March is full spring in lowland Georgia — dogwoods and azaleas open across Atlanta, the first migrant birds pour back, swallow-tailed kites return to the southern swamps, and the spring ephemerals carpet the mountain coves. The season climbs the state day by day, from coast to summit.
Week by week in March
February 26 – March 4
- The spectacular Swallow-tailed Kite returns to the southern swamps along the Altamaha and Okefenokee — one of Georgia's signature spring arrivals.
- Spring beauty, hepatica, and the first trillium open in the Piedmont and lower-mountain coves as the ephemerals begin.
- Leo the Lion climbs the eastern sky with bright Regulus, a herald of the changing season as Orion sinks toward the west.
March 5–11
- Ruby-throated Hummingbirds reach the coast, Purple Martins fill their colonies, and the first Northern Parulas and Louisiana Waterthrushes return to the woods.
- Dogwoods, redbuds, and the first azaleas open across the lower Piedmont, and Savannah's squares lead the coastal bloom.
- Plant asparagus crowns, strawberries, blueberries, and figs, and keep sowing peas, lettuce, and carrots in the warming soil.
March 12–18
- Atlanta's famous azaleas, dogwoods, and wisteria build toward peak, and atamasco lilies whiten wet Coastal Plain meadows.
- Zebra swallowtails fly over the pawpaw thickets and falcate orangetips appear in moist bottomlands as the spring broods emerge.
- The longleaf, slash, and loblolly pines shed clouds of yellow pollen across the Coastal Plain as they push their candles.
March 19–25
- Spring migration builds as Black-and-white Warblers, Blue-headed Vireos, and the first Chimney Swifts and White-eyed Vireos return to the lowlands.
- Pitcher plants raise their nodding flowers over the Coastal Plain bogs, and the spring equinox passes near March 20.
- Begin setting out tomatoes and peppers on the coast as the frost date passes, while the mountains keep to cool-season crops.
March 26 – April 1
- The mountain coves reach their ephemeral stride — trillium, foamflower, and dwarf crested iris carpet the rich slopes around the Cohuttas.
- The warbler wave begins to pour through Kennesaw Mountain near Atlanta, the legendary migrant trap packing the trees on a good morning.
- The first Georgia strawberries ripen in the south, and tender spring greens and bunched radishes fill the reopening markets.
Birds This Month
March opens the floodgates of spring migration in Georgia. The first wave of neotropical migrants returns — Louisiana Waterthrush, Northern Parula, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher arrive in the woods, while Ruby-throated Hummingbirds reach the coast and Coastal Plain by mid-month and Purple Martins fill their colonies statewide. In the southern swamps and along the rivers, the spectacular Swallow-tailed Kite returns to breed, wheeling over the Altamaha and Okefenokee bottomlands — one of Georgia's signature spring arrivals.
Wintering birds begin to thin as ducks and sparrows depart, but the show is still rich: Wood Storks gather at coastal rookeries, herons and egrets move into the marshes, and Bald Eagles tend growing young. Resident songbirds are in full song — the Brown Thrasher (state bird), Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, and Eastern Towhee ring from every thicket. In the longleaf savannas the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman's Sparrow sing, and the first Chimney Swifts, Eastern Kingbirds, and White-eyed Vireos trickle back to the lowlands by month's end.
What's Blooming
March is a glorious wildflower month in Georgia, rising from full lowland spring to the first mountain ephemerals. In the Piedmont and mountain coves the spring ephemerals peak in the rich woods — bloodroot, trout lily, spring beauty, hepatica, rue anemone, trillium, the first Virginia bluebells, and drifts of violets open before the canopy closes. Across the lower Piedmont and Coastal Plain, Carolina yellow jessamine climbs in golden ropes and the wild azaleas begin.
The famous garden and woodland show fills towns statewide: the state flower Cherokee rose nears bloom on its thorny climbers, and dogwoods, redbuds, wisteria, flowering cherries, and the celebrated azaleas open across Atlanta, Augusta, and the Piedmont — Savannah's squares and the gardens of the coast lead the bloom. In the Coastal Plain flatwoods the pitcher plants raise their nodding flowers over the bogs, atamasco (rain) lilies whiten wet meadows, and bird's-foot violet and lupine color the sandy longleaf country. The roadsides brighten with henbit, dandelion, spring vetch, and the first coreopsis and phlox.
Garden This Month
March is a busy planting month across most of Georgia, the warm-season garden beginning in the south while the cool-season crops fill the Piedmont. In the Coastal Plain and lower Piedmont, plant Irish potatoes early, keep sowing peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, radishes, and turnips, set out cabbage, broccoli, collards, and onions, and begin the warm-season crops by month's end as the frost date passes — set out tomatoes and peppers and direct-sow beans, squash, and cucumbers in warm soil along the coast.
This is also prime time to plant asparagus crowns, strawberry plants, blueberries, figs, and grapes, and to set out warm-season annuals and divide crowded perennials as the soil warms. Mulch beds, side-dress overwintered crops, and watch for the first aphids and cabbage worms. In the north Georgia mountains, the cool-season window opens at last — sow hardy greens and roots and set out brassica transplants — but hold every warm-season crop until the May frost-free date. Statewide, keep frost protection ready, as a late freeze can still strike the Piedmont and mountains well into the month.
