Easter is all about the sugary sweet pastel colors—they’re so optimistic and cheerful! Instead of following tradition and decorating with plastic eggs and bunnies, we’ve got an alternative that’s far more stylish but just as festive: spring flowers. Whether you want to decorate indoors or outdoors, we have plenty of cool-season flowers that look absolutely perfect for the Easter season.

Decorating with Spring Flowers: An Easter Tradition

Nothing gets us excited for spring quite like colorful flowers. These Easter favorites will brighten your home with candy-colored blooms that look good enough to eat! Don’t actually eat them, though—there are plenty enough Peeps and Cadbury Eggs to go around. 

For Indoors: Potted Pink and Blue Hydrangeas

These ultra-voluminous mophead hydrangeas are like fluffy balls of cotton candy. They instantly add so much whimsy and romance to the scenery—it’s no wonder they’re so popular for wedding arrangements! Plus, you can always transfer them to the garden after Easter has passed. Hydrangeas can be grown as perennials here on Long Island so that you can enjoy their vibrant blooms year after year. 

Hydrangeas prefer morning sun and afternoon shade, so an East-facing window works best. You can also place them in a South-facing window, but if the sun is blindingly bright, a sheer curtain can help diffuse those intense sunbeams. Water your hydrangeas regularly—they don’t tolerate drought and prefer consistently moist soil. However, you don’t want the soil to be sopping wet, or else it may start to rot, so try not to overdo it with the water. 

Fun fact: pink and blue hydrangeas are the exact same plant; they just change colors depending on the pH of the soil! If your soil has an acidic pH, the flowers will be blue, and if it’s alkaline, the flowers turn pink! If you notice your flowers changing color and want them to remain their original color, you can purchase soil amendments to raise or lower the pH.

For Outdoors: Pretty Pansies and Violas

How could you not love these adorable Easter blooms? Available in a whole paintbox of rainbow colors, these cool-season flowers are easy to grow and make a bright, bold statement in the garden. They thrive in mild temperatures and don’t like intense sunlight, so try to plant them somewhere North- or East-facing to ensure those blooms last as long as possible. 

Pansies and Violas look quite similar, but there is one key difference. Pansies have bigger flower heads, while Violas have smaller flowers but bloom more abundantly. Both look fabulous in mixed container arrangements or as bedding plants.

The best part? These beauties are edible! That’s right—you can pop off the flower heads and enjoy them in all sorts of tasty Easter treats. Try some of these cute ideas for Easter celebration snacks:

• Strawberry kiwi Easter mimosas with flowers for garnish 
• Frosted Easter cupcakes topped with flowers 
• Easter sugar cookies with flowers pressed into the tops
• Spring mix salad served with a sprinkling of flowers 

Indoors or Outdoors: Spring Flowering Bulbs in Containers

Pretty spring-flowering bulbs are an Easter essential! While you’d have to transplant these bad gals in fall to enjoy their blooms in the garden, you can purchase potted spring bulbs that are ready to burst open with fabulous spring colors. 

Once their blooms have faded and the foliage begins to die off, you can remove them from the pot, clean off the bulbs and store them in a cool, dry place until fall. Then, you can plant them to enjoy next spring!

Some of our favorite Easter bulbs include:

• Daffodils/Narcissus
• Irises
• Tulips
• Hyacinths
• Grape Hyacinths (Muscari)

Decorate with gorgeous spring flowers as your newest Easter tradition in 2022. They’re beautiful, fragrant, and a lot kinder to the environment than plastic decorations and disposables. From all of us at Dees’ Nursery, have a Happy Easter and a fun-filled spring season!