Think about how your attention is drawn to beautiful landscaping when you're looking at houses, be it when driving around or searching online. There's just something about eye-popping, dazzling colors or well-designed, pleasing landscape schemes. If you're thinking of selling your home this spring, you might get busy with some landscaping projects so your plantings will be ready to shine for potential buyers of Jackson homes for sale and North Conway homes for sale.

Don't know where to start? Our real estate agents can point you in the right direction. Here are some tips that should help. 

1. Make a Splash With Annuals
   The beauty of annuals is that they provide instant color and are easily available in spring—even in our chilly region. Some of the best to tolerate frosts are Flowering Kale and Pansies or Violas (hardy to 32 degrees). Pansies make a statement in vibrant red, bright yellow or orange, creamy white, or deep purple and blue, while Flowering Kale help set off borders with their vivid blues and subdued greens. Other favorites for flowerbeds or borders are Annual Phlox, Geraniums, Marigolds, Lobelia (will stand some cold, but not frost), and Snapdragons.
   
   
2. Persistent Perennials—a Good Selling Point 
   While it's best to plant perennials in the fall so they can develop their root systems over winter, you can plant them in the spring. Perennials will bloom year after year. Some of the ones that do well in our region are bulbs such as Daffodils or Crocuses; possibly Tulips (they can be finicky in our region); little Ephemerals such as Claytonia virginica (they come and go rather quickly), Jack-in-the-Pulpit, or Rue Anemone; and some great later-season bloomers such as orange-yellow Stella d'Oro Day Lilies, canary yellow Coreopsis Moonbeam, and Rudbeckia Goldsturm (also known as Black-Eyed Susan).
   
   
3. Plant a Tree or Two
   If your landscape is bare of trees, add a specimen or two to fill out the design. Make it a smaller, slow-growing tree where the shade won't block the sun, although tall Maples are always a good choice. They are strong, stand up to the cold, and provide color through three seasons. The Japanese Lilac Tree is a lovely accent for small spaces, while Crabapples are hardy and put on a dazzling show in the spring.
   
   
4. Try Some Flowering Native Shrubs
   Native plants are always best, and what could be better than beautifully flowering natives? Clethra alnifolia or Summersweet, with bottlebrush-type flowers and a lovely fragrance, is a member of the holly family and is 3 to 4 feet tall with a spread of 6–8 feet; Fothergilla Major or Mountain Witch Alder, with leathery leaves and bottlebrush-like white blooms, with yellow corolla lobes that turn pinkish as they age; and Ajuga Reptans or Cape Bugle, a shrub that grows in the wild, with small blue flowers and red centers, about 2-3 feet tall, and needs a dry, rocky setting.
   
   
5. Roses Complete Your Landscaping
   What's a proper landscaping scheme without some lovely roses cultivated just for New England's challenging climate? Yes, there really is such a rose—or two. Roses can be tricky to grow, but it can be done if planted properly and chosen specifically for our tough winters and springs. Suggestions include the English Roses Benjamin Britten, Charlotte, Crown Princess Margareta, and Gertrude Jekyll. There's also the elegant climber and old-fashioned rose, Zephirine Drouhin, and the velvety red Homerun shrub rose.

Can't wait to get started? Contact us today with any questions.