How does your mood change when the evenings get lighter?Follow-up: Who at home says so before you do?
If the first warm day were a holiday, how should people mark it?Follow-up: What would be the holiday's one rule?
What did the first warm day mean when you were at school?Follow-up: What did your teacher do about it?
What do you eat or drink outdoors on the first warm evening?Follow-up: Who is sitting across from you?
What do you say to the first person you meet on the first warm day?Follow-up: What do they say in return?
What does your street look like on the first warm Saturday?Follow-up: Which neighbor is out first?
What smell means spring to you more than any other?Follow-up: Where were you when you first knew that smell?
What sound tells you the windows are open again?Follow-up: Which house is that sound coming from?
What would you cancel to spend the first warm afternoon outside?Follow-up: What would you tell the people you canceled on?
Where are you at dusk on the first light evening of the year?Follow-up: Where were you at that hour as a child?
Where do you go on the first day that feels like spring?Follow-up: Who do you take along?
Which piece of winter clothing do you put away first, and how does it feel?Follow-up: Where does it spend the summer?
Show all 72 questions (60 more)
Gardens and growing 12
What do you remember about a garden you knew as a child?Follow-up: Which corner of that garden was yours?
What do you think a garden teaches a person?Follow-up: Who do you know who needs that lesson?
What is the first thing to flower where you live?Follow-up: Where is the best place to see it in bloom?
What is the hardest plant you have ever tried to keep going?Follow-up: What did it need that you missed?
What would grow in a garden designed entirely by you at age seven?Follow-up: What would the grown-up you add to it?
What would you plant along a fence for the whole street to pick from?Follow-up: Which neighbor would pick first?
Which flowers would you bring indoors first, and where would they stand?Follow-up: Who would you pick a bunch for?
Which job in the garden do you like, and which do you leave to someone else?Follow-up: Who gets the job you leave?
Which plant has lived with you the longest?Follow-up: What has that plant survived?
Which tree would you plant today for someone to sit under in fifty years?Follow-up: Where would you put that tree?
Which vegetable tastes different when you pick it yourself?Follow-up: How do you eat the first one of the year?
Who was the gardener in your family, and what did they grow?Follow-up: What did the gardener let you help with?
Spring cleaning 12
How did spring cleaning go in the house you grew up in?Follow-up: What was your part in the cleaning?
What besides a house deserves a spring clean?Follow-up: Where would you begin on that?
What can you not bring yourself to throw away, and why?Follow-up: Where does that thing live in your home?
What do you find behind the furniture once a year?Follow-up: Whose is it, usually?
What do you own too many of?Follow-up: How did you end up with so many?
What does a clear table or an empty shelf do for your head?Follow-up: How long can you keep it clear?
What turns up every spring that you had forgotten you owned?Follow-up: Do you keep it for another year?
What would a stranger learn about you from your junk drawer?Follow-up: What would you hide from the stranger first?
What would you put in a box for someone who needs it more than you?Follow-up: Who do you have in mind for the box?
Which cleaning job feels best the moment it is done?Follow-up: How long does that good feeling last?
Which thing did you give away and later wish you had kept?Follow-up: What would you do with it if it came back?
Who in your home throws things out, and who rescues them?Follow-up: Which of the two is right more often?
Fresh starts 12
If spring gave you one clean page, what would you write at the top?Follow-up: Who would you show the page to?
What are you looking forward to between now and summer?Follow-up: What needs doing before then?
What began for you in a spring: a job, a friendship, a home?Follow-up: Did you know then how long it would last?
What did a new season of sport, music or clubs mean to you as a child?Follow-up: Which one did you sign up for?
What did winter teach you this year that you want to keep?Follow-up: How will you keep it going in the sun?
What did you promise yourself in January that spring is now asking about?Follow-up: What is the smallest first step you could take?
What feels new to you this year?Follow-up: Who brought that new thing into your life?
What have you outgrown since last spring?Follow-up: When did you notice you had outgrown it?
What would you tell someone who is starting something new this week?Follow-up: Who once told you something like that?
What would you try if you knew nobody would ask how it went?Follow-up: What stops you from trying it anyway?
When did you last start over at something, and how did it go?Follow-up: What did you keep from before the restart?
Who do you want to see more of once the weather turns?Follow-up: What would you do together first?
