May is rushing by at an alarming rate, I don’t think I will ever catch up!
Having posted about my flowers on the 15th for Bloom Day, I have found 10 more that have opened since then, they might not be the best in the garden at the moment, but at least they didn’t appear in the previous 2 posts.
English Iris have started flowering by the front drive, in fact, some of them are growing in the gravel and really should be moved into the border!
Where would our gardens be without foliage, especially at this time of year when it is so fresh and colourful. All around us foliage is bursting into life, uncurling in fascinating colours, shapes and textures, bringing their own special magic to the garden and setting the flowers off beautifully. My main groups of deciduous foliage belong to plants that like the shade and I wouldn’t want to be without any of them, but there are also lots of silvers, golds and purples that like the sunshine.
Starting with the Hostas, this one is H. June which seems to be happy with a bit more sunshine than my other hostas. At least at this time of year the slugs haven’t started to make their presence obvious.
The alternating rain and sunshine this month has all the plants rushing to flower at once. It also means the weeds are doing the same, so weeding is the priority at the moment and will be for some time. I will go for my usual wander round the garden, photographing as I go so that I can show you what is happrning here in Devon.
I know I said in a previous post that my rhododendrons were a washout as they had hardly any flowers, probably due to the drought last simmer, but the deciduous azaleas are another matter entirely, they are flowering as never before! This is Rhododendron luteum which has a wonderful perfume.
I hadn’t intended to write this post as these beautiful flowers remind me that my lovely undergardener passed away two years ago. However, they are so beautiful I had to share them with you. They were sent by my very caring daughter who wasn’t able to be with me as she was at work. They were beautiful when I first arranged them in their vase, the peonies were in tight bud, I don’t think I have ever recieved peonies in a bouquet before.
One minute it was March, then all of a sudden it is May, where has the last month gone I wonder? I know I have been spending far too much time fiddling in the woodland and now it is panic stations trying to get the rest of the garden into some sort of order. The weeding is going well, but I’m sure the weeds are winning, not me! I took a few minutes off to take some photos for the end of April, everything is coming fast and furiously, I just wish it would all slow down a bit and let me catch up.
My Wisteria on the garage wall. This was supposedly dug out years ago, the plant had other ideas, so I now have to decide what to do with it.
It seems like ages that I’ve been waiting for Peony mlokosewitschii, or Molly the Witch, to open her fat buds. for long enough they have stayed firmly shut, in spite of us having a mini heatwave. Yesterday however, was my lucky day. When I went out to take photos for this post, I heard a loud buzzing, and found Molly wide open with a bumble bee for company.
The bumble bee was enjoying all that was on offer, wallowing among the stamens.
Flowers and leaves are rushing to open, maybe they will slow down a bit now that our weather is back to being very nippy, to say the least. The new foliage is making as much of a statement as all the flowers, there are so many different shades of green, but as this is a post for Bloom Day, then blooms it is to be.
A view of part of the back garden, you can just about see some narcissus still flowering.
Flowers are coming and going in the woodland far too quickly for my liking. At the moment it is time for the Erythroniums, which are small lily shaped flowers, only standing about 6 inches tall. They might only be small, but they have such an ethereal beauty that I can’t imagine the woodland without them. It’s best not to go away on holiday at this time of year, otherwise you will miss them, they aren’t in flower for very long.
Erythronium Pagoda
Looking round the garden for new flowering plants since I last posted was quite easy at this time of year, when more plants are opening almost every day. I’m hoping that I’ve found flowers tht haven’t appeared before this year.
The first I came across were the white Muscari or grape hyacinths which are new this year on the rockery.
Snakeshead fritillary or Fritillaria meleagris are once again the stars of the woodland for a few weeks Drifts of snowdrops have given way to drifts of narcissus and now these are handing over the baton to the fritillaries.
Someone once asked me how many I have – I have no idea and wouldn’t like to count them!
