Crocus tommasinianus pops up through the grass in my yard, an early harbinger of spring. Bart Ziegler/The Wall Street Journal

Spring seems to be arriving in fits and starts in upstate New York. Days when strong sun warms the air have been mixed with icy blasts that feel like a nasty rerun of winter.

Out in my yard it looks like mid-March. The daffodils are coming up, but none have opened their buds—unlike last year, when everything bloomed early after a winter-less winter. Even the bluebirds seem delayed in looking for places to nest.

Still, there are signs the season is changing. The blood-red new growth of the bleeding hearts is pushing through the earth in my shade garden, and the other day a dozen robins were cocking their heads in the lawn.

Since the gardening season is short at my house, located in growing Zone 5b on the U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness-zone map, I do what I can to start it early. Here are some of the more unusual plants I count on to bring the first signs of life each spring.

Pulmonaria: This ancient garden plant produces tiny blooms in shades of blue or pink, often on the same plant. The spiky green leaves are decorated with silver polka dots, making both the flowers and foliage attractive.

Lungwort, one of the first spring flowers, are easy to grow. Bart Ziegler/The Wall Street Journal

The spots account for the plant's strange common name, lungwort. The leaves once were thought to resemble diseased lungs and were used as a folk medicine to treat pulmonary conditions, under the bizarre theory that things that looked like a body condition could help cure it.

Early-arriving bees gravitate to my lungworts, one of the few sources of nectar right now. Pulmonaria, which can be planted this time of year, thrive in shade and grow in zones 4 through 8. The plants—which deer don't seem to like—will spread through their tiny seeds, though you can easily pull them out by their short roots if they get invasive.

Winter hazel: While forsythia, with their arching bows of screaming yellow blooms, are overused—from office parks to highway embankments—winter hazel is an underappreciated shrub that also produces yellow flowers in early spring. The blooms are followed by unusual pleated leaves that are vastly more interesting that the bland ones of forsythia.

Winter hazel is an alternative to the overused forsythia. Getty Images

The flowers of winter hazel, aka Corylopsis spicata, hang down in clusters, like long earrings or a bunch of small grapes. While they aren't as bright yellow as forsythia flowers, they make up for that in their odd drooping configuration. (The flowers would show up better if I had heeded the advice of experts and planted the shrubs in front of evergreens.)

Writer Justin Nobel goes to the Bow Bridge in New York City's Central Park in spring to take in the sights. Video by Jennifer Weiss.

Winter hazel, which you could plant now, grow in zones 5 to 9, though at the warmer end of that scale they won't suffer from the late frost that sometimes damages the blooms in my climate.

Species crocus: Most people are familiar with crocuses, whose cup-shaped blooms in purple, white and yellow often are sold as potted plants. But the ancestors of these big-flowered modern versions, called species crocus, bloom weeks earlier. Their diminutive size and early habit mean they can be grown in the lawn—their blooms will be gone by mowing season.

In my side yard I grow a patch of species crocus called Crocus tommasinianus, which has a habit of seeding itself to create even more plants. Long before most anything else blooms I get to enjoy their violet-purple flowers poking through the grass. And unlike the modern crocuses I have planted, the Crocus tommasinianus come back each year—nothing seems to eat them, despite the voles that create tunnels in my yard.

Crocus tubers, which grow in zones 4 through 8, need to be planted in the fall to produce blooms the following spring.

Hellebores: Also known as Lenten roses or Christmas roses, these unusual plants have shiny, leatherlike leaves and flowers that look a bit prehistoric. The blooms, which emerge in early spring or even winter in climates warmer than mine, dangle from tall stalks and last for weeks.

Hellebores sometimes flower when snow is still on the ground. Bart Ziegler/The Wall Street Journal

Hellebore flowers come in an amazing variety of colors: red, pink, white, burgundy, yellow—even green and near-black. Some of the varieties have spotted blooms while others can have multiple petals like a rose.

The perennials—which are deerproof—can be planted now in zones 4 to 9 (the zones depending on the variety) and prefer light shade.

Star magnolias: These shrubs or small trees are covered with clouds of white or pale pink flowers in early spring, well before almost any other tree blooms and before their leaves appear.

Star magnolia is one of the first shrubs to bloom. Bart Ziegler/The Wall Street Journal

The thin, strap-shaped petals create a flower that looks like a starburst, bearing little resemblance to their distant cousins, the far more common "saucer" magnolias, which bloom later. The flowers also have a faint sweet smell.

Star magnolias, botanically known as Magnolia stellata, are easy to grow in zones 5 to 8 and can be planted this time of year. Deer don't seem to eat the buds. Their only downside is that late frosts in my region occasionally damage the blooms, turning them brownish.

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