What a wonderful month May is, flowers are bursting forth left, right and centre, old friends are coming back and it is lovely to see them all again, well I can’t see my real friends and family can I?! The rhododendrons and azaleas are amazing, flowering beautifully, so they will get a separate post later, they make the garden so colourful at the moment, enough to cheer anyone up in these strange times, but there is only me to appreciate them…sad!
This is always my first rhodo to flower, no name I’m afraid, this was here before I was.
Rhododendron Persil is a deciduous azalea with the most amazing perfume.
Evergreen Japanese Azalea, such a bright colour in the garden, you can’t miss it, it hits you between the eyes! There are lots more different rhodos I could show you but will save them for another day
Viburnums are very much to the fore this month, putting on a lovely show. This is Viburnum plicatum Mariesii, gorgeous with its horizontal branches of flowers.
Choisya Aztec Pearl delights me with it’s perfume each time I pass it by the greenhouse.
Lovely little Pacific Coast Iris seem to pop up from nowhere, they are a delight.
English Iris, which come from Iris latifolia, flowering in the driveway border.
Clematis Guernsey Cream is flowering on the archway into the woodland, brightening up a dark area.
I think this is Clematis Lasursturn, it was here before I was. Love the colour.
Alliums are now starting to join in with everything else, adding their purple balls to the mix. These were planted on the rockery many years ago and they are still happy there.
I’ve been busy working in the bog garden this week and have found that lots of my candelabra primulas have died when they were under water for months in the winter. Also I have lost lots of Astilbes which will have to be replaced. Hostas are fine, rogersia is fine and also the Zantedescia, thank goodness, and the Carex has gone mad!
Primula japonica Miller’s Crimson has loved all the wet in the winter, the whole plant is twice its normal size and the leaves are huge! I’m so glad something liked all our torrential rain in the winter.
Another Primula japonica, this time Postford White, again, much bigger in all its parts than usual.
Apple Blossom is my last variety of Japanese primula. I have sent off for lots of seed for my other varieties which have died, so will be busy trying to get the bog garden looking more like my header photo by next year.
Zantedescia aethiopica Glencoe seems happy in the bog garden, thank goodness, and has started showing its lovely flowers.
The roses have started! This is Mdme Alfred Carriere and she has gone mad too! This is on the pergola which leads to the top of the garden.
There is so much giving me pleasure at the moment, I am spoilt for choice when I have my daily wander. At the moment, the woodland is very quiet, it is the turn of other parts of the garden to shine now and hopefully this is how it will continue as the year goes by, different parts shining at different times.
Thanks as usual go to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this each month, do pay her a visit where you can see other flowers from around the world.
I am so glad you have your garden to turn to Pauline. And am thankful that you can share it with us. I love that first picture.
The previous owner of my cottage sprayed glyphosate around so am still not digging any flower beds but I do have some lovely containers !
I’m glad too Rosemarie, I dread to think what the last weeks would have been like without a garden to wander and work in. I’m really enjoying the rhododendrons at the moment, they are so colourful! I’m sure your containers loook wonderful, I’ve not planted mine up yet as we are still having frost forecast, but soon I’ll be able to get plants out of the greenhouse and get busy again.
What a wonderful selection Pauline. I do love your primulas. Do I recall correctly that you order from a company in France? We are having a cold spell here as well and everything is slow to grow (except the weeds lol), even had a little snow a few days ago.
Thank you Denise, the garden is making me happy at the moment, it is so colourful. You do remember correctly, I have oedered primulas from Barnhaven Primulas in France in the past and seeds too. The seeds I ordered just this week though were from Plant World here in Devon, they arrived this morning, so tomorrow I must get sowing! Our cold spell is now over, the weather is warming up again, thank goodness we didn’t have your snow, my plants would have been very confused!
What a great collection of Rhododendrons and primulas you have! Lovely… and happy GBBD, Pauline!
Thank you Anna, I’ve just finished a new post about the rhodos, I didn’t realise I had so many!