeing for a piece ;)

I forgot about the bleeding heart. It was mashed by the cold we had and I guess I've been looking away whenever I pass. There are a lot of seedlings this spring, now might be a good time to move them somewhere they have more room and that will be a nice mass of red (it's 'Valentine').

I do have a few primula. I wonder how long these wet summers will last because for me they usually die, and I guess I'm not counting on them as much as I should. The should be divided and spread around too.

Thanks everyone, and Paul I'm off to check that post now.

Hello Katob. Danish Flag Poppy. I have plenty of those seeds to share if you like a brilliant red flower next year. PM me if interested.

Danish flag Poppy

Many poppies would flower now or very soon. They tend to reseed freely, and it should work to plant or just scatter seeds in the fall.

I love the poppy, in fact I love most of those breadseed poppies! Thanks for the offer, but I do have a few seedlings coming along of a dark purple one. I was surprised to see them because usually I don't have much luck with them. Did you plant yours or do they reseed? Honestly I like your color better than the ones I have, but I got what I got lol.

Harold, not to be too nosey but there's a little bit of bulb coming up in your picture. Is that an amaryllis?

I must be a bit earlier than y'all since poppies and daisies are yet to come here. Heucherellas as well, but that's another thing which fades away.

cyn427 I saw you mention dicentra exima and that reminded me I do have that one as well and it is blooming now. I think that's another thing I should divide up and move around since it isn't as floppy as the old fashioned.

Paul I looked through your old post and laughed when I saw myself complaining about the gap after the iris as well. I guess some people are never happy and I'll just be complaining about that in a few more weeks!

My tiarellas are blooming before the columbine. Not heucheras though, just tiarellas. Also spring anemones (windflowers). Not sure if that helps.

Solomon's Seal, too, but that's not a wow-factor sort of flower.

Yes, my poppies would reseed everywhere but I collect them myself to share with others. I have very few coming up this year as I chose to plant some of the Hungarian purple poppies from burpee company but none of them came up. I have about 10 of the red poppies where a seed was accidentally dropped here and there. But I have about 3,000 of those seeds on hand if anyone would care for some.

And yes that is an outdoor amaryllis peeking through the soil. I just dug it up and fertilized the spot 2 weeks ago. So hoping it performs well this year. I forgot to dig and
fertilize last year and it struggled along with a small flower and the scape was only 2 inches tall. It is a medium red with white stripes. It is about five years old and remains there through the winter. I am located on the southern border of Virginia with very cold Winters and super hot summers.

I'll have to look at tiarellas again. 'Pink Revolution' really looks nice, and that would be perfect timing if they come into flower just before the columbine.

Harold you answered my next question as well, I was wondering if it overwintered outside! I used to see them in Texas, snugged up alongside house foundations and blooming in big clumps. Mine here in Pa of course are all in pots which is much more work... or at least it's much more work if you want to do a good job at it, mine have been neglected for a few years and it shows. Hope yours takes off now.

Rouge, that corydalis is lovely and unusual.

One thing I’m learning to appreciate more in the early season garden is foliage. Heucheras, naturally, can be lovely bursts of pink, burgundy, and lime for an extended period of time. Spireas, or other brightly foliaged shrubs, can be stunning when there’s not much else going on. ‘Ogon’ is a personal favorite, and much less gaudy and common than many of the others.

Very late tulips/daffs and the earliest iris and clematis almost overlap for me. I’m sure this varies by location.

Iberis sempervirens, perennial candytuft, blooms along side the alliums here, providing nice swaths of white. There are also white creeping phlox which bloom around the same time.

perennial candytuft

The whitest and brightest white I think there is in the garden. Mine seems to do well for a few years and then peters out :(.

Clematis like Roguchi come into bloom (at least for me) during that lull. Maybe dianthus barbatus? (remember, I'm on to purple coneflowers and phlox, trying to think backwards now). Oh, my favorite, coral honeysuckle (lonicera sempervirens), which is almost always in bloom, does a big splash then.

