Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2018

Welcome to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for May 2018.

Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, we went from "where is spring?" to "here is summer". Nearly overnight.

We set records on Sunday and Monday for high temps. I think Sunday it got to 88ºF and Monday it got to 91ºF.  I had hoped to get to August before we saw any days in the 90's.

So much for such hopes.

Out in the garden, I expected to see the blooms of mid-summer, hot as it was. But the blooms of spring are out in force, sweltering no doubt, and wondering, if plants wonder, why it is so hot.

Until this heat, the garden was actually a little behind in blooms, at least compared to past May bloom days. Now with this heat, I'm sure the flowers will catch up.  Unfortunately, I also think with this heat some of the blooms won't last as long.

I guess we just need to enjoy them as we can while sitting in the shade and cooling off with a tall glass of iced tea. Or from inside looking out the windows.

Some of the highlights include, above, the Lily of the Valley, Convallaria majalis. I can smell the LOTV flowers as soon as I walk out the back door. If you've never smelled them before, you are missing out.

And I have a variegated variety of LOTV, too.

I also have columbine, Aquilegia sp., all over the place because I am inherently lazy and let them self-sow around. The plants never get so large that they crowd out other plants, so why not let them have their way in the garden?

I noticed the daisies are blooming. I need to come up with a Yes/No question and ask these flowers to answer it for me, one petal at a time. "Yes/No are you jealous that I can grow peonies which are right behind the daisies?" Then I need to deadhead the daisies,  or they, too, will be all over the garden.

How about a blue salvia with an orange geum?  Yes, I like it, too.

And I like my false indigo, just starting to bloom in yellow

and blue.

Gosh, it wouldn't be much of a garden without clematis. This is Clematis integrifolia, one of the first to bloom.  The garden fairies will fight over these blooms.

The hardy ground orchids, Bletilla striata, survived the cold spring. The foliage, though, looks pretty rough. It always does.

Over on the side of the house, it is a bloom fest with Snow-in-Summer, Cerastium tomentosum competing with gillyflowers, Dianthus 'Baths' Pink'.

I don't want to upset the flowers, so I'll diplomatically call it a tie.

There are more blooms around the garden, including alliums, garden peas, strawberries, lilacs, and more, but that's enough for one post.

What's blooming in your garden as we enter high spring in mid-May? We'd love to have you join in for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and show us!

It's easy to participate. Just post on your blog about the blooms in your garden on or around the 15th of the month, then come here and leave a comment to tell us what you've got and a link in the Mr. Linky widget so we can find you.

"We can have flowers nearly every month of the year." ~ Elizabeth Lawrence