May Blooms – 2019

Seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I was planting bulbs in the fall to have flowers in the spring. And now it’s May, with most of those spring bulbs come and gone. I’ve got a few blooms that

There are a few holdovers from the early to mid-spring blooms like the bearded iris and the the Anemone de Caen the Bride. These anemones have been blooming since March. Definitely worth the purchase from Dutch Grown! They are one of my new favorites.

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In the front garden, I’m going with a mostly white color scheme. The clematis I planted by the stop sign seems to be doing a little better this year. The lamb’s ear has flowers now. They can get a little unruly and messy, but they stay around for a long time, and they are just covered with bees. One of my main goals with my garden has been to make it pollinator-friendly, so I can deal with a little bit of overgrown if the bees like it!

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I love these Encore Azaleas that I planted in the fall! Their flowers are so beautiful, and they are evergreen too.

Zoey especially loves wandering around them in hopes of finding some critters.

In my back garden, I’m going for a warm color scheme, and trying to pack it full of butterfly and hummingbird friendly plants. I’m also trying to include more evergreens where possible, hence the Armeria (Thrift) and Dianthus (Pinks). I’m happy that they also happen to be flowering right now.

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I am so glad I planted the alliums in the fall. I have a lot of summer-blooming flowers, so it’s nice to have a few things to tide me over until then. I also wanted to add a bit more whimsy to my garden, and I love the heights and visual interest of the alliums.

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And of course, the peonies! I planted the Bartzella Itoh peony bareroot two years ago, and I am so happy to finally have some blooms from it! In retrospect, I probably paid too much for it, but you live and you learn. The Kansas Peony I bought as a container grown plant from Moore and Moore garden center last summer on clearance. It had already bloomed, but it allowed me to get a mature peony plant for a reasonable price. Its blooms were beautiful this year. If only they lasted a little longer!

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The aphids were RAVAGING this clematis in my backyard. It hadn’t been performing well anyway, so I just kind of let it go to the birds, so to speak. And by birds I mean beneficial insects! By the time I noticed how bad the aphids were, they had already done some major damage, as you can see by the discolored leaves. So, I didn’t attempt to spray any pesticides, but instead let any beneficial insects get to work. They really showed up! Ladybugs and ladybug larvae were all over it, as well as some hoverflies.

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After basically giving up on this plant and letting nature take its course, the beneficials have gotten rid of all the aphids, and new growth is looking healthy! The first flowers that the aphids had gotten to looked a little scraggly, but these are doing well!

And, last but not least, the coreopsis is getting started! I am going to be more diligent about deadheading so that I can hopefully prolong the blooms. They’re pretty tough plants, and I have planted more varieties in my garden this year because they’re such long-blooming resilient plants. If they can make it in my garden without extensive babying, they’re a keeper!

These have survived a transplant in the heat of summer, so if they can survive that, they can survive pretty much anything.

What’s blooming in your garden? Do you focus on flowers for one season, or do you try to have something blooming throughout year? I know the Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day people always have something going on in the flower department, but others like to focus their efforts on one season so that everything is blooming at the same time. Leave a comment below about what’s going on in your garden and check out Carol Michel’s page for more beautiful May flowers!