Jeanne McRight

Feb 27, 20231 min

Easy-to-grow early spring-blooming native plants for southern Ontario gardens

Updated: Mar 28

By Jeanne McRight

Make room for natives in your garden if you want to support biodiversity and ecological well-being. Here are just a few of the many beautiful Ontario native plants that will give you a sequence of bloom from March until May. All support pollinators and/or host other beneficial insects.

Sun

Perennials

Field Pussytoes (Antennaria neglecta)
 Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
 Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum)
 Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea)
 Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris)

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium)

Trees and shrubs

Red Maple (Acer rubrum)

Willows (Salix spp.)

Serviceberries (Amelanchier spp.)

Cherries (Prunus spp.), especially Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana)

Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica)

Shade

Perennials

Solomons seal

False Solomons seal
 Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
 Canada Ginger (Asarum canadense)
 Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)
 Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
 Running Strawberry Bush (Euonymus obovatus)
 Spotted Geranium (Geranium maculatum)
 Sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba)
 Virginia Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum)
 Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
 Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata)
 Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum)
 Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
 Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)
 White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)
 Large-flowered Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora)
 Downy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens)

Trees and shrubs

Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternafolia)

Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)

American Basswood (Tilia americana)