sarah bernhardt peony

Bradbury Monarda ’Mojo’ is blooming and I’m blown away by how vivid the purple is.

Some things are flowering in May, like the rugosa rose hybrid "Mrs. Anthony Waterer".

But May is primarily a season of anticipation.

https://rustyblackhaw.substack.com/p/revival-and-renewal

I am enjoying all the blooms of folks.

@Markay MD-Zone 7B, the purple of Bradbury Monarda ’Mojo’ is so vibrant! I will see whether I can find one locally.

And this is my first ever hollyhock plant in bloom

I am excited since I planted 20 hollyhock roots this spring and really look forward to more blooms next year

Its a great year for irises. The one in the very front and 2 in the back I grew from seed.

Iris sanguinea

Bletilla striata

It has been an extremely beautiful weekend after a week of rain and the garden is thriving.

The roses are Raspberry Cream Twirl, Caldwell Pink, and Rosemantic Red.

roses and larkspur

Penstemon

Bradbury Monarda ’Mojo’

Again, such wonderful photos everyone! Thank you for sharing your gardens with us!

Markay that monarda is awesome. Almost makes me want to try them again. I gave up on monarda. No matter what I do I get that... what is it? Horsemint catepillar? So discouraging. That purple though....

:)

Dee

Columbine and poppies are what we have that's flowering, at least that are visible in this photo. There are also some epimediums that are finishing up. Lots yet to come. What a great time of year.

Dee, I didn’t know Monardas had any pests! That’s unforunate! I killed a lot of Monarda didyma here thanks to my dry , sandy soil and it seemed I wiuld be limited to the washed out pink of fistulosa until I learned about Bradbury Monarda! I’m thrilled with the vivid purple!

@Markay MD-Zone 7B, wonderful pictures again! I love RCT too, have 3 of them and the colors are both vivid yet not intrusive. However mine start to have BA now, though not as badly as last years. Do yours stay clean? I remember your Bradbury Monarda, so pretty. Last weekend while shopping local nursery I tried to find one. Unfortunately they had different colors but not this bright purple. I ended up with a bunch of salvias.

My garden is in full bloom, and here comes a new visitor🐢

malope trifida with mini snapdragons

Hydrangeas with RCT rose at top

Pomegranate

Larkspur

Happy gardening

Huechera ’Fireworks’ has worthwhile flowers

and peony ’Do Tell’ never disappoints

Here's my mish mash of mostly self seeders. They plan my garden for me.

!st year in...white dwarf Iris. Black Forest Colorado. 7600' High Altitude.

I have to add one more before it's too late (haha). This was from a couple weeks ago. It's Siberian Iris 'Uncorked'.

I'll get in just under the wire...June 1st is Sunday.

'Julia Child' first rose of the season. First of six roses to open a bud. It is normally June 1st before I see a bloom and this one has been open for about 3 days...so about a week early?

This is a new to me...Campanula that I am really enjoying. I read up on it after I bought it and apparently they don't enjoy heat and humidity, so now I am wondering how long it will last?

Mass. heat and humidity will not be a problem for most Campanulas.

Karen T that has to be the most orderly, planned-looking "mish mash of self-seeders" I have every seen lol! How lovely. I have an old cutting garden which is chock full of self-seeders and it's a hot mess lol. But there's a lot of nigella and larkspur, both of which I love, so I hate to pull them, even though I need more space! So I let it go in spring, thinking I will move some of them later, and I never get to it. I still enjoy it, but it doesn't look anywhere near as nice and "pulled-together" as yours!

Indianagardengirl, that Do Tell is gorgeous!

:)

Dee

Art - that’s a striking Rhododendron.

Markay - I like your fav Columbine too.

FANewbie - Amaryllis? Like the Christmas bulb? I would never have thought that is planted outside. And I love the look of it. Of course, you are in zone 8!! I guess you can grow a lot that I can’t. I have had Mallow and I enjoy it. Mine disappeared after a few years and I haven’t gotten around to replacing it yet. And further along you have a blooming Hollyhock, looks great! Did you get any rust? I bought 3 potted on impulse this year and I already see the lower leaves turning yellow and I keep pulling them off. Also did you fertilize? Love the turtle. Pomegranate? LoL Is there a story with that?

