April is Georgia's peak migration and wildflower month — the warbler wave pours through Kennesaw Mountain near Atlanta, the mountain coves reach their ephemeral glory, flame azaleas and Cherokee roses bloom, and the first Vidalia onions and strawberries reach market. Spring finally crests the high Blue Ridge.
Week by week in April
April 2–8
- Kennesaw Mountain's warbler wave swells — Hooded, Prairie, Worm-eating, and Kentucky Warblers, tanagers, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks pour north.
- The state flower Cherokee rose opens its big white blooms on thorny fence-row climbers, and flowering dogwood peaks white through the woods.
- Transplant tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in the Piedmont as the frost date passes, and direct-sow beans, squash, and cucumbers.
April 9–15
- The dazzling Painted Bunting returns to breed in the live-oak hammocks of Jekyll, St. Simons, and Cumberland Islands on the coast.
- The native azaleas open in the woods and Atlanta's azalea gardens peak, with wild blue lupine and bird's-foot violet in the sandy longleaf country.
- Eastern tiger swallowtails and the first pearl crescents and red-spotted purples join the spring flight as the northbound monarchs move through.
April 16–22
- Vidalia sweet onions begin their famous short season from the sandy soils around Vidalia, and Georgia strawberries flood the stands.
- The Lyrid meteor shower peaks around April 22, a modest but reliable shower radiating from near bright Vega, best after midnight from a dark site.
- The tulip tree lifts its orange-and-green flowers high in the canopy as the oaks, hickories, and sweetgums fill out fresh leaves.
April 23–29
- Spring climbs to the high mountains as Black-throated Blue, Canada, and Blackburnian Warblers and Veery settle the slopes around Brasstown Bald.
- Flame azalea begins to blaze orange in the north Georgia high country, spectacular against the spring green.
- Plant sweet potato slips in the warm Coastal Plain, the state's signature root, and harvest asparagus and the first spring greens daily.
Birds This Month
April is the height of spring migration in Georgia, and the warbler wave is the show. Returning breeders and passage migrants pour through the woods — Hooded, Black-throated Green, Northern Parula, Yellow-throated, Prairie, Worm-eating, Kentucky, Prothonotary, and Swainson's Warblers arrive, along with Wood Thrush, Scarlet and Summer Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Great Crested Flycatcher, and the full force of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. The legendary migrant trap of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield near Atlanta packs the trees with songbirds on a good morning.
On the coast, the dazzling Painted Bunting returns to breed at Jekyll, St. Simons, and Cumberland Islands, and breeding Brown Pelicans, terns, Black Skimmers, Wilson's Plovers, and American Oystercatchers settle the barrier-island beaches while migrant shorebirds stage on the mudflats. The Swallow-tailed Kites wheel over the southern swamps, Wood Storks nest in coastal rookeries, and the longleaf Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and Bachman's Sparrows sing from the savanna. Chimney Swifts, Eastern Kingbirds, Orchard Orioles, and Yellow-billed Cuckoos stream in across the state.
What's Blooming
April is the richest wildflower month in Georgia. The north Georgia mountain coves reach their ephemeral peak — sweeping carpets of large-flowered and painted trillium, foamflower, wild geranium, bloodroot, trout lily, dwarf crested iris, mayapple, jack-in-the-pulpit, Solomon's seal, and wild blue phlox light the rich slopes around Brasstown Bald and the Cohuttas. The state flower, Cherokee rose, opens its big white blooms on thorny climbers across the Piedmont and Coastal Plain fence rows, and flowering dogwood peaks white through the woods.
The famous native azaleas — pinxter-flower, the early flame and Florida azaleas — open in the woods, and the celebrated azalea gardens of Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah peak. In the Piedmont and Coastal Plain, wild blue lupine, atamasco lily, bird's-foot violet, lousewort, coreopsis, and the longleaf-savanna specialties bloom, and the pitcher plant bogs raise their flowers. The roadsides blaze with the South's signature spring drifts of crimson clover, vetch, toadflax, and the first blue-eyed grass and spiderwort. Gardens fill with irises, wisteria, creeping phlox, and peak azaleas.
Garden This Month
In Georgia, April is the hinge of the vegetable year, and the planting calendar steps uphill week by week from the coast to the Cohuttas. Down on the Coastal Plain around Tifton and Valdosta the warm-season beds are already filling — slip in Beauregard sweet potato draws, push okra, Southern field peas, and Silver Queen corn into soil that has finally held above 65°F, and begin cutting Buttercrunch lettuce, spinach, bunched green onions, the last spring radishes, and the first dooryard strawberries. Through the metro-Atlanta Piedmont the frost date falls mid-month, so harden off and set out 'Cherokee Purple', 'Better Boy', and 'Celebrity' tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil, then direct-sow bush beans, summer squash, cucumbers, and small-icebox melons into the red clay.
Keep a fresh row of lettuce, carrots, and beets coming behind each cutting, side-dress the brassicas, and scout early for the cross-striped cabbageworm, harlequin bug, and the squash vine borer moths that show up fast in the Georgia warmth. Mulch the new transplants with pine straw against the coming dry spell, and stake the indeterminate tomatoes before they sprawl in the humidity. In the north Georgia highlands around Blairsville and Rabun County, hold every tender crop until the mid-May frost-free date and keep the cool-season rows going; a late freeze still bites the mountain coves. Across the state, this is also the month to plant fig and muscadine starts and divide crowded daylilies as the soil warms.
