Today we’re in Jayne Spaulding’s garden, looking forward to spring.

This is my Zone 5 garden in spring, my favorite season. In New Hampshire, spring is short-lived, muddy, windy, and cold, but it is welcome nonetheless. I’ve been a Master Gardener for over 20 years and owned a garden design business for 13 years. It’s nice to finally have time to play in my own gardens!

The Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica, Zones 3–8) have matured into a sizable clump along a woodland path.

Here is a beautiful sweep of this spring bloomer, which is native to a wide swath of eastern North America.

I grow several varieties of hellebores (Helleborus hybrid, Zones 4–9), like this dark red one, which is among the earliest spring bloomers for cold climates.

One of my favorite plants is epimedium. I have a collection of over 15 varieties, including this Epimedium × rubrum (Zones 5–9), which makes a durable ground cover for shaded parts of the garden, topped with delicate flowers in the spring and beautiful foliage all summer.

I rescued a dogtooth violet (Erythronium americanum, Zones 3–8) from a construction site, and I’ve been rewarded with a colony of dozens of seedlings.

Early blooming hellebores pair nicely with the very early blooming bulb glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa forbesii, Zones 3–8).

No spring garden is complete without daffodils (Narcissus hybrids, Zones 3–9). It’s hard to imagine the spring season without their cheerful yellow blooms.

And another clump of glory-of-the-snow, which is nearly an essential addition to the spring garden for its very early bloom and beautiful color.

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