May GBBD: Planting Frenzy Month

There ought to be a law--no one can graduate in the month of May.  Or have a birthday. Or get married.  Or all the countless celebrations that have kept me out of the garden this month.  The weather is finally cooperating so that I can plant some of the many, many annuals I have purchased.  But I keep getting interrupted by things like graduations, confirmations, and t-ball games.  And to top it all off, my Texas grandbabies will be here for a visit in a few days, and I really, really need to clean my house.

Not that I'm complaining.  I've enjoyed every minute of celebrating so many milestones with my family (no weddings, though--I just threw that one in there), and I am so excited about seeing my littlest grandchildren again.  No, I am just explaining why this is not a good time to visit my garden.  The spring show of tulips and daffodils is over, and in their place are weeds . . . lots of weeds.  At the rate I'm going, some of those weeds are going to be there for awhile, so instead of showing any long views of the garden today, we'll just focus on close-ups of a few pretty blooms.

   After heavy rains at the beginning of the month that turned the garden into a swamp and a cold spell with the threat of frost, the weather finally settled down so that I could get back into the garden and plant whenever there are a few uninterrupted minutes.  Typical of Illinois weather, we've gone from coat weather to tank top weather in just a few days, and now I'm griping that it's too hot to work outside.

May is usually my planting-frenzy month.  There are annuals from all my shopping sprees the past few weeks covering my back porch, my front porch, and the patio.  Only a few containers have been planted so far, but I'm not in a big hurry to change this pot when the sweet little violas and alyssum from April are still looking so good.

Other than the annuals, May is usually a transition month here, though there are a few perennials blooming.  The peony bud shown earlier opened up early in the month, and I'm happy to see that 'Scarlett O'Hara' is sporting not just one bloom, as in earlier years, but five blooms this year.

Other peonies are still budding up--I usually think of Memorial Day when I think of peonies--but the NOID white peony has a few blooms already.  The Amsonia Hubrichtii makes a nice backdrop for them, though as is usually the case in my garden, this was a happy accident in planting, not a carefully thought-out design.  Other Amsonia are also blooming, though I find it hard to capture their blue blooms on camera.

The clematis 'Nelly Moser' also bloomed early and is covered with blooms.  I have a hard time catching this one at the right time in the spring to prune it, and last year I made the mistake of pruning it too hard and too late so there were very few blooms.  This year I was late again, so I just left it alone, and I'm glad.
 

Columbines blooming under the 'Limelight' hydrangea.  I transplanted some native columbines from my mother's garden last year, but I haven't seen any sign of them blooming yet.

Speaking of natives, there are a few early flowers in the butterfly garden as well.  Phlox pilosa, also known throughout the blogging world as Gail's PPPP, has happily spread itself around this area.

And I am thrilled to finally have some Golden Alexanders Zizia aurea blooming!  I've tried planting them from seed before with no luck, and last year I planted some seedlings from the local prairie plant sale, but never saw any signs of bloom.  But patience has paid off, and these look so robust, I have a feeling I will have even more in the future.

Irises are blooming in the Arbor Bed and the Lily Bed--white, pale lavender, and yellow.  But my favorite are these purple and white bearded irises, a passalong a couple of years ago from Beth of Plant Postings.  Notice how many blooms are on each plant!

They're especially beautiful to me because I once had several of these at my old house, given to me by my mother.  When we moved, I dug up a few plants, but forgot all about these.  When I look at them, I think not only of Beth, but also of my mother.

Finally, this is NOT my garden!  It's the MG garden at the county nursing home where I volunteer every summer.   This is another activity that has taken up much of my time in the past few weeks, since I am one of the co-chairs.  We are going to be on the annual Garden Walk this year, so we have spent more time than usual weeding and dividing to get everything spruced up for the walk, as well as hours planning and plant shopping.  But it's already a beautiful garden as you can see from just this one little corner, and it really is a joy to work there.

And now back to weeding and planting in my own garden . . . and maybe taking a few swipes at the layers of dust in my house:)

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is hosted each month by Carol of May Dreams Gardens and author of Potted and Pruned.  Thanks, Carol, for helping me keep a monthly record of what is blooming in my garden!