41North - That Wisteria is just wild. I admire people who can manage a huge vine like that…lol. It’s fragrant, right?

Cecily - Ha Ha - it took me a minute to notice the cat among your Peonies. That Peony is gorgeous and it looks like a rose! Sweet cat that is really very pretty! And I love that Fudge will go on leash. I always feel so bad for cats that live indoors their whole life. And a garden seems exactly where a cat should be.

David - Polygonatum kingianum? Quite unusual. For a minute I thought it was a Fritalaria. Have you ever tried Cayenne pepper on it to keep the rabbits off? Or any kind of hot pepper powder. You might test it on a leave first. Some rabbits hate it then some years you find a rabbit with an adventurous palate [g]. I feel your pain. [g]

Rusty - Very pretty Rugosa Rose. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red.

Heurega - That is some Iris! So densely flowering. My Iris are really good this year too.

SBalloon - Nice view!

IGGirl - Those are really pretty flowers on your Huechera. I’m going to have to look for that one. And that ‘DoTell’ Peony is very pretty.

Nicole - I like your white dwarf Iris - Does it have a name?

David - Thanks for the info on the Campanula. Have you grown a low growing Campanula that you liked?

Gee, I wish you all lived in my neighborhood and I could visit all your gardens all season...lol! Imagine that.

"mish mash of mostly self seeders. They plan my garden for me."

You're describing my garden!

I planted only one of the plants here.

The shed is under there somewhere

Isn’t it nice to have self seeding plants around? My Orlaya is scattered around the gardens and I never have to sow any more, other than transplanting them around.

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA, I love your Campanula.!that is a biennial right? And the first bloom of Julia Child is always so pretty that almost melts one’s heart. Yeah Amaryllis is hardy in my zone though some people still take the bulbs inside to have early blooms. My hollyhock already has a lot of rust and it is basically bare foot and bare lower leg now😊 hidden from the plants in the front

FANewbie - I'm not sure. It was for sale in the perennials section, so I assumed it was perennial. I tried looking it up, but I didn't have the tag....when I get it later, I'll look it up.

Without knowing which one prairiemoon has we can't say if it's perennial or biennial. But it looks like a form of C. carpatica which is perennial, although it can be tricky to keep going.

These pictures are from throughout the month - we have had a slooow spring and it seems I've lost a number of perennials due to such an almost-no-snow year.

Ignore the equisetum, I've got my hands full clipping it off at ground level bit by bit. It's always problematic but has moved in by hordes and I've been pretty discouraged

Anyway, thanks to everybody for sharing, it's wonderful to see all of the amazing pictures in such different climates! (Im in Anchorage, Alaska)

Can't get enough pasqueflower ! I really want the red again too - I think I'll get out shopping soon to improve my spirits, growing from seed is fun but I'm wanting some instant gratification.

Just a little tulip area - sure feels like I planted more than are coming up, oh well.

Primrose is the best up here, as it is so stalwart ! I've got several other colors too

Trillium is not native here but I sure love it and it's in it's 4th summer, slowly spreading amongst the losing battle against equisetum.

The Campanula that has been perennial for many years for me is of the C. punctata/C. takesimana complex...but the details beyond that are lost. It's not in my plant database. There's a good chance it came from Digging Dog about 15 years ago, or maybe Joy Creek. It is the regular one with bluish-mauvy-white hanging flowers and spreads just fast enough to be tolerable; if you need to constraint it, it's fairly easy to rip out.

Here's Clematis 'Gravetye Beauty'. The color is very hard to get corrected with a hue control; it's not a pure red, but it's not nearly as purplish-magenta as most camera sensors seem to think it is. (I didn't do this recently, but in the past the best way to adjust the color balance of such flowers is to cut them, bring them in, and hold them up next to your monitor!) Unfortunately, rabbits absolutely love it, so for now, it needs a fence.

floral, that plant going up the stairs with the white blooms - is it in pots or actually growing in the cracks of the stairs? I've had some things reseed in stair cracks and crevices, including impatiens and petunias, but have removed most of them because the placement is just not conducive to stair safety! Yours, on the other hand, seem to stay nicely on the side out of the way. Did you assist in that lol or is that really how they grew? It's quite lovely.

