Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for May 2013.
Ah yes, the merry month of May, the month when the sky is blue, the grass is green, the sun is warm and the garden is all new again. I dream of the days of May…
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, we are still enjoying a relatively slow start to spring. I can see from looking at past bloom day posts that many plants are blooming about a week later than in past years.
In Plopper’s Field, the alliums are dominating the other blooms which are mostly all buds.
I planted these giant alliums in the fall of 2011, so this is their second spring to bloom. I’m happy see they’ve returned. They had a rough start because I realized after I planted them that I had planted them upside down. Good thing the bulbs have a sense of direction and know which way to send the roots and which way to send the shoots.
Near the patio, gilliflowers, Dianthus, are starting to bloom.
I realize gilliflowers is not the most common of common names for Dianthus, but I discovered it this past winter and like it, so I’m using it. Maybe it will start a trend?
These dwarf columbines are flanked by two growing swaths of blooming Sedum ternatum under the honeylocust tree in the garden border I call Bird’s Blanket.
The dwarf columbine plants have been confined to some containers on the patio so these must have come up from seeds blown into this garden border. I think I will transplant the rest of the dwarf columbine in the containers to this garden border and move that sedum to another garden border. It looks a little thuggish here.
I have other columbines growing throughout the garden, progeny of Aquilegia ‘Tower Blue’, ‘Tower Pink’ and ‘Black Barlow’ that I grew from seed a decade or so ago.
I rarely deadhead my columbine until the seeds are ripe. I scatter the seeds around the garden and let the columbine come up wherever they like it. It’s a sin to weed out a columbine here at May Dreams Gardens.
I have a new shrub blooming on the edge of Woodland Follies, at the beginning of the path I call Ridgewood Avenue. (Yes, you can ask me why I call my garden path Ridegewood Avenue, or follow the link for the answer.)
This is a black chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa ‘Autumn Magic’. It should have great fall color and fruit that the birds will eat, eventually. The fruit is very sour, sour enough to choke on, so it won’t be their first choice meal.
At the other end of the Woodland Follies garden border sits this large snowball bush in full bloom.
This is Virbunum opulus ‘Sterile’. I think once it finishes blooming, I’m going to figure out how to cut it back just a little bit.
There is more blooming in my garden – after all it’s May. I have strawberries blooming in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral and tulips still blooming in the front garden. The quamash is in bloom and will soon be joined by blue dogbane, ox-eye daisies, and salvia. And because it is a slow spring, I think I’ll have time to enjoy it all.
What’s blooming in your garden in this month of May?
We’d love to have you share your blooms on the 15th of each month by joining us with your own Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post. Just post on your blog about what is blooming this month in your garden and then come back here and leave a link to your blog post in the Mr. Linky widget below along with a brief comment to let us know you’ve posted.
The rules are simple… no rules! You can include pictures, lists, no lists, common names, botanical names, whatever you’d like to do to showcase your blooms. All are welcome!
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Thanks for hosting the GBBD again Carol! Here in London it has been a very slow start to spring, we have cold nights and cold days and my garden is at least 6 weeks later than normal. It's a long time since the weather has been 'normal' so we could do with a good, 'normal' summer!
So many lovely blooms in May. With this cooler spring, maybe summer will be cooler, too. Thank you for hosting!
Thanks for hosting again, Carol. Your gardens look lovely!
The blooms are finally catching up with the warmer tempertures here on Long Island. I love your colorful blooms especially the giant allium! Thanks for hosting and a happy GBBD!
I understand why you dream of the days of May! We just had a week or so of unseasonably warm weather so the plants here are going full speed ahead! Suddenly everything is green. The trees are heavy with spring leaves so full of life that they feel as if they're vibrating! Your blooms are looking fabulous!
Thanks for having GBBD again Carol, it's the first time I've been able to participate in a couple of months, school is hectic at the moment with plenty of assignments, so as the garden is groaning to a halt outside, I'm stuck inside groaning with frustration from assignments, but I did get the chance last night to go out and snap some photos of my pretties that are in flower, but if you want to see them then you'll just have to go have a look :D.
Happy GBBD everyone!
Thanks for hosting! Seems like it was just bloom day and here it is again!
Hi Carol! Here in the PNW, we've had a freakishly warm weather pattern. No rain in nearly three weeks with temps in the high 80's here in the Portland area. Crazy!! But, it's pushed many of the blooms ahead and we are experiencing a lovely array of plant color. Cheers, Jenni
Thanks so much for hosting! I'm amazed at what's growing here right now. But we've had some very warm weather — weirdly warm — so things are blooming like crazy! I'm enjoying it now, but I'm thinking we may have a scorcher this summer in the PNW!
Happy GBBD!
~Angela~
Thanks for hosting and a happy GBBD Carol!
Happy GBBD everyone!
