Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for May 2011.
When it's May in Indianapolis, all (many) eyes turn to the west side of town where the Indianapolis 500 race will take place at the end of this month. All month long, it’s one race event after the next and everywhere we look there are black and white checkered race flags.
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 5B garden, where temperatures shot up to near record highs this past week, all the flowers seem to be in a race to bloom, and bloom quickly.
Like the flowers, I, too, am racing around trying to weed, buy plants, plant, prepare the vegetable garden for planting and occasionally, if only for a few minutes, sit back, relax and watch the action.
I’ll soon be racing to deadhead those daisies pictured above, too, because they are Leucanthemum vulgare, prolific self-sowers. I leave just a few each year because they are pretty, but just a few or I'd have a garden with nothing but those daisies.
Looking back on past years of blooms on May 15th, I noticed I have many of the same blooms today as I had in 2007, except that year I also had pea blossoms and the peonies were almost open. Today, the peonies are still tight buds and there isn’t a pea blossom in sight.
2008 seemed a tad bit slower than this year. That year I even had some tulips still in bloom in mid-May. This year they are all done. But to be fair about it, I have almost all species tulips now and the tulips of 2008 were all big showy Darwin types. 2009 seemed a lot like 2007 and ditto for 2010.
But whether the same or changed, I’ll always look forward to May, with its abundance of blooms and generally good weather. It’s a chance to see plans and plants come together to form… a garden.
The columbine (Aquilegia sp.) are all in full bloom.
I’m adding a few new columbine this year, and leaving them to self-sow themselves around the garden. They’ll do so without becoming a daisy-like thug and are easy enough to weed out if they show up where I don’t want them to be, or transplant them to where I do want them to grow.
The Salvia, including ‘May Nights’, are singing the blues.
I bought ‘May Nights’ because of the name. I keep it because I like the flowers. Speaking of its name, I checked on it and it seems to be listed by different sources as Salvia × sylvestris, Salvia nemorosa and Salvia x superba. I'll stick with plain ol' 'May Nights' for now.
Have I mentioned my new obsession with Clematis? I’m fascinated by any with a bell-shaped flower, like C. integrifolia ‘Alba’.
I just got three new Clematis to plant, all with bell-shaped flowers.
The ‘Miss Kim’ lilacs (Syringa patula) are blooming. The scent of them is enough to almost knock you over right now.
But the Iris right next to them is still a tight bud. I can’t recall when this Iris last bloomed, but it was many springs ago so I’m not even sure what the bloom color is. And heavens no, I don't know the variety, either.
Elsewhere in the garden, there are other shrubs besides lilacs in bloom including Deutzia gracilis ‘Duncan’, marketed by Proven Winners as Chardonnay Pearls®
Viburnum opulus ‘Sterile’, the common snowball bush that many of us remember from our grandmothers’ gardens, is almost finished blooming.
She’s a big shrub in my garden, a perfect hiding place for birds and no doubt a rabbit or two. It is also quite possible that maybe a family or an entire village of garden fairies live under there. This shrub is so big that I can hide stuff behind it, too, like the compost bins and the compost tumber. Now that's a versatile shrub.
There is much more in bloom - Baptisia, Rosa, Allium, Amsonia, Camassia, Geranium, Cerastium, Dianthus, Penstemon, to name a few. The blooms just keep coming and I keep going round and round in the garden, incredulous at times that we are already at the half-way point of May.
I must remember when I’m racing around the garden in May, I should remember to occasionally take a pit stop and sit for a minute or two to enjoy the flowers and remember why I garden.
What’s blooming in your garden?
We would love to have you join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and show us.
It’s easy to participate and all are invited!
Just post on your blog about what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month and leave a comment to tell us what you have waiting for us to see so we can pay you a virtual visit. Then put your name and the url to your post on the Mr. Linky widget below to make it easy to find you.
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
When it's May in Indianapolis, all (many) eyes turn to the west side of town where the Indianapolis 500 race will take place at the end of this month. All month long, it’s one race event after the next and everywhere we look there are black and white checkered race flags.
Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 5B garden, where temperatures shot up to near record highs this past week, all the flowers seem to be in a race to bloom, and bloom quickly.
Like the flowers, I, too, am racing around trying to weed, buy plants, plant, prepare the vegetable garden for planting and occasionally, if only for a few minutes, sit back, relax and watch the action.
I’ll soon be racing to deadhead those daisies pictured above, too, because they are Leucanthemum vulgare, prolific self-sowers. I leave just a few each year because they are pretty, but just a few or I'd have a garden with nothing but those daisies.
Looking back on past years of blooms on May 15th, I noticed I have many of the same blooms today as I had in 2007, except that year I also had pea blossoms and the peonies were almost open. Today, the peonies are still tight buds and there isn’t a pea blossom in sight.
2008 seemed a tad bit slower than this year. That year I even had some tulips still in bloom in mid-May. This year they are all done. But to be fair about it, I have almost all species tulips now and the tulips of 2008 were all big showy Darwin types. 2009 seemed a lot like 2007 and ditto for 2010.
But whether the same or changed, I’ll always look forward to May, with its abundance of blooms and generally good weather. It’s a chance to see plans and plants come together to form… a garden.
The columbine (Aquilegia sp.) are all in full bloom.
I’m adding a few new columbine this year, and leaving them to self-sow themselves around the garden. They’ll do so without becoming a daisy-like thug and are easy enough to weed out if they show up where I don’t want them to be, or transplant them to where I do want them to grow.
The Salvia, including ‘May Nights’, are singing the blues.
I bought ‘May Nights’ because of the name. I keep it because I like the flowers. Speaking of its name, I checked on it and it seems to be listed by different sources as Salvia × sylvestris, Salvia nemorosa and Salvia x superba. I'll stick with plain ol' 'May Nights' for now.
