Spring Is Not Over Yet — The Case for June Planting

June Planting Is the Beginning of Year-Round Color

Most gardeners think of spring as the planting season. And it is, but spring does not end on June 1st. If you're rushing to plant your color in early spring, you're probably losing some of it by mid-July and scrambling to fill gaps until fall comes.

Your color planting season can starts in June. Here's how I think about it, and what I'm seeing more and more of our customers moving toward.

June is where the season begins

Planting in late May and early June means the soil is warm, the nights are consistently mild, and heat-loving plants can hit the ground running. At Berns we actually time part of our annual production specifically for June planting. While other places are selling down spring inventory, we're bringing in fresh material that was transplanted in May for a June finish. Young, vigorous, and ready for summer.

The plants that perform best in this window are not the ones most gardeners default to. Lantana, SunPatiens, Vinca, Angelonia, Purslane, Scaevola. These are built for heat and drought. Plant them in June and they carry you all the way to the first frost without skipping a beat.

The petunia conversation

Petunias are great plants. I'm not here to argue otherwise and there are a few petunia varieties that I plant every year. But I talk to a lot of gardeners who plant them in May, enjoy them through June, and pull them out in July when the heat takes over. That leaves a gap right in the middle of summer, and trying to fill it with new plants at that point means asking heat-sensitive varieties to establish themselves in the worst conditions of the year. They rarely do.

We're seeing a real shift at Berns. Customers are moving away from some of the traditional spring annuals like petunias and toward plants that are built for heat and drought. These aren't compromise plants. They're colorful, beautiful, and happen to thrive in exactly the conditions that challenge petunias. The garden looks better in August than it did in June, and it keeps going until frost.

Our PatioHaven Collection is a good example of where this is going

We developed the PatioHaven container line with this philosophy in mind. Each recipe is timed so that every plant in the container matures together and performs through the full season. No filler that fades by July. It's a different approach than a lot of what you see at garden centers, and it reflects where we think summer gardening is headed.

In fall, you set up the next cycle

When the first frost arrives and the summer annuals are done, fall mums come in to deliver the big color moment of the season. Paired with Panola violas as an accent, the combination is hard to beat. But here's what I love about the violas — when the mums are done and the neighbors' gardens have gone quiet, the violas keep going. They have exceptional winter hardiness, spread more vigorously than a typical pansy, and come in a wide range of colors. They survive winter and flower right through until June when the cycle starts again.

Alongside the violas I plant a mix of daffodil and tulip bulbs. Daffodils come first in March, tulips follow in April and May, and by the time both are done the summer annuals are ready to take over.

Spring Containers Bridge the Final Gap

This is actually where a lot of the traditional spring plants shine. Petunias, calibrachoa, verbena, alyssum — in containers where they can be protected from a late frost, with cool nights that help them establish strong roots, these plants are in their element. Plant them in early to mid April and you get a genuine burst of spring color on your porches and patios through May. By the time they start to fade, it's June and the summer annuals are ready to take over.