Xavi in Barcelona
Hi Carol
I had to read your introductory paragraph twice – sounds wonderful for May and reminds me of what May used to be like for us. It's still looks like an early spring garden here in Scotland.
I like the flowers of Aronia melanocarpa 'Autumn Magic', it's not a plant I know. I also like 'gilley flowers'as a name, when I read it I imagines that the Elizabethian name had travelled to the US and rerained the common name when in England the name changed, I was quite dissapointed when I read on. Enjoy your garden this month. Christina
I love a spring garden. And I really love lots and lots of tiny little flowers, they really do make a marvellous display in your May garden. Thanks for hosting bbgd again
Such a wonderful display of colours for May, the last month of spring here in the UK.
Hi!
Your "Virbunum opulus" ist gigantic, wonderful, bombastic! In other words: I like it!
Best wishes from Austria!
Elis
Happy GBBD to you Carol and thanks as always for hosting. Here my aquilegias are still to open as spring is unfolding at a very slow pace. Have not heard of aronia so off to investigate 🙂 Hope that the rest of May lives up to your expectations.
Hi Carol – as your other British contributors have said already, we have a slow start to spring this year. My alliums and aquilegias are only in bud – I always think May is about the time when your garden overtakes mine in terms of its succession of flowers.
The silver lining to this slow start is for once I'm able to capture some of my apple blossom for Blooms Day 🙂
Thanks for hosting!
Wonderful spring blooms, I especially like the bold alliums!
I only got as far as white things in the garden this time…but that covers many of my spring flowers. At last things are moving ahead here!
It will be fun to see how things are advancing all across the country!
I am glad that spring has found its way to your garden even if it is late, it was late here as well, but seems to be in full swing now. Thank you again for hosting GBBD, your efforts are appreciated.
Thank you again for hosting GBBD. What would I do the 15th of the month without it, especially in winter? Here in upstate NY we are also having a late spring – which I guess balances out the early spring we had last year. We had a columbine in our garden last year for the first time and we have tens of seedlings around it now. So thank you for the heads up. Enjoyed all your pictures but especially the chokeberry. Alana
I love spring…albeit, it's been a weird one
Everything is looking beautiful Carol…slow here as well although the heat of early May pushed the blooms faster and then the recent cold kept them from fully blooming…looking forward to more blooms throughout my favorite month.
It is a sin to mess with any columbine here too as I take the seed and scatter them as well. Happy Bloom Day and thanks for hosting.
Carol, thanks for GBBD. And for your comments about columbine seedlings… I have just a couple plants, but I keep "sinning" by ripping up the young ones that arise! Maybe I will repent and change my ways.
This has been a slow spring but isn't it grand to be able to enjoy everything as a slower pace. Love this snowball bush. Mine are going strong now too. Happy GBBD.
Thanks so much for hosting, Carol. GBBD is fun…always neat to see what's blooming in different parts of the country and other parts of the world. In southern Ontario, we had a cold rainy April but a warm dry May so far. Lots of things starting to bloom so the garden is getting much nicer. I also have giant alliums….a friend once called them Pom Pom flowers 🙂
Thanks so much for hosting, Carol. GBBD is fun…always neat to see what's blooming in different parts of the country and other parts of the world. In southern Ontario, we had a cold rainy April but a warm dry May so far. Lots of things starting to bloom so the garden is getting much nicer. I also have giant alliums….a friend once called them Pom Pom flowers 🙂
I also really enjoy my Columbines, and their self-sowing, I like your short one, most of mine are too tall, but I love them anyway. I also have a lot of flowering shrubs as well as some perennials. Thanks for hosting!
Thanks for hosting. All my columbines are blooming. I have Centaurea Montani, perennial bachelor button, also.
So many pretty things in your garden this month! Happy GBBD!
Carol, it looks like your garden is well on it's way to a lush and lovely bloom season! Thanks for hosting!
I had no idea the gilliflowers were dianthus. "Hot July brings cooling showers,apricots and gilliflowers" from the old English rhyme about the months. Hot July in England. Things sure have changed. Love those puffballs. Happy your special bloom day.
What a beautiful month in your garden! Dianthus are a fave of mine, and yours look so happy (gilliflowers, eh?). And that snowy mass of Sedum ternatum! I'm going to have to look up the zones on that one because it might want to be in my garden, too. Thanks for hosting!
Your late slow spring is not as late as ours, but spring is tip-toeing our way. I don't even have lilacs yet. Thank you for nudging us into a good record of bloom from month to month and year to year.
I have a very small Viburnum opulus 'Sterile'. I guess I should plan to prune it once it gets a bit larger and then plan on pruning every year. Thanks for another great Bloom Day. May is second runner up for my favorite month of the year. Here, it is June!
I like that name, "Bird's Blanket." Thanks, again, for hosting, Carol!
