With their cheerful faces and sweet scent

As soon as the winter snows melt, most homeowners want to plant flowers, and spring flowers create delightful oasis of color in the yard, garden or patio. Here's a list of spring flowers that can withstand the sudden shifts of temperature common in gardening zones 7 through 4 in the United States.
Pansies for Spring Gardens

With their cheerful faces and sweet scent, pansies (Viola) are a great addition to the spring garden and top our list of spring garden flowers. Pansies can be started from seeds, and many heirloom seeds produce colorful pansies reminiscent of Grandma's garden. Pansies are exceptionally cold hardy and can be planted in early spring. They can even withstand brief spring frosts and freezing spells even while blooming, something few other flowers can do.

Pansies come in a wide range of colors from white to deep purple. They are considered annual flowers, meaning that in most gardens they will grow, bloom, and die over the winter. In gardening zones 7 and higher they can sometimes winter over, especially if planted in a warmer spot in the garden such as near the base of a foundation, a garage wall, or in the shelter of a shrub.
Snapdragons Provide Border Color or Garden Focal Points

Snapdragons (Antirrhinum Majus) range from small, six inch tall dwarf varieties to newer varieties that grow upwards of five feet tall and must be staked. They can withstand cool temperatures and light frosts, and can be planted as early as a week or two before the frost-free date. Start seeds indoors about ten weeks prior to planting.

Snapdragons come in a wide range of colors, from solid, bright yellows, orange and reds to striped and swirled bicolors. Snapdragons benefit from pinching the top of the plant off when the plants grow to be about five inches tall. Pinching new growth encourages side shoots and fuller, abundant plants with more flowers. Enjoy snapdragons any place in the flower garden. Like pansies, snapdragons are considered annual flowers. They'll winter over in zones 8 to 10, but most likely a deep freeze, common to zones 7 and below, will kill them.
Perennial Dianthus Return Year After Year

Rounding out this list of spring flowers is dianthus, also called pinks. This perennial flower comes back year after year and prefers cool growing conditions. It thrives in cool temperatures and will begin blooming as soon as daytime temperatures remain in the sixties. Choose from among the white, pink, red and striped varieties. Some have showing green and gray-green foliage. Most are grown as border flowers, but with over 300 varieties of dianthus to choose from, there are so many sizes you are sure to find one that fits your garden style. Among the many spring flowers to choose for the garden, dianthus have the strongest scent. Like stocks (another spring flower), dianthus flowers smell faintly of cloves.

This list of spring flowers only begins to describe the many choices available for gardeners across the country who want to plant spring flowers that resist sudden cold snaps. There are many more beautiful annuals and perennials that can be planted in early spring, or bulbs such as tulips, daffodils and crocus may be planted in the fall for spring flowers. Whether you choose seed starting or plants purchased from a nursery, you can enjoy many flowers like pansies, snapdragons and dianthus in your spring garden.

Sedum 'Autumn Fire'

I'm pretty sure the very first perennial I ever purchased was Sedum 'Autumn Joy'. It was advertised as "fool proof" and the perfect perennial for beginning gardeners in all the books I had read. That's all I had to hear so I went out and bought two of them (planting in odd numbers was still a foreign concept to me).
I loved it at first with it's unique foliage and the fact that it emerged so early in the spring. When the blooms came in late summer, I was pumped up. But then it happened ... it started to sprawl and I was devastated (slight hyperbole). I gave up on them for years but admittedly would look longingly at them in other people's gardens.
Fast forward ten years or so and I've found the perfect solution to my sedum envy, she's called 'Autumn Fire':
I've owned this beauty for three years now and have been thrilled with the results. I could swoon over those sedum blooms:
Without worrying about this happening:

Maxes out at about 2' x 2'
Prefers full sun
Needs good drainage to survive and some how I found a spot where that works
Is not deer resistant and again, I've some how managed to hold them off ... for now
Survives in zones 3-9
Personally, I love watching the blooms slowly change from mid summer all the way into the middle of Fall:

Give it a whirl, won't you?

