Gardening

Bloom Calendar

Plan your garden by bloom season

View which plants bloom in each season. Plan a garden with year-round color by selecting plants with overlapping bloom periods.

Bloom Calendar

Select plants to build a year-round bloom schedule for your garden.

Selected:

Plant

Select plants above to build your bloom calendar.

Monthly Bloom Count

How to Use

  1. 1
    Choose a season or month

    Select a season or specific month to see which plants are in bloom during that period in your climate zone.

  2. 2
    Filter by plant type or color

    Narrow results by growth form (perennial, annual, shrub, tree) or flower color to match your design.

  3. 3
    Build a succession plan

    Select plants from multiple seasons to create a bloom sequence that provides color from spring through fall.

About

A garden that blooms for only a few weeks wastes most of its visual potential. Succession bloom planning is the practice of selecting plants whose flowering periods overlap and follow one another so that color is present in the garden from the earliest spring bulbs through the last fall asters. Professional garden designers treat bloom time as a core design constraint, as important as color, height, and texture.

The Bloom Calendar organizes plants by their primary flowering period and lets you filter by growth form, flower color, and sun requirements so you can fill gaps in your existing garden or plan a new bed with continuous color. Each plant entry shows the typical bloom window in weeks, peak bloom month, and whether deadheading or cutting back extends the season. By selecting at least two to three plants per season -- early spring, late spring, early summer, midsummer, late summer, and fall -- you can build a planting plan where something is always flowering. The calendar also helps you coordinate bloom color so adjacent plants complement rather than clash, and it flags plants that provide winter interest through dried seed heads, persistent berries, or evergreen foliage even after flowering ends.

FAQ

What is succession planting for bloom?
Succession planting for bloom means selecting plants whose flowering periods overlap or follow one another so that something is always in bloom from early spring through late fall. A well-designed succession might start with crocuses and snowdrops in March, followed by tulips and daffodils in April, peonies and irises in May, daylilies and coneflowers in June through August, and asters and chrysanthemums into October. The goal is to eliminate gaps where nothing is flowering.
Do bloom times vary by hardiness zone?
Significantly. A plant that blooms in April in Zone 8 (southern US) may not bloom until June in Zone 4 (northern US). Bloom times are triggered primarily by soil temperature, day length, and accumulated growing degree days, all of which differ by latitude and elevation. The calendar shows general bloom windows that should be adjusted based on your specific zone and microclimate.
Which plants bloom the longest?
Repeat-blooming roses, coneflowers (Echinacea), blanket flowers (Gaillardia), and black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) are among the longest-blooming perennials, often flowering from early summer into fall if deadheaded regularly. Among annuals, zinnias, marigolds, and petunias bloom continuously from planting until frost. These long-season performers are the backbone of any succession plan.
Can I have blooms in winter?
In mild climates (Zone 7 and warmer), winter-blooming plants include witch hazel, winter jasmine, hellebores, camellias, and some viburnum species. In colder zones, forcing bulbs like paperwhites and amaryllis indoors provides winter flowers, and dried seed heads from grasses and coneflowers offer winter garden interest even without active bloom.
Does deadheading extend bloom time?
For many species, yes. Removing spent flowers before they set seed redirects the plant's energy from seed production back into producing new buds. Coneflowers, salvia, cosmos, zinnias, and roses all respond well to deadheading with extended or repeated bloom flushes. Some species like lavender and catmint benefit from a hard shearing after the first flush to produce a second wave of flowers.