Yes, Iberia sempervirens blooms at the same time as the tiarellas and windflower for me. Another good choice. I really love my white'/green flowering season for these three which are planted near each other. The Scotch moss 'Aurea' adds more beauty to the picture.

I still have lots of spring blooms- a few late tulips and daffodils are still hanging on, my Josee reblooming lilacs are in full swing, azalea and rhododendron are looking great and creeping phlox is at peak. Veronica speedwell too. RRock cress and saxifrage are a bit past prime but still providing some color. I noticed today that purple verbena has started blooming some ome alliums are getting close to blooming, as are my Drift roses, salvias and catmints.

Most of the plants mentioned above are in my shady side garden, so my sunny side garden hits the same lull. My very earliest iris bloomed really early this year, but salvia, coreopsis auriculata 'Nana', amsonia 'Storm Cloud' and cerastium tomentosum are helping here and dianthus (the biennial type) and azaleas are working in other spots.

Phlox divaricata is my best gap filler in sun or shade though.

There is a closed nursery a few houses down with big masses of Zizia aurea in flower. Mine are almost done but theirs get more sun and probably more water. I still have golden ragwort and roundleaf ragwort flowering although they're winding down. Columbine and wild geranium are in full flower.

I guess the ragworts and geraniums are winding down. Lupinus perrenis is going strong.

Roseum elegans rhododendron put out its first bloom today and 'brandywine' viburnum will be flowering within a week. Silene caroliniana is flowering strong right now. I started some Erigeron pulchellus seeds for this time next year too.

My first few iris opened today, and it's only then that I noticed the earlier ones were all fried during a freeze. I guess that also explains why some parts of the garden looked a little bleak.

Now my biggest challenge will be to remember to add a few of these plants and not get completely distracted by the next thing to flower. Phlox for the more shaded areas and I think it's time to look at all those creepy things like arabis, iberis, aubretia, creeping phlox. I've been avoiding them due to the childhood trauma of having to weed grass out of them. No matter what you do grass gets in and then it's impossible to ever get it out. I think it's a law of nature or something.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I was going to mention Phlox divaricata, but Jenn beat me to it. I have the light purple one, I just love it. Also, think about brunnera and snowdrop anemone (A. sylvestris) - they make a lovely spring combo.

I've been tempted by snowdrop anemone but saw how well it "established" in a public garden and got cold feet about planting it.

I never found it overly exuberant in my garden -- spread nicely but not invasively.

Walking around my garden this morning reminded me that I should mention Dicentra 'Gold Heart'. Katob, I know you mentioned bleeding heart above, but I just wanted to emphasize that 'Gold Heart' is just glowing and stealing the show. it began to bloom just barely before the tiarellas, anemones, and Iberis. it would be stunning with all the blues you have. This plant is one which i am hoping to divide and increase. It really glows in my garden this time of year. Our spring is always much later than everybody elses because of our latitude and the ocean. I watch on these threads as everybody's gardens bloom while my earliest perennials are barely emerging. But Dicentra 'Gold Heart' is like turning on sunshine in my shade while most other things are waking up. It seems happiest in areas where it is getting more sun now because my trees are not leafed out. Not as happy in denser shade where things like conifers or general tree density block more early spring sun.

That dicentra is so tempting for me since I’m such a sucker for anything with yellow foliage. When I first saw it I wasn’t sure I liked the pink flowers combined with the bright foliage, but that’s grown on me and now that there’s a white version as well I have no excuse! -other than the fact I already have a bunch of yellow foliage... but what’s one more little plant? ;)

I saw ‘candy corn’ spirea last week. Golden leaves with bright orange and yellow tips. I might need to break the ban on more yellow!

In her 365-day garden webinar, Margaret Roach speaks a lot about yellow foliage for early color, also red foliage.

I have been thinking some about shrubs for early flowering. There are varieties of physocarpus that flower pretty early, although most seem to flower later (but there are red-leaved varieties of the late-flowering ones). Spiraea flowers pretty early; typically the flowers are white, but red and pink varieties exist. Margaret Roach recommends Spiraea thunbergii 'Ogon' because it has yellow foliage early in the season, turning light green in the summer and orange in the fall.