A Chilly May Bloom Day

When I was a girl, my father used to watch the local weather forecasts religiously.  I thought he was rather obsessed with it, even though he was a farmer whose livelihood depended on the weather.  As for me,  if it was cold, I put on an extra coat or sweater; if it was raining, I wore a jacket with a hood--what else did you need to know?

Fast forward a few many years later, and I have turned into my father. For the past few weeks, especially, I have checked the forecast every morning, looking at both the hourly and the long-range forecasts:  what time will the rain start today?  Is there one sunny day this week I can work in the garden??  We've had so many rainy days lately that farmers are beginning to worry if they can get their crops planted in time, and workdays in the garden have been few and far between.  I've been especially concerned about the Nursing Home garden where I volunteer on Mondays--we've had to cancel so many workdays recently because it always seems to rain on Mondays!

On top of the rain, the temperatures dropped to an unusual low this weekend with frost warnings for last night and tonight.

A few hardier plants were left outside to fend for themselves.

I went on a major plant shopping spree last week with my friend Beckie, and all those plants were sitting on my back porch and patio waiting for dry weather to plant.  When I heard the forecast for frost, I tucked most of the plants into the barn for protection and covered up my blooming clematis.  Fortunately, there was no frost on the ground this morning, and all the blooming perennials were fine.  But we have one more night to get through before I feel safe enough to bring everything out once again.

Oh well, such is the life of a gardener.  In a couple of months, I'll probably be complaining about the heat and the lack of rain:)  Since there's nothing we can do about the weather, let's take a look at what is blooming on this chilly and windy May Bloom Day.

Some of my friends farther north are concerned about their lilacs this weekend, but that was one thing I didn't have to worry about since they have already finished blooming here.  Little 'Scent and Sensibility' above was covered in pink blooms, and the 'Bloomerang' lilac did well, too.  But my old-fashioned, huge lilac was a disappointment this year.  There were fewer blooms than last year, and they weren't as large as usual.  I've decided this large shrub needs a good pruning soon, but talking to friends, I found I wasn't the only one with this problem.  It may have been a late freeze in April that nipped and stunted this year's blooms.

'Jack Frost' Brunnera is almost finished blooming, but a few tiny blue flowers still remain.

More small blooms that I love on the Solomon's Seal.

The Lamium is also sporting its purple blooms right now.  Plants in the shade garden seem to have doubled in size in the past week, making me wish I'd gotten busy and divided more of them earlier.  The Lamium and the Sweet Woodruff in the forefront, though, are definitely getting moved or culled soon before they engulf this poor hosta!

One of my favorite spring blooms is Amsonia.  Both the Amsonia tabernaemontana above and the Amsonia hubrichtii have done extremely well here, unlike my poor Baptisia which has fallen victim to some kind of varmint, I'm afraid.

Love these pale blue blooms!

Most of the garden is still in that lull between spring and summer blooms, so 'Purple Sensation' Allium really stands out among all the green foliage.

Not much blooming in the Butterfly Garden either, except for Phlox pilosa, which has made itself quite at home here.  This was a gift some years back from Gail at Clay and Limestone, who has gifted many with this practically perfect native.

The blue columbines I planted several years ago have not returned, but this reddish lovely has been a faithful returnee for several years.

It's also iris season.  All of my irises are passalongs, so I don't know their names,

 but I enjoy them nonetheless.

I have several of these lavender lovelies.

My favorite--this is the first time it's bloomed. 

 I'm pretty sure this is one that Beth of Plant Postings gave me; I love it!

Finally, one of my favorite blooms this time of year--'Nelly Moser.'  I'm so happy to see her full of blooms this year after a disappointing show last year.  She's the only plant I took time to cover up last night just to make sure she wasn't nipped by the cold; I can't wait to take off her covers tomorrow to enjoy her blooms again.

There are more blooms, as well--Nepeta, 'May Night' Salvia, and Bleeding Heart, to name a few.  But soon there will be many more, and as you can see, I'm anxiously waiting for the peony show to begin!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is celebrated monthly on the 15th and is hosted by the ever-optimistic Carol at May Dreams Gardens.  