I have some campanula but for the life of me can't remember the name. I always want to call it Blue Clips, but it's not - Blue Clips appears to be lower, and mounding. Mine is upright and taller, I think a persicifolia. I bought it from Bluestone almost 30 years ago. It has spread apparently by seed all over the yard, but not aggressively. I literally have a few clumps of it in the original bed, then a few clumps 40 feet away in another bed, and another clump or two another 40 feet or so away in yet another bed, etc. I love the color, the basal foliage is pretty, and I especially love the way the reseeders poke up through other plants and shrubs - poking through a rose or hydrangea. Funny how so often it reseeds at the base of a bigger shrub like that and still grows well underneath it, sometimes without me knowing it's there, and then suddenly a bloom pokes through!

:)

Dee

The daisy flowers on the stairs are Erigeron karvinskianus. I do clip them back periodically and the stairs are not much used. It is growing in cracks and is to be seen everywhere round here growing in walls and pavements. Other wall-dwelling self-sowers are Corydalis lutea (also in the photo), Centranthus ruber and Campanula portenschlagiana. All are non-native but have found themselves an ecological niche. I would call them naturalised, not invasive.

Gorgeous everyone!! Like lat62 it has been a cold spring here but with a few really hot days sprinkled in.

I am just squeaking in under the wire with a few from the month.

Hepatica acutiloba

Hellebore before a cleanup

Pulmonaria Mrs. Moon

Uvularia grandiflora with Sambucus then with Dicentra formosa

Pulsatilla

Epimedium

Narcissus

Euphorbia myrsinites

A couple more.

I adore Forget-Ne-Nots with Hosta that are just emerging

Thalictrum thalictroides (formerly Anemonella t.) planted late last fall. I will add a couple more. Yes lat62 with the dreaded Equisetum

Phlox divaricata. Blue Moon

Pulmonaria Mrs. Moon. It did not post in the first batch.

I hope these give you an idea of what an allotment looks like...mine at any rate.

And another attempt

Bumping this to keep it on the first page a little longer - Suzy and SeniorBalloon's photos are too good to miss. Thank you to everyone who contributed to a lovely May in photos.

I thought I already responded here, but I must have started and got distracted.

SB - LOVE that first photo! Such a pretty landscape/view! I’m always trying to pull my whole yard together to get the view I’m after, and it’s not easy. You have managed to do that, here. And what are the structures in your beds in the 3rd photo? For vines to climb?

Suzy - Your allotments are a lot larger than I thought. Lots of color!

PerenAll - Love when you post photos of your property. So expansive and full of beauties! I had Phlox ‘Blue Moon’ and Pulmonaria ‘Mrs Moon’ but they have disappeared. I might have a tiny leftover of Mrs Moon.

Love your Uvularia…I planted that and never got a bloom. I keep thinking I will move it into more sun. The photo with Sambucus…is that an ornamental Sambucus? And it’s in bloom now?

David - and Floral - Thanks for the Campanula info.

Cecily - Are you going to post a June thread too?

I'm interested in Suzy's allotment photos. In my limited experience with community gardens in the US, the focus was on vegetables. It would be fun to tour British allotments and chat with the gardeners.

Prairiemoon, whomever has worthy photos can start a June thread.

Our council allotments have a limit on the amount you can use for ornamentals. I seem to recall it's no more than a quarter. I have them among the vegetables. Suzy's local authority must be different.

What a lovely garden, SB. Lush, mature and quite magical.

I think it is fair to say that raising fruit and vegetables is the most popular use of allotment space...but not exclusively so, Cecily.. I know of one person who grows dye plants and another who grows dahlias for exhibition, I do still grow potatoes, tomatoes, curcubits, various herbs and a heap of fruit (strawberries, blackberries, currants, almonds, peach, plums, apples, raspberries and loganberries.) I did that whole earth-mother thing...but out of duty rather than love. As the offspring grew and started gardens of their own, I (gratefully) rowed back on the hours of moiling, boiling and toiling over a jampot..