Have I mentioned my new obsession with Clematis? I’m fascinated by any with a bell-shaped flower, like C. integrifolia ‘Alba’.
I just got three new Clematis to plant, all with bell-shaped flowers.
The ‘Miss Kim’ lilacs (Syringa patula) are blooming. The scent of them is enough to almost knock you over right now.
But the Iris right next to them is still a tight bud. I can’t recall when this Iris last bloomed, but it was many springs ago so I’m not even sure what the bloom color is. And heavens no, I don't know the variety, either.
Elsewhere in the garden, there are other shrubs besides lilacs in bloom including Deutzia gracilis ‘Duncan’, marketed by Proven Winners as Chardonnay Pearls®
Viburnum opulus ‘Sterile’, the common snowball bush that many of us remember from our grandmothers’ gardens, is almost finished blooming.
She’s a big shrub in my garden, a perfect hiding place for birds and no doubt a rabbit or two. It is also quite possible that maybe a family or an entire village of garden fairies live under there. This shrub is so big that I can hide stuff behind it, too, like the compost bins and the compost tumber. Now that's a versatile shrub.
There is much more in bloom - Baptisia, Rosa, Allium, Amsonia, Camassia, Geranium, Cerastium, Dianthus, Penstemon, to name a few. The blooms just keep coming and I keep going round and round in the garden, incredulous at times that we are already at the half-way point of May.
I must remember when I’m racing around the garden in May, I should remember to occasionally take a pit stop and sit for a minute or two to enjoy the flowers and remember why I garden.
What’s blooming in your garden?
We would love to have you join in for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day and show us.
It’s easy to participate and all are invited!
Just post on your blog about what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month and leave a comment to tell us what you have waiting for us to see so we can pay you a virtual visit. Then put your name and the url to your post on the Mr. Linky widget below to make it easy to find you.
“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence
Comments
My daisies are in bud, but not blooming yet. My deutzia, the same kind as yours looks like it may not have survived its second winter.
I have a number of zone 5 spring blooms on my post.
Thanks for hosting GBBD.
David/ Tropical Texana
If you pop over to my Scottish garden there's an orange, red, yellow theme going on with the Laburnum tree being the main focus in part of the garden just now.
Have a great GBBD!
THANKS again MAY DREAMS GARDENS
Thanks for organizing them all in one virtual place like this. Happy May GBBD!
thank you for hosting GBBD!
What a nice post! I really love your Clematis! This one, I guess, is very healthy because it is wild!
I wish you a wonderful sunday!
Gesine
Enjoy your favourite month of the year!
Happy May!
Thanks for hosting GBBD and please take many pit stops and enjoy your garden, after all it is May.
It is a busy time here in the garden - racing around to get the heavy work done before hot weather and bugs make it unpleasant.
I love this idea of posting what's blooming each 15th!
Your photos are lovely. I'm surprized at how far you are ahead of me, considering you are only one zone to the south!
Have a great Sunday!
Thanks for hosting this monthly event!
It's been a while since I've posted but I'm back! Things have definitely been slower to bloom this year up here in Wisconsin. I still have a few scraggly daffodils when last year at this time they were history.
Looking forward to seeing you soon!
I love the subtle look of the bell-shaped flower Clematis also... and 'Alba' is lovely. Thanks for sharing it.
PS I "deadhead" my daisies by cutting bug bunches of them for indoor vases - get to enjoy them "double."
I'm amazed that you'll soon be dead-heading your daisies. Mine are just peaking up from the soil. We are also in Zone 5B, but our Spring often comes slowly. I was delighted to count all my blooms this morning. Last week, we didn't have much at all besides tulips!
And thanks belatedly for adding me to your blog listing.
What I enjoy about Bloom Day is seeing the blooms again that have passed in my garden in the gardens of those farther north and look forward to the blooms to come from the gardens of those to my south.
http://www.lovethatimage.com/blog/2011/05/garden-bloom-day-for-may/
Can you remove my listing at 78? For some reason it is linking to my October 2010 post so I can redone it and now appear at 93.
Thanks for hosting this meme
Helen
Carol, if you like clematis and you like bell-shaped flowers, you must see clematis viticella!
Happy GBBD!
Loving your columbines especially the dark ones. Love that clematis too... my sort of flower!
Thanks once again for hosting this. Wishing you and everyone taking part a very Happy May Bloom Day :-D
AM - ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
I swear we need to do GBBD weekly during May. So much changes day to day!
Thanks for hosting GBBD!
Nothing really new here so I'm not posting a link. We've had the earliest frosty spell in 39 years and two nights in a row now down to -7℃ 19℉ which is about as cold as it gets here and it's only May. Some salvias are still flowering, and there's the odd bloom on the hebes and bottlebrush.
I host a garden blog hop every other Wednesday on my blog, and I'd love to extend an invitation to anyone who'd like to link up this week. I am donating $1.00 to every single link on the blog hop to go to benefit people who lost their homes in the Alabama tornadoes. It's near and dear to my heart, and I welcome anyone who wants to link up for a good cause!
Thanks,
Beth @ Unskinny Boppy.
But the camera does make me look closely at everything, plus I pull weeds and deadhead as I go, so it's not a complete waste of gardening time!
I see your May dreams are being realized with beautiful blooms in your garden, Carol.
Yes, it's hard to believe May is half over already. This lovely month goes far too quickly.
Happy Bloom Day!
My post is late, but it's up
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Rosie
I wonder if those daisies would self-sow in some of my more difficult areas -- but will take your warning and proceed with caution!
You are a few weeks ahead of us in your blooms. I feel like I just got a preview of my garden! I love that we're finally getting some color outside... it's way overdue!
Amy
Thank you for hosting!