I love that mix of columbines and never knowing where they will pop up. Always a pleasant surprise, no doubt! We've had a couple of days that hit 90 last week and yesterday so that has really pushed the season forward.
I've always liked the name "gillyflower" too. I love dianthus and have quite a few in my garden…all blooming now. Scented flowers and foliage add so much to the experience of being in the garden. Your garden looks beautiful. Ridgewood Avenue is always a pleasant stroll. 🙂
Hi Carol,
I live in the south west of England, and am linking for the first time – thanks for hosting!
I've recently taken over a much neglected riverside woodland garden, done some planting, but there is plenty of work to do! I'm looking forward to following the links to see what other gardeners have achieved – I need all the inspiration and help that I can get!
Gorgeous alliums, so envious, mice ate all of mine!
Jessica
I never knew "gilliglowers" referred to Dianthus. Thanks for hosting Bloom Day, Carol.
I love those big alliums! And one reason I love bulbs is because they do seem to be a bit forgiving. Many times I plant the bulb sideways if I'm not sure how it's supposed to go! I also like your sedum ternatum. Thanks for hosting.
Love the allium! My daughter picked me out a Dianthus/gilliflowers for Mother's Day. I hope it eventually becomes as big & beautiful as yours. Thanks for hosting.
Your garden looks lovely. Thank you for hosting. Always enjoy your blog posts.
Your garden looks wonderful now. Always fascinating to me seeing how temperate climate gardens suddenly burst into splendor with the change of seasons. Here in a Mediterranean climate the change is more gradual and subtle, not so dramatic.
Gillyflower–I first encountered that that term from reading "Brideshead Revisited."
Happy GBBD!
Beautiful! I love the gilliflowers term. Also love that sedum even if it is a thug. Chokeberries have always been a favorite of mine – it'll be a favorite for your birds, too!
Looking good again. Like you we're having a long, cool spring so things are well out of sequence. Thanks again for hosting the Garden Bloggers' Blooms Day for another month.
Thanks for hosting this beautiful GBBD. You have such wonderful blooms. I have posted about blooms of plants/trees in my blog. My black chokerberry is still not blooming; may be too young.
I have laundry to fold and a house to pull together and all I want to do is look at all of these bloom day posts! Thanks so much for hosting, I love this!!
Thank you for hosting! Wow, that Viburnum is spectacular!
Thank you for hosting! This is my first month participating. I hope I can keep up!
Happy bloom day! I love columbines too. They are so wonderful weird and beautiful.
The dianthus are gorgeous. I had no idea they were also called gilliflowers, a term I'd heard of many times but had not associated with dianthus before.
Glad to read I'm not the only one who has planted bulbs wrong way up…
Your garden's looking gorgeous. I hadn't associated gillyflowers with dianthus, either. I've always wondered what they were. The poem by Sara Coleridge "The Garden Year" includes the verse: "Hot July brings cooling showers/
Apricots, and gillyflowers." Always thought they were wallflowers.
Thanks for hosting! That white flowering sedum is great, I will look for that one for sure.
The merry month of May indeed! So you have a sedum that growns in dry shade? I must look into this further. Happy Bloom Day!
I love all of the blooms! What a great way to brighten the morning.
I've got to agree – May is the best. I used to always think April was my favorite, but this year May is definitely #1! Beautiful garden!
Thanks for hosting, so glad it's finally May!
Thank you for hosting this every month. I make a point of choosing a few new blogs to check out from the linky list each month. It's a great opportunity to find other gardeners we might not run across otherwise!
I particularly like your allium and columbine this month!
Thanks again for hosting GBBD Carol. It looks like May is a busy month, bloomwise for those in colder climes as well. Here I am enjoying a lot of hot orange blooms, red and orange being my fave flower colours.
Ridgewood Avenue, a grand name for a pretty path.
Your Columbines are so pretty. Mama always wanted to plant columbines. I know there's a wild one that grows here, so maybe we could have columbines too.
Happy Bloom Day and thank you for continuing this lovely tradition.
You have inspired me to plant giant alliums — what a fun flower!
happiest of Bloom Days to you my dear friend. xoxoxogail
Thank you for hosting, Carol. Last month we had snow… this month a heat wave. Crazy weather.
Hi Carol – I agree, it's a sin to weed out columbines … and maybe dandelions.
Better late than never! Love the big alliums — wonder mine all disappeared too? May have to plant more this fall…
Spring may have been slow to arrive, but May is beautiful, as always! Thank you for hosting Bloom Day and sharing your garden.
Hi! Loved to see the blooms in your garden. Hope you'll find the time to come and see mine 😉
I do the exact same thing as you do with the seeds of Columbines. Love Columbines but they're not blooming here yet, just about to.
Bye,
Marian
Beautiful shares this week. Thanks.