They are standard sizes, using antique imperial measures - rods or poles ( a pole is 5metres x 5 metres, with a standard plot occupying 10 poles or 500m/2 or 1/16 acre but can be as little as 2.5 poles. I have one and a half - 15 poles.

Those are large allotments in comparison to the US. Your standard allotment would be 50x50 metres = 164 ft or 64yards, there abouts. I double checked those figures and to me that sounds really large. I think 30x30ft would be average here? Just a guess.

Some allotments here are only ornamental with no veggies. The Victory Community Gardens on the Fenway in Boston seem like a landscaped lot for some of them. One is on a Japanese theme with a small building on it. One is landscaped with a pond and a lot of shrubs. A lot of them are rose gardens. People hold onto them for a long time.

Here is a link to the Boston Victory Gardens.....

Boston Victory Gardens

Some sample photos..... this one is a Rock Garden

This one is just one big raspberry patch....

this one seems to be all ornamental....

Cecily I'll start a June thread, and I hope everyone will post any photos they want. June is the busiest month in my garden and maybe so in many others?

I know we're moving on to June but I just wanted to make a comment on the Fenway Gardens. My husband and I were in Boston and decided to walk from the Common area to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. We came upon the Fenway Gardens, which I had no idea existed. What a lovely surprise! They were so old and established and some were just spectacular - much different from the suburban community gardens I'm used to in my neck of the woods. I would have loved to have spent more time walking around peering over and through the fencing. I would encourage people to look into them, even if its just looking them up online.

:)

Dee

A pole (or rod) is a weird measure - it applies to length and area, so 1 pole would be 5metres x 5metres with a 10pole standard plot of 5metres x 50 metres - long and thin, usually but not always. My son has a small one - 1/3 size at 8.5m x 8.5m, while my daughter has a half plot - 10m x 12.5 m. Mine starts off at 5m wide and broadens out at the 25m mark to around 12 metres. Not so big...but honestly, a surprising number of people struggle to maintain a quarter sized plot. How they are maintained depends on the management...my small site only has 17 plots and is really quite anarchic (which I prefer, tbh).

There are some lovely gardens on here - SB - yours is magical, lush and thrilling. and pere.nnes is always a joy. Markay too - delightful collections of plants and I love Cecily's opening pic. I always enjoy seeing Floral's serene patch and a few new to me (Raymond, Karen) It is a bit cheeky, coming from a long-standing photo-failee, I definitely get more from landscape views rather than close-ups....even with tools and hoses lying around. The loveliest flower does not thrill me when seen as a single perfect specimen, although I do get why they are a popular posting theme..

I love seeing everyone's pictures. Large or small I know that if you're posting here they are tended with care and love. So may of you are so knowledgeable, even after this many years I always learn something new or see a plant I didn't know about.

Thank you for the comments about our place. It is our little (ok not so little) slice of heaven. The structures in the other photos are for roses and clematis. Each one has a climbing rose and several clems. This is it's fourth year and they are starting to fulfill their promise.

Thank you pm. I have Uvularia grandiflora in sunny spots as well as shade but my soil is moisture retentive. It is for shade/partial partial shade. Perhaps give it another year before moving it. The Sambucus is S. racemosa and is native here. The birds adore the red berries that will form later.

PerenAll - I have had Uvularia where it is growing for at least 10 years without a bloom. [g] When I get the chance, I'll move it to a sunnier area. I have a lot of part shade.

I have Sambucus canadensis growing in my garden, that produce elderberries that the birds eat too. I'll have to look for the S. racemosa.

That is so strange that it has never bloomed for you. Will you divide it as well? That could jump start it but it is very strange indeed.

I'll try that PerenAll...thanks for the idea. It is strange. It's planted under the dripline of a Japanese Maple with two evergreen shrubs on either side and a 6ft fence behind. So, maybe it is just too much shade.

Never posted but this was from the 22nd. My neighbors mountain laurel.