Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2008

Green is the dominant color here in our spring garden, and what a welcome change it is after the monochromatic tones of winter.

Plenty of things are blooming outside for this May Bloom Day, but perhaps the most exciting of all for me is seeing blooms on the crabapples. They're not a mass of blossoms, but last year we had none at all, so any amount is welcome.

They make a lovely bright spot against the greens of the hills and hedgerow across the road.

The red leaves make it hard to distinguish the 'red' blossoms....

.......so we need to walk closer for a better look at these gorgeous flowers.

My gardening friend, Marie, gave us this lovely little crabapple with softer pink blossoms. It's done well since being planted last summer, and is blooming profusely. Isn't it pretty? I'm tickled pink with it

At the base of the biggest crab, in the little fence garden, the forget-me-nots are proclaiming "Spring!" There are whites mixed with the blues, but I've yet to find a pink.

Do dandelions count for Bloom Day? We certainly have plenty! Our lawn is a sea of yellow between mowings, and even though the bright yellow weeds quickly pop back up after being mowed off, I like to see their cheery pom pom faces.

On Monday I noticed the first purple Iris had opened behind the fringed tulips.

Hello there!

When I came home from work today 4 more blooms had opened!

Here's the lovely Rasberry Blast Petunia basket I bought last Sunday with my Mother's Day money from my son and his family.

The Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra) are looking brighter and are beginning to open more of their beautiful chain-of-hearts blossoms. The smaller bush in front of the big one still has branches bent to the ground from that recent hard frost, but it's looking much better and is also opening new blooms.

Exquisitely shaped pink and white hearts!

The white bush is always a little later to start, but here's the first bloom.

Forget-me-nots are at their feet.

And Arabis (Rock Cress) shares this garden too.

Brunnera 'Jack