12 Yellow Spring Flowers to Plant in Your Garden

Yellow spring flowers are garden favorites that can add brightness to your landscaping or flower display. Most yellow spring flowers will do well in full sun or partial shade with ample watering, and they’ll usually start to bloom after late winter’s final frost. Many are DIY friendly, meaning you can grow and care for them without too much fuss.

These beautiful flowers come in multiple varieties, from marigolds to forsythia, and their yellow blooms make for a colorful addition to your garden. Grow various kinds alongside flowers of different colors to make for a dynamic floral display.

Learn about different types of yellow flowers, plant the ones you most enjoy, and pick when grown to create a stunning bouquet.

1. 1. Begonias (Begonia x tuberhybrida): Begonias are common household plants that have colorful flowers and lush foliage. Begonias are a genus of flowering plants with over 1,000 species—some of these are ideal for hanging baskets, window boxes, or flower beds, while others flourish best when potted and kept indoors. Begonias are relatively easy to grow and will continue to flower all summer when properly handled.
2. 2. Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta): Black-eyed Susans are bright yellow flowers with dark brown centers. These North American native plants are members of the sunflower family (Asteraceae) and usually reach peak bloom in the late summer, giving both gardens and fields a pop of color with their yellowy-orange petals. Black-eyed Susans are wildflowers, so they require minimal care, making them ideal for gardens and flowerbeds. Their long growing season allows them to stay in bloom for weeks, and they attract a wide variety of pollinators.
3. 3. Daffodils (Narcissus spp.): Vibrant and hardy, daffodils are a great option for spring gardens or as cut flowers. These colorful flowers are perennial in USDA hardiness zones three through eight, which means they’ll grow back year after year and naturalize, or spread in an area to give it an organic look. Daffodil flowers are a wonderful spring bulb plant and a great early bloomer for your flowerbed.
4. 4. Dahlias: Dahlias are a genus of tuberous plants native to Central America and Mexico. Dahlia flowers come in a range of colors and sizes, including the popular waterlily, collarette, pompon, peony, and cactus dahlia varieties. Smaller bedding dahlias have flowers that are only a few inches wide, while taller dinner plate dahlias can grow blooms up to fifteen inches in diameter. Though dahlias are perennial plants, they can only survive the winter in USDA hardiness zones eight to eleven, and gardeners often grow them as annuals in other climate zones.
5. 5. Forsythia (Forsythia vahl): Forsythia is a flowering shrub in the Oleaceae family, or olive family. This deciduous flowering shrub, nicknamed golden bells, is best known for its bright yellow flowers, which grow along the length of arched branches and bloom in early spring.
6. 6. Marigolds: Marigolds are flowering plants of several different genera in the Asteraceae family. The signet marigold (Tagetes tenuifolia), which features small flowers with a single row of petals, is one of the varieties of yellow marigolds. Flower petals of plants within this genus are yellow to orange, sometimes with a touch of maroon.
7. 7. Pansies: Pansies are cool-weather flowers that bloom in early spring—and they're also edible. Pansies include about five hundred different flower species in the family Violaceae of the genus Viola. Pansies are easy to maintain and you can plant them in garden beds and containers such as window boxes or hanging baskets.
8. 8. Primroses: Primrose is the common name of flowering plants belonging to the Primula genus. Depending on the variety, these plants can be grown as short-lived perennials, biennials, or annuals. Primrose plants grow low to the ground and typically have small, round flowers, sturdy stems, and basal rosettes of dark green foliage. When the primrose flowers bloom in early spring through late spring, they attract pollinators such as birds and butterflies. Most primrose plants grow best in USDA hardiness zones five through seven, but some varieties can survive in warmer and cooler climates with proper care.
9. 9. Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus): Sunflower plants are more than just large, bright flowers in the garden. Gardeners plant sunflowers to feed pollinators like honeybees, attract birds to ward off garden pests, and help detox your garden soil.
10. 10. Tulips: Tulips (of the genus Tulipa) are perennial flowers from the lily family that skyrocketed in popularity during the period of tulip mania in seventeenth-century Holland. These springtime bloomers grow from bulbs and produce large, dazzling cup-shaped flowers in a range of vibrant colors. Although tulips are technically perennials, many varieties struggle to produce flowers after their first spring. As a result, gardeners typically grow them as annuals and plant new bulbs the following year.
11. 11. Zinnias: With their frilly, full flowerheads on single leafy stems, zinnias make for a spectacular display of cut flowers. Flowers belonging to this genus can be pink, orange, yellow, or red flowers. A favorite of hummingbirds, butterflies, and summer gardeners alike, zinnia flowers are a low-maintenance, cheerful addition to everything from flower gardens to window boxes.

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