Spring has sprung and with it comes all the beautiful scents and colors of flower gardens!

You have a flower garden. Or maybe you use blooms as part of your landscape design. Are you always choosing the tried-and-true? Maybe it’s time to explore varieties and flip the script. Of course, choosing flowers isn’t super easy. Annuals or perennials. Sunshine or shade. Arid or water drenched. Spring or summer or fall blooms? These beauties can be quite demanding!

Here is a quick guide to set you down the garden path…

Angelonia

When it blooms: Spring to fall

The bright colors, cascading or upright forms and flowers that bloom non-stop are all reasons to plant this annual in your beds, window boxes, and pots. It’s sometimes called summer snapdragon.

Butterfly Bush

When it blooms: Early summer to late summer

Tons of spikey flowers in pink, purple or white cover this fast-growing shrub. And butterflies really do visit it.

Daylily

When they bloom: Mid-summer

If your thumb isn’t so green, plant daylilies. These super-hardy perennials come in various heights and stunning, saturated colors.

Impatiens

When they bloom: Spring to fall

These shade-loving annuals are reliable non-stop bloomers until frost, and they work equally well in beds, planters or hanging pots.

Lobelia

When it blooms: Spring and early summer

This lovely annual loves cool weather, so it’s great for providing early season color. Once it gets hot, it fades; trim it back and it may rebloom in fall.

Mandevilla

When it blooms: Spring to freeze

This vining plant needs a trellis to show off its gorgeous trumpet-shaped blooms that come in shades of pinks and reds. Bring it indoors to winter it over until next spring, but give it tons of bright light.

Petunia

When it blooms: From spring until frost

Don’t let their appearance fool you. Petunias are tough little flowers. Older types must be deadheaded (have spent blooms removed after they fade) to keep blooming; new types are practically care-free.

Salvia

When it blooms: Late spring to late summer

These sturdy perennials attract pollinators with their pretty long-blooming spikes of purple, pink, red or white flowers. Their silvery-green foliage is attractive even after they’re done blooming.

Time to start planting!