Mid-May Blooms for GBBD

An old friend texted me this week and asked if he could stop by: "I want to see all your flowers." I knew what he wanted to see--all the different tulips I had been posting daily on Facebook the last few weeks.  Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be home that day, and in my reply I explained that all the tulips were finished for the year.  "What? The tulips are gone?"  How do you explain to a non-gardener that spring blooms are fleeting, that you must enjoy each day because a garden is not static, especially in spring?

I'm always a little sad, too, to see the end of tulip season, but now I'm eager for their complete demise.  The late ones are still standing erect and green, but headless, and most are withering away, their papery, brown leaves cluttering up parts of the garden.  I'll be glad when I can clean up the last of the remains.  I did find one tulip in the shade garden that I thought looked rather pretty in its dying days.  This is a tulip new to my garden this year, 'Blue Spectacle,' which was advertised as a true blue tulip.  It was a pretty double tulip, but I was sure disappointed that it was lavender, not blue at all.

I did find a few late tulips still blooming in the roadside garden,  I don't remember the name of this one, but I do know it's supposed to be lavender.

While the tulips may be gone, other flowers are beginning to take their place on this May Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  Behind the lavender tulips, the Baptisia is blooming.  It's smaller, though, than in past years, and I'm not sure why.  In fact, the spring display in this small garden area was a disappointment--only the newest tulips bloomed, and one lone allium appeared.  I noticed when cleaning up this bed in March that it looked like the soil had been really disturbed--perhaps interlopers like deer or other wildlife dug up some of my bulbs and plants.  The good news is the lilies and coneflowers are growing like crazy, so this area should have a better display come summer.

The warm weather the previous two weeks kick-started many of the later spring bloomers.  While I was busy admiring the tulips, I neglected taking photos of these until almost too late.  The 'Purple Sensation' Allium in the arbor bed, for example, are already past their prime.

The perennial geranium in the Arbor Bed still has a few blooms, but not as many as a week ago.

The same is true of the lilacs.  My huge old-fashioned lilac is no longer blooming, but a few blooms remain on two newer and smaller varieties.  This is a new compact lilac I bought last fall, purely because of its name 'Scent and Sensibility.'

'Bloomerang' also is quickly fading.  It wasn't such a pretty sight this year as it is still recovering from the winter of 2013-14.

A new plant in my garden this year--Camassia.  I am kicking myself for not taking a photo when it was in full bloom.  Only the very tops still have petals, but these were such cool-looking plants when the whole stem was covered.  I think I might have to find a place for more of these bulbs this fall.

The irises are just beginning to bloom--the first to bloom was this purple passalong from my aunt.

'Immortality' was a close second.

Mid-May to early June is a time of transition in the garden as spring flowers fade, and summer flowers have yet to bloom.  I like to fill in the gaps with colorful annuals, and I've spent a lot of time plant shopping--one of my favorite activities of the spring!  I've only begun, though, to start planting all the containers.

One of my favorite annual combos--'Raspberry Blast' petunias, with Persian Shield and Helichrysum.

There are more perennials beginning to bloom, though.  One of the welcome signs of spring, Phlox pilosa, better known to most people as PPPP, thanks to the generosity of blogging friend Gail of Clay and Limestone.  Gail kindly sent me a few starts several years ago, and it is now spreading through the Butterfly Garden, much to my delight.

Another spring favorite of mine is Amsonia; this is Amsonia tabernaemontana,

 but my Amsonia hubrichtii is starting to bloom as well.

'May Night' Salvia, one of many salvias in my garden.

A new plant in the shade garden last year, Sweet Woodruff. 

 I'm surprised how much it has already grown since last summer; I hope I don't regret planting this.

Speaking of the shade garden, my intention was to divide more hostas again this year before they got too big.  Oops, looks like I'm late once again.  The poor 'Georgia Peach' Heuchera barely visible in the center of the photo has to be moved soon before it's completely overtaken by one of my favorite hostas.

'Sweet Tea' Heucherella, fortunately, is at the front of the border where it isn't as likely to be swallowed up.  I've noticed several of the Heucheras are sending up blooms already.