Zone 6b (Blue Ridge highlands — Blairsville, Hiawassee, Rabun County): the cool-season garden runs late here while the Cohutta and Brasstown frost-free date holds off until mid-May. Sow another round of sugar snap peas, Buttercrunch lettuce, Detroit beets, and Danvers carrots, set out cabbage and broccoli starts, and tuck in Yukon Gold and Kennebec seed potatoes. Keep tomatoes and peppers under lights on the porch — a hard frost can still settle in the mountain coves overnight.
Zone 7a (foothills & upper Piedmont — Dahlonega, Jasper, Ellijay apple country): the last-frost window closes late in the month. Finish sowing roots and greens, harden off 'Cherokee Purple' and 'Better Boy' tomatoes against the wall for a few warm days, and risk the first warm-season transplants only in the final week once the soil settles past 60°F and the night sky stays clear.
Zone 7b (central Piedmont & metro Atlanta — Decatur, Marietta, the Gwinnett red clay): the warm-season garden opens after the mid-April frost date. Set out tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, direct-sow bush beans, yellow squash, and cucumbers into the warming clay, and keep cutting the last spring lettuce and snap peas before the heat turns them bitter.
What's at the Farmers Market
April markets in Georgia come alive with the first real spring abundance, and two signature crops headline. Vidalia sweet onions, the famous protected-origin onion grown only around Vidalia and Toombs County, begin their short, eagerly awaited season — sweet, mild, and juicy. The first Georgia strawberries ripen across the Coastal Plain and Piedmont fields, fragrant and ripe at picking, a beloved you-pick tradition. The spring vegetables pour in: asparagus, lettuce, spinach, arugula, radishes, green onions, new potatoes, and the first English peas, broccoli, cabbage, and collards.
Tender herbs, green garlic, spring turnips, and bunches of cooking greens fill the stands, and the first cut flowers brighten the market. Look for shiitake and oyster mushrooms, microgreens, and crowds of vegetable and flower transplants for home gardens. Choose Vidalia onions firm and dry and store them cool, dry, and separated — their high sugar makes them spoil fast in a bag. Pick strawberries fully red and fragrant and eat within a day or two, snap asparagus while the tips are tight, and refrigerate leafy greens. The spring market season has truly begun.
Night Sky This Month
April's mild, comfortable evenings make for fine stargazing as the spring sky takes over, and Georgia's dark-sky sites shine. The north Georgia mountains around Brasstown Bald, Black Rock Mountain State Park, and the Chattahoochee National Forest give the state's best transparency, while the deep-swamp darkness of Stephen C. Foster State Park in the Okefenokee and the unlit beaches of Cumberland Island open wide horizons far from the metro glow. Spring star parties at the parks and through the Atlanta Astronomy Club are worth catching.
Leo the Lion rides high in the south with bright Regulus, the Big Dipper swings overhead, and its handle arcs to brilliant orange Arcturus in Boötes rising in the east, then on to blue-white Spica in Virgo — the classic spring star-hop. The galaxy-rich Realm of the Galaxies in Virgo and Coma Berenices stands high for telescope users under dark skies. The Lyrid meteor shower peaks around April 22, a modest but reliable shower radiating from near bright Vega, best after midnight from a dark site. The printable Georgia night-sky guide lists this year's exact Lyrid peak, planet positions, and the best dark-sky sites for spring.
Butterflies & Pollinators
April is a major month for Georgia butterflies as the spring broods emerge in force across all three regions. The big swallowtails are everywhere — eastern tiger swallowtails (the state butterfly), zebra swallowtails over the pawpaw thickets, and spicebush, black, pipevine, and the coastal palamedes swallowtails patrol gardens and wood edges. The spring-woods specialties peak: falcate orangetips, spring azures, the elfins, juvenal's and Horace's duskywings, and the first pearl crescents, American ladies, and red-spotted purples.
The northbound monarch remigration moves through, and the season's first home-grown caterpillars hatch on the new milkweed. Cloudless sulphurs, sleepy oranges, gulf fritillaries, and common buckeyes brighten gardens, and the first silver-spotted skippers and fiery skippers appear. Watch the blooming dogwood, redbud, azalea, blueberry, wild plum, and the first milkweed and Cherokee rose for nectaring butterflies on warm afternoons, and check pawpaw, spicebush, passionflower, and milkweed for the season's eggs and caterpillars. The pollinator garden is filling fast.
What to plant for them is in the Georgia native plants guide
Trees This Month
April brings Georgia's forests into full, fresh leaf, the green wave finally cresting the high north Georgia mountains. The flowering understory is at its glory: flowering dogwood peaks white across the Piedmont and Atlanta's celebrated spring, joined by the native redbud, serviceberry, fringetree, silverbell, red buckeye, and the wild azaleas of the rich woods. The canopy fills with the soft new leaves and dangling flowers of the oaks, hickories, sweetgum, ash, and black walnut.
The tulip tree begins lifting its orange-and-green flowers high in the canopy, and the black cherry, black locust, and buckeye follow. Along the coast, the evergreen live oak (the state tree) completes its leaf exchange and stands in fresh green, draped in Spanish moss, while the southern magnolia sets its first buds. In the Coastal Plain the longleaf pine finishes its candles and the bottomland bald cypress flushes feathery green across the Okefenokee. In the high Blue Ridge the cove hardwoods leaf out at last and the flame azalea and serviceberry begin coloring the upper slopes — spring climbing the final thousand feet toward Brasstown Bald.
Weather & Daylight
Across Georgia, a typical April day averages a high near 76°F and a low near 51°F, with about 3.8 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Comfortable 76-degree afternoons and cool 51-degree evenings make for pleasant outdoor days as spring rain starts to taper.
| Average high | 76°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 51°F |
| Precipitation | 3.8 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:05 ET |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 20:04 ET |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (ET).
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Same month elsewhere: April in Idaho · April in Illinois · April in Indiana