Early Spring Plants | Egan Gardens of Salem, Oregon

If you're like me you spend the end of winter just waiting for the first signs of spring. First there are the Snowdrops, then the Crocuses, and finally the first whiff of the incredible fragrance of Daphne on the chilly morning air. No matter what the weather's like, I know the long, dark winter is ending.

If you come out to Egan Gardens for our Grand Reopening the first weekend of March, you'll find that we've grown everything we can think of that will bloom naturally in the low light of late winter and early spring. Quite a few plants can take the cold, either right out in the open, or in pots with just a little protection on your porch. There are big blue and hot pink Anemones, stunning Cyclamen, Ranunculus that look like big, bright lollipops. Fairy Primroses and Obconica Primroses come in lovely pastels and fill the air with perfume.
My favorites are the Cinerarias, that make a solid mass of flowers in electric blue, hot purple, soft pink, and rich maroon. And there will be huge white Calla Lilies, looking almost tropical in their lushness. You'd have to wait clear 'til the end of May when the weather's warm to get that big a show of color from any other flowers, but these plants can all flourish for a whole season before that, as long as they have just a bit of cover from frosty nights and heavy storms of rain.

For planting in beds out in the open, unprotected, you'll find Primroses, including the old-fashioned Polyantha types, whose flowers are up on stems out of the mud and the reach of slugs. (Bait anyway; we have pet-safe slug bait.) There will be Pansies in abundance, Dusty Miller, Alyssum, Forget-Me-Nots, Wallflowers, Linaria ("baby snapdagons"), English Daisies and packs of Tulips, Daffodils and Hyacinths for those who didn't get your bulbs planted in the fall.

On our Grand Reopening weekend you'll also find our best selection of flowering indoor plants: African Violets, Kalanchoes, Shamrocks, fancy Chrysanthemums and Azaleas. And we'll always try to have the first Geraniums blooming for those who want to have one on the windowsill 'til April. So indulge yourself, it's spring!

Spring Planting Season

Flowers, flowers, flowers! Flowers for massing in beds. Flowers for grouping in planters. Flowers for flowing from baskets. You'll find them all, a changing array across the spring. Don't come just once in April and think you've got your planting done -- there will be lots of different plants by the end of May. We don't try to put things out to sell before you're likely to be safe to plant them -- though the late frosts will still always take us all by surprise.

We love trying new plants, and new varieties of old favorites -- always searching for the best. We want you to have the most beautiful garden with the least amount of extra work. If a Verbena we plant in our trial beds this year gets mildew, we won't grow it again next year, so you don't get stuck with something you have to spray twice a month all fall. If we find new favorites like Melampodium and Angelonia, we'll do our best to let you know about them and make sure we have enough of them. Here are some examples of annuals we grow that I don't generally see at other nurseries around here:

Blitz Impatiens -- big guys, the plants easily reach 18 inches high
KLM Nemesia -- sky blue and white bicolor flowers
Danish Flag Nemesia -- the red and white sister of KLM
'Blue Horizon' and 'Leilani' Ageratum -- tall plants, great for back of the border and cut flowers
Royale Salpiglossus -- tall stalks of flowers like veined Petunias, but in colors a Petunia never thought of, also a good cut flower
Gem Marigolds -- tiny single flowers on thick bushes with lacy, citrus-scented leaves
State Fair Zinnias -- big, tall, old-fashioned cutting variety. Buy them green; they won't bloom in a pack.

Of course you'll also find lots of "normal" stuff and a big selection of favorites from The Flower Fields and Proven Winners lines of specialty annuals. And Geraniums. And Begonias -- lots of different kinds, including really neat trailing ones. Oh, and let's not forget the Heliotrope, Streptocarpella and Fuchsias.