Although the calendar says fall, this gardener is thinking spring.  There is no better time than fall to stage your garden for spring.  The warm days and cool nights provide an ideal climate to establish new flowering trees prior to their dominant season that winter will soon be bringing on.  The cool, moist soil allows roots to evenly dispersed around the trunk, which promotes a strong and health tree and allows growth to begin as soon as the weather warms up again.  Come spring you can sit back and benefit from the array of color bursting from the bright greens of the foliage to the white, pinks and reds of the flower’s blooms.  Spring flowering specimen trees are readily available in the fall as well as a good selection of bare root trees and shrubs and fall planting bulbs. 

The list of spring flowering trees and shrubs are almost endless. Some of my favorites which I have in in my own garden include flowering weeping cherry, saucer and star magnolias, and wisteria, as well as dogwood, quince, crabapple, Indian Hawthorne and redbud.  Spring flowering shrubs are equally voluminous in number and some of the best selections include the familiar camellia, rhododendron, and azalea, in addition to the less common tea plants, Japanese pieris, viburnum, cotoneaster and lilac.     

Most deciduous trees and shrubs are available in bare root. Some good choices include bare root fruit trees such as apple, pear, cherry, plum, fig and walnut and bare root shrubs such as various types of rose bushes.

Fall is the perfect time to also plant such spring-flowering bulbs as tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, paperwhites, crocuses and irises.  Be sure to allow time for refrigeration for certain bulbs such as tulips prior to planting.

Plant now to ensure a colorful spring!