THE DARLING BUDS OF MAY

 "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May."

-  William Shakespeare

May is one of the busiest of months -my birthday on May 1, followed by Mother's day and then the birthdays of my son and daughter.  I'm not hard to buy for and usually receive several gift cards to my local Garden center.

In the garden so many perennials are popping up and very early too because of our warm Spring .  Due to a December freeze I lost a lot of  my 'purple heart ' and will have to divide and transplant the overgrown ones.  The shrub roses are blooming early this year, along with the Japanese roof iris and woodland phlox.

                                                

                                           April showers bring lush flowers.

My favorite long blooming annual that acts like a perennial -dianthus  has spread and   I'm adding more this year .  

I planted deer and rabbit resistant wildflowers in my roadside pollinator garden.  The red yarrow, shasta daisies,  Japanese roof iris and catsmint have also bloomed early this season. The pollinator's favorite Lantana will need more hot weather to make its appearance.

My goal this season is to use living mulch, i.e., plants, instead of wood chips and I think I've achieved that in my boulder garden, below .  I've also planted the Oriental Poppy for the first time and various colors of coneflowers for their long bloom.

I have lots of blues and purples and to that mix I am planting flowers with yellow , red or orange blooms such as   Coreopsis   Gaura, Monarda and Black Eyed Susan .  My favorite early blooming perennial is Autumn Sage ( below ) which puts on a show from early Spring to late Fall and now comes in shades of pink, white and purple .

I'm so excited !  This is my fourth try to grow a rhododendron and this Spring I finally succeeded in getting one to bloom.   Below is Rhododendron catawbiense 'Alba'  in all her glory !

This cultivar is reputed to be one of the most vigorous and it was highly recommended by my local garden center.  Rhododendrons are difficult here to grow here in the South, probably due to our hot summers.   I planted this one in a partly sunny nook and on a berm of good soil and compost and I was finally rewarded for my efforts.

The only flower ( above ) from my Chicago garden is now blooming -the antique iris 'Loreley ' and it brings me great joy to see it .

And now out to do the task of dividing and conquering some of the more prolific flowers such as the Hellebores and Sedges !