While there isn't as much in bloom right now as a few weeks ago, there are promises

 of much more to come very soon.  Above, the spireas are covered in buds.

And a bud I am very excited about--the first peony about to open up.  This is a new one given to me by a friend as a bare root last fall.  I was not expecting it to bloom this year, but I can't wait to meet 'Scarlett O'Hara'!

What is in bloom in your garden in this merry month of May?  Join us at May Dreams Gardens, where hostess Carol welcomes you to share on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

May Bloom Day: What a Change!

Spring is a time of anticipation . . . anxiously waiting for the first daffodils and then the tulip buds to open. Searching for the first signs of perennials; watching the small green shoots of hostas emerging upright from the soil and curlicued ferns, like green question marks, holding tightly to their fronds.  But like the proverbial boiling pot, if you don't watch each day, the garden transforms itself quickly this time of year.

When we left home two weeks ago for my daughter's wedding, the tulips were still reigning supreme over the garden.  Coming home a week later, the scene had changed completely.

A late white tulip still looks elegant, but most of the tulips are either gone

or look like the faded blooms in the background.

This tulip may be past its prime, but I thought the remaining petals made an interesting image.

The biggest thrill for me when I arrived home was to see the first iris blooms.  Quite a few irises were added to the lily bed last fall, and I really wasn't sure if they would bloom this first year here.  All of the irises are passalongs, so I have no idea of their names; this lovely yellow one, which is full of blooms, was given to me by a fellow Master Gardener last spring.

Other passalongs came from my aunt and from my parents.  I had no idea what color each of them was; this one is actually more of a rusty bronze than what it appears here in the fading sunlight.  Another purple iris is just opening today, so hopefully I'll have even more surprises in the coming week.

Also fully in bloom when we arrived home was the Amsonia tabernaemontana.  This plant was one of the near-freebies I got from the MG Idea Garden last spring and started as a tiny division last year.  I love the light blue color of its blooms; I wish I could find more plants with this baby blue hue.

The reblooming lilac 'Bloomerang' is looking its best this year, too.  Its fragrance is not quite as strong as the old-fashioned varieties, but it still has that definite sweet smell.

The butterfly garden seems to have had an obedient plant and aster population explosion this year . . . but that's a story for another post.   A few stalwarts have refused to give in to those mobsters, however, including this Valerian, another near-freebie from the Idea Garden last year.

Still another division from last year's Idea Garden--Meadow Rue, Thalictrum aquilegiifolium.

The star of the butterfly garden right now--even though it's nearly obscured by what I hope are asters and not weeds--is Phlox pilosa, or as Gail calls it, PPPP.  I wonder how many gardens across the country have some of Gail's offspring blooming this month?:)

Also oblivious to the native invaders is this Salvia 'Eveline', returning for its third year.

It was dark when we returned from our trip to Cancun, so I didn't notice for a few days some changes in the roadside garden as well.  The giant alliums, 'Purple Sensation,' I think, bend, but don't bow to the strong winds.

The baptisia has settled in nicely and blooming its head off in this, its second year in the garden.

Even the vegetable garden has a few blooms.  To my surprise, last year's kale overwintered and is full of blooms.  Someone told me last fall that it only blooms in its second year, which must be true; still, I had no idea it would be able to stand our harsh winters.  It must have been all the snow we had that protected it.

The chives are full of blooms, too.

 

And those small hosta and fern shoots I mentioned?  The shade garden has made the biggest transformation of all.  In a week it has gone from potential growth to its present state where hostas, ferns, and heucheras rub elbow to elbow, vying for space.

There, the blooms of old-fashioned coral bells replace the blooms of narcissus and tulips.

But the biggest thrill of all for me was this--my first ever columbine bloom from seeds I winter sowed a year ago.  "Patience," she says, "All in good time."

They may not be as exotic or as precious as the blooms on my last post, but these are certainly making the daily routine these days of weeding and planting a delightful way to spend the month of May.

To see what else is blooming in mid-May, be sure to check out the list of other Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day participants at Carol's at May Dreams Gardens.