Rain, mud and birdsong 12
What do you keep by the door from March to May, just in case?Follow-up: How often do you end up needing it?
What do you notice in spring that you walk straight past in summer?Follow-up: Who taught you to look for it?
What does the air feel like after spring rain where you live?Follow-up: What do you do once the sky clears?
What game moves outside as soon as the ground is dry?Follow-up: Who brings the ball?
What have you watched hatch, sprout or build a nest?Follow-up: How long did you keep watching?
What is good about spring rain that is not true of any other rain?Follow-up: Where is the best place to watch the rain from?
What is the best thing you have seen from a window on a spring morning?Follow-up: What were you supposed to be doing instead?
What wakes you on a spring morning that was silent all winter?Follow-up: How do you feel about being woken by it?
What was the best puddle, stream or patch of mud of your childhood?Follow-up: What state did you come home in?
Where would you fly a kite, and who would hold the string?Follow-up: What happens when the wind drops?
Which walk near you is at its best in spring?Follow-up: What should a visitor look for on that walk?
Which week of spring would you stretch into a month, and why that week?Follow-up: How would you spend the spare weeks?
Spring memories 12
What did spring look like where you grew up?Follow-up: What do you miss about spring there?
What did you collect, catch or bring home in spring as a child?Follow-up: What did the grown-ups say when they saw it?
What did you do outside in spring until it got dark?Follow-up: Who called you in for the night?
What did your family do on the first fine weekend of the year?Follow-up: Who decided where you went?
What school event came round every spring, and what was your part in it?Follow-up: Who came to watch you?
What spring chore were you given as a child?Follow-up: What did you get for doing that chore?
What trip did your family take in the spring?Follow-up: What was packed into the car?
What was the end of the school year like as it came into sight?Follow-up: What were you counting the days to?
What would you like to remember about this spring a year from now?Follow-up: How will you hold on to that memory?
Which spring day from your school years can you still picture?Follow-up: What were you wearing that day?
Who did you see every spring that you never saw in winter?Follow-up: What did they come round for?
Who do you think of when the first flowers come out?Follow-up: What would they say about this year's flowers?
How this list was compiled: Our own list, written for this page in October 2026; nothing was copied from another list. Every card is an open question about the season itself, and each has its own follow-up. The six topics: the first warm day, gardens and growing, spring cleaning, fresh starts, rain, mud and birdsong, and spring memories. Easter, St Patrick's Day and Mother's Day are left to their own pages. No card states a fact, so no fact needed a source. Every line was read against the site's rules for a deck: nothing sexual or romantic, no alcohol, no betting, no politics or religion, nothing about anyone's body or health, no real people, no brand, and no card that asks a player to embarrass someone by name. Levels are our own judgment, not a measurement: easy is answered in a few words, medium takes a short story, hard needs a moment to think. On 2026-10-16 every question and follow-up was compared with every other list on this site, and lines that repeated one elsewhere were rewritten. Licence: own work
How it works
These spring conversation starters follow the season from the first warm day on: gardens and growing, spring cleaning, fresh starts, rain, mud and birdsong, and spring memories. Easter and Mother's Day have pages of their own.
Read the full guide
A topic for the porch, the garden and the garage
The first warm day is for the first evening outside: What do you eat or drink outdoors on the first warm evening? Gardens and growing suits anyone with soil under their nails: Which plant has lived with you the longest? Spring cleaning lightens a chore: Who in your home throws things out, and who rescues them?
Fresh starts, for a longer talk
Fresh starts holds the questions that take a minute to answer: What have you outgrown since last spring? Ask them one to one, on a walk or in the car, and let the follow-up wait until the first answer is finished.
Ask a grandparent the Spring memories cards: What did your family do on the first fine weekend of the year? needs no warming up.
Questions and answers
What are good spring conversation starters?
Ones that start out of doors: Where do you go on the first day that feels like spring? What would you plant along a fence for the whole street to pick from?
What spring questions work with kids?
The outdoor ones: What game moves outside as soon as the ground is dry? Where would you fly a kite, and who would hold the string? Both are in Rain, mud and birdsong, the set with the most Easy cards.
How are these different from spring icebreaker questions?
The spring icebreaker deck is built for a class or a meeting, with quick picks, a multiple choice set and cards for St Patrick's Day. This one is for a table or a walk and asks for stories about gardens, clear-outs and new beginnings.