“May is a blue and gold and green, not a trace of cloud is seen;
Yet I find along the way snowflakes falling all the day.
Dainty snowflakes fragrant white, and there’s not a cloud in sight,
Snow you cannot truly be – you’re just petals from the tree.”
Annette Wynne “May Snow”
May was very dry and colder than usual. I’ve noticed that, in general, plants are flowering a few weeks later than normal.
I have various tree and herbaceous peonies. Tree peonies are more like small shrubs which retain a permanent framework all your round. I think this yellow-flowered variety is Paeonia lutea var ludlowii. Herbaceous peonies, like Paeonia Claire De Lune which has pale yellow, single flowers with a huge centre of deep yellow stamens, die back to ground level in winter.
The yellow flowered tree peony is planted next to a wisteria and, like most years, they flower at the same time making a very special show. Dwarf azaleas are in flower around the same time. This year I have a couple of Encore Azaleas in pots by the front door. Unlike other azaleas, Encore Azaleas flowers twice a year in spring and late summer.
I have various types of iris throughout the garden. In early spring I have lots of iris reticulata, and the in May the other types of iris come into flower. Bearded iris, iris germanica, loves the hot borders, Each bloom is made up a large outer and inner petals, knowns as ruffs and falls respectively. The name bearded comes from the hairs growing along the centre of the falls, the inner petals. The trick to growing bearded iris is the ensure the rhizome sits above soil level and gets sun for the most of the day – I grow most of mine at the front of the borders to ensure they get as much sun as possible.
I grow Iris hollandica, also known as Dutch iris, throughout the borders. Varieties of this bulb include the yellow and white flowered Apollo, Discovery which is a rich blue with a yellow flash, Mystic Beauty with a mid blue and a golden yellow tongue. I also have iris pseudacorus, the yellow water iris in the pond, where it requires strong management to ensure that it doesn’t take over the whole pond.
I have three magnolias in my garden, one large shrub in front of my bedroom window which was in the garden before I moved in. This plant really suffered in the heat last year but thankfully it has survived but there haven’t been as many flowers on it this spring. One in my front garden which flowered for the first time this year and was smothered by the lighter pink flowers, and one by the side of the house, which hasn’t flowered as yet.
Before 2018 I only had tree lupins, but following my holiday to New Zealand and seeing the lupins by Lake Tekapo, I decided to try herbaceous lupins and they have really thrived. I also have yellow-flowered Thermopsis villosa, also known as the Carolina lupine or false lupin, which grows very happily in the hot border, so much so that it has started to spread onto the lawn.
Other plants that grow extremely well in my garden are papaver, the oriental poppies, and alluims. Like the lupins, their flowers are very popular with pollinators.
As well as lots of flowers, May is also a time for foliage. I have various varieties of Physocarpus opulifolius including Diabolo, Lady in Red and Dart’s Gold. I cut them down to a low framework each February which encourages the colourful new growth. Viburnum Sargentii Onondaga has lace cap flower heads with deep red buds surrounded by white sterile florets. Rodgersia Bronze Peacock has wonderful dark bronze foliage and Rodgersia aesculifolia has large leaves and looks great by the pond. I also have various heucheras around the garden. Spiraea japonica Goldflame is a very colourful shrub and the leaves of Epimedium provide great gound cover. I find the leaves of the Liriodendron tulipifera, the tulip tree, a fascinating shape. Unfortunately mine isn’t old enough yet to produce flowers, the tree needs to be around 20 years old before this happens. This Pinus, which I think is Pinus parviflora, has lovely new red growth alongside the pine cones. I am aiming to train this by cloud pruning when it grows a bit taller.
I have a number of plants with blue / purple flowers which flower in May. Buglossoides purpurocaerulea, creeping gromwell, grows well in my woodland border where it spreads in a similar way to strawberries. Lithodora (from Greek meaning stone gift referring to the plant’s preferred rocky habitats), Ceanothus (California lilac) and Centaurea montana (the mountain cornflower).
In mid May a female Mallard decided to bring her young to visit my pond. She had been coming to the pond on a number of evenings before to have a quick splash before disappearing back into the undergrowth, but I never imagined that she might actually have a nest somewhere in my garden. They spent a lovely day on the pond before she took them away back into the undergrowth – I haven’t seen them since. They aren’t the only ones who enjoy the pond – the starlings like to have group bathing. May is also the time for the young, very nosy, starlings to start annoying the woodpeckers.
They haven’t been my new visitors this month. I have opened up my garden to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme and this month I had my first gardening group visit.