Hi Carol! Thank you for hosting Bloom Day! What a wonderful idea! I just signed up, and can't wait to see all the lovely stuff others are posting. We have a rainy day here in Portland, OR, but after so much dry heat, the plants are loving it. Thanks again for doing this!
Anna
love that huge viburnum! i have started treeing mine up to a standard form to contain their enthusiasm.
Ah, yes, the beautiful month of May! It's especially good to see blue skies once again. I agree it would be a sin to weed out columbines; they look perfect under the tree with the sedum.
I'll be a little late with my post–it was the perfect day for gardening and didn't want to spend it sitting indoors at my computer:)
I love your giant, purple, right-side-up alliums! I also love the sedum and columbine combination–I don't think it looks thuggy at all. Quite the opposite, in fact–I wouldn't suspect this group of the least little thing if I saw them hanging out on a street corner. 🙂
Carol, My Gettysburg, PA garden is similarly about a week behind where it was last year at this time. I, too, have self-sown columbines making a big splash in the garden right now. Those and bleeding hearts are my feature plants for May. Thanks again for hosting this delightful blog party. -Jean
Hey Carol – Glad to see your plants are late, too! Love the "gillieflowers," a term that was used for lots of things apparently, especially for flowers that were fragrant. I'm at least a week behind you. Thanks for allowing us all to compare notes!
Beautiful Carol! I especially love that columbine and sedum combo.
Wow. HArd to believe another month has passed. Soooo much in bloom this time of year.
A little late, just like our spring. Happy Blooms Day to everyone, and thanks to Carol for being garden central.
Well, at the end of a busy gardening day let me just praise all the gardeners who keep up blogs and garden too! Carol, I only just noticed this year how much the columbine resemble weeds that are too beautiful to pull. They are coming up everywhere.
Thank you so much for hosting–your blooms are lovely! I accidentally linked incorrectly in my first link–I'm sorry! I wasn't sure how to delete it. The first link is for March, the second one is correct–for May. UGH–this is why I shouldn't post at midnight! Hope you are enjoying your spring!
I love the name gilliflower for dianthus. It sounds medieval. They are such sweet and simple blooms that I can't resist having one (that was just ID'd for me this Bloom Day.)
Thank you for hosting, Carol!
Your May flowers are lovely. I especiallly like the dianthus. And I am glad to see your choke cherry plant.
My husband's uncle, who lived in Idaho always made choke cherry jelly.
I'm having a hard time controlling my allium envy with that lovely photo. Happy May Bloom Day, Carol.
Hallo Carol,
Via Marian van Flowers at Home ben ik op je blog terecht gekomen en heb mij bij je aangemeld om mee te doen om iedere 15e van de maand een bloeiende plant van mijn kleine tuin te laten zien.
Ik wens je een heel fijn Pinkserweekend toe.
Hartelijke groet, Loes (Louise)
And now May is here – hurrah! Love the alliums! Thanks for hosting
Happy GBBD! My line-up is hibiscus flowers 🙂
Drat. Mr. Linky and I screwed up my link the first time round. Here's a reprise with the correct info.
I love your Viburnum – I'm told it's one that will flourish in overly moist soil. It's top of my wish list and has been for a while. I toil to source it here locally!
Happy GBBD 🙂
You're the only person I know who could get away with A Vegetable Garden Cathedral, Carol! That made me laugh, but the wonderful columbines made me miss my old garden. The columbines that survive here are rather boring.
I've skipped a few GBB Days but who could skip May? Keep Dreaming!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
The main post is at the TR blog and the list with botanical names is at the Addendum.
I may be a day late, but I have millions of Bluebells having their best year ever.
I focused on <a href="http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2013/05/16/spring-ephemerals-garden-bloggers-bloom-day-may-2013/>spring ephemerals</a> in my post.
A day late, but most everything looks the same as it did yesterday! 🙂 I love the month of May, too!
Two days later than I supposed to be.
Overhere the month of May is still to cold and grey. We are hoping for some sunshine.
Have a wonderful weekend Carol
Happy May Carol, your favorite of months. Your garden looks splendid if I may say so. Beautiful.~~Dee
We have had an early Spring, my plants are quite a few weeks ahead of usual. Year before last it was 6 weeks behind. Happy Gardening!
Carol, So sorry my entry is late! And I entered twice because the first link didn't work (hope you can erase it). Sorry again.
Your May garden is dreamy! Can't wait until my vibernum looks like yours, full of blooms.
Thanks for this wonderful meme. P. x
I am so busy with the dahlias that I have not picked up my camera! But I am so enjoying your bloggers – almost TOOO many to see, but the abundance is wonderful!!
As usual, I spent so much time visiting others, I was late getting my own posted! Always a favorite monthly "exercise"!
Just discovered your lovely blog. What a fun idea to share whats blooming in our garden. It was fun to look at some of the other links and see the variety of gardens and flowers in bloom in different climates.