Zone 6b (north Georgia mountains): the cool-season window finally opens. Sow peas, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and beets and set out cabbage, broccoli, and onion plants once the soil dries, but hold all tomatoes and peppers — the mountain frost-free date is well into April or May.
Zone 7b (Piedmont & metro Atlanta): finish cool-season sowings, harden off tomato and pepper transplants for an April planting, and plant Irish potatoes early in the month. Watch for late frosts — keep row cover handy for tender starts.
Zone 8b (Coastal Plain & coast): the frost-free date arrives. Begin setting out tomatoes, peppers, and squash late in the month, direct-sow beans and cucumbers, and keep harvesting the cool-season greens, peas, and radishes.
What's at the Farmers Market
March markets in Georgia brighten with the first spring vegetables as the season's many farmers markets reopen for the year. The cool-season harvest is in full swing on the Coastal Plain and lower Piedmont: tender lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, mustard, and collards, bunched radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, and green onions, the first English peas and sugar snaps, and fresh-dug new potatoes begin to appear. Cool-weather broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower fill the stands.
The earliest strawberries can ripen in the south by late March, a much-anticipated first fruit, and bunches of fresh herbs, spring onions, and cut flowers return. Look for microgreens, shiitake and oyster mushrooms, and crowds of vegetable and herb transplants for home gardeners. Choose greens with crisp leaves and store them cold and humid, pick radishes and carrots with fresh green tops, and eat strawberries within a day or two since they won't sweeten after picking. The value-added Georgia staples — local honey, sorghum, grits, and cornmeal — round out the tables as the market year gathers momentum.
Night Sky This Month
March's milder evenings make for comfortable stargazing as the sky pivots from winter to spring. Georgia's dark-sky destinations are at their seasonal best — the high north Georgia ridgelines around Brasstown Bald and Black Rock Mountain State Park, the deep-swamp darkness of Stephen C. Foster State Park in the Okefenokee (one of the South's truly dark sites), and the unlit beaches of Cumberland Island — all far from the metro Atlanta glow. The Atlanta Astronomy Club and the state parks hold spring star parties worth catching.
The transition is on view: the brilliant winter figures — Orion, Sirius, Taurus, and the Pleiades — sink toward the western horizon in the early evening, while the spring stars take over the east. Leo the Lion climbs high in the south with bright Regulus, the Big Dipper swings up overhead, and its handle begins the great arc toward orange Arcturus, rising in the east. The spring equinox falls near March 20. There is no major meteor shower this month. The printable Georgia night-sky guide lists this year's planet positions and the best regional dark-sky sites.
Butterflies & Pollinators
March brings Georgia's butterfly season into full swing as the spring broods emerge across the state. The big swallowtails take wing in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain — eastern tiger swallowtails (the state butterfly), zebra swallowtails over the pawpaw, and spicebush, black, and the coastal palamedes swallowtails patrol woodland edges and gardens. The spring-woods specialties peak: falcate orangetips in moist bottomlands, spring azures, Henry's and brown elfins, and juvenal's and Horace's duskywings in the oak woods.
The overwintered mourning cloaks, commas, question marks, and red admirals are joined by fresh American and painted ladies, pearl crescents, and cloudless sulphurs, and the northbound monarch remigration reaches the state, the first females laying eggs on the new milkweed. Watch the blooming dogwood, redbud, wild plum, azalea, blueberry, and the first milkweed for nectaring butterflies on warm afternoons, and check pawpaw, spicebush, and passionflower for the season's first eggs. The pollinator garden is filling fast across the lowlands.
What to plant for them is in the Georgia native plants guide
Trees This Month
March brings Georgia's forests into bloom and fresh leaf, the green wave climbing fast from the Coastal Plain into the mountains. The flowering understory is the glory of the month: flowering dogwood opens its white four-bracted blooms across the Piedmont and Atlanta's famous spring, joined by magenta eastern redbud, white serviceberry, the early red buckeye, and the wild azaleas coloring the woods. Wild plum, cherry, and crabapple whiten the fence rows.
The canopy fills with the soft new leaves and dangling catkins of the oaks, hickories, sweetgum, maples, and elms, and the tulip tree and black cherry leaf out in the bottoms. Along the coast, the evergreen live oak (the state tree) drops its old leaves and flushes bright new growth, hazing the islands gold with pollen. In the Coastal Plain the longleaf, slash, and loblolly pines push their candles and shed clouds of yellow pollen, and the bald cypress begins its feathery flush across the Okefenokee and the blackwater rivers. In the cool north Georgia coves the hardwoods are just stirring — spring still has the last few thousand feet to climb.
Weather & Daylight
Across Georgia, a typical March day averages a high near 69°F and a low near 44°F, with about 4.6 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Afternoons warm nicely toward 69 but nights still dip to 44, and the wettest stretch of the year soaks the ground.
| Average high | 69°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 44°F |
| Precipitation | 4.6 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:46 ET |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 19:42 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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One short note when Georgia's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
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The complete Georgia birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: March in Idaho · March in Illinois · March in Indiana