Brief Of Dwarf Lilac

　　Dwarf Lilac
　　Syringa 'Penda'
　　(si-RING-gah)
　　Synonym: Bloomerang
　　Okay every once in awhile a season bender plant appears and this little lilac is one. A mixture of several species of lilac including patula x macrophylla x meyeri x juliana it blooms heavily around regular lilac time (around here Mid-May). It then takes a rest period and starts blooming again with a smaller crop of flowers. This picture was taken this week and the plants offered for sale each had a couple of flowers on them.
　　When you combine the dwarf habit, fragrant flowers and the reblooming Bloomerang is quite a package. One house we care for has a large collection of what I think are ‘Miss Kim’ dwarf lilacs and they are in constant need of pruning to fit in their dwarf spaces. That doesn’t really fit the definition/use of a dwarf plant for me. The problem is not the plant but the planter in that case (I inherited the care of those plants and did not install them). Bloomerang looks to be a much dwarfer and less course plant than ‘Miss Kim’ but only time will tell (Bloomerang was introduced in 2009).
　　Fall lilac flowers what will we see next?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day January 2011

　　There is a nice blanket of snow on the ground and none on the roads. That’s the way we like it in cold climate country. We know we are not going to see blooms when snow covers the ground so we plan for ways to have blooms in the house. I’ve got some hyacinths forcing and it’s about time for them to come out of the basement. They don’t have blooms now, but maybe in time for February’s Bloom Day.

　　Happy Surprises
Then there are the blooms that you don’t expect, but surprise you. This frequently happens in the garden, so why not in the house, too? So I am pleased to report that my Thanksgiving cactus is reblooming.
How does this happen? This plant hangs in front of my not-very-insulated kitchen window. It set buds on the colder window side. When I see this, I turn the plant around so I will actually get to enjoy the flowers when they open. As it turns out, it bloomed just a bit after Thanksgiving this year.
Then we had a warm spell, when all the snow melted away. And then it got cold again. Apparently the warm spell was long enough that it tricked the Thanksgiving cactus into believing a whole cycle of seasons had passed, and the new cold spell encouraged it to set more buds. And I, the ever hopeful gardener, noticed there were more buds, and turned the pot around again.

Flowers under April Weather

It snowed last night. Tonight, there is still snow on the ground. On 8 April, and winter has lasted long enough, thanks.

There are two ways to view these raids end of the winter season. A person can either despair or hope. When a long winter snow melts, releasing a long-buried land again to feel the life giving rays of the sun, is a time of rest for the weary hearts of months trapped within the four walls of a house. As exhilarating as the taste of spring can be renovated at a funeral in the snow can cause a drop in the same moral.

For some people, later this year, the snow falls more depressing is that. For those of snow at any time, in April is particularly overwhelming, and a week later this month is that much worse.

This is my opinion: Snow in March is very sad indeed. Snow in April is a farce. When the first flakes fall in the sky during the month of April I admit my answer is unhappy. But then I laugh. Snow is not around for long. When the snow falls in March is always the lurking fear of the cold and snowy months. April Spring swell is such that snow days are limited. In April, the winter has had its grip on our lives long enough. It 'time to throw away the fear of winter, and laughs. Snow today? It just makes the lack of snow tomorrow, even more wonderful. Spring is coming, is just the tip of your fingers. And 'here.

I mark these thoughts, but still struggles with frustration. Today I am not desperate, that the winter is not necessarily over, but to wear down the outside of disability. As the seasons change here is the bad habit of passing from winter to summer, and too little time. Four weeks between winter and summer, there is not enough time to get all these things done before summer. Yard is a wreck. Around the wreck. Any additional snow allows for a great day to escape unused.

April is full of ups and downs, but I say that is higher than in March. In April, the sun is about long days hard enough all day. Snowdrops and crocuses to strike across the country. The water flows. Tree buds swell with new life. The world is changing and running.

On a good day in April I get out of a world on edge. The sky is bright blue and white clouds on the floor. The wind has a bite to court, but the sun warms any surface it touches. Although the wreck was lost in the cool winter air and the sky speaks of spring.

March is crazy. April is the hope. In early April the eye sees only the contours of what has vanished in life takes place in May and June April is a time to dream. The world is waiting, spring, summer and fall have been in advance. The ground is frozen and wet here, but I stand, look around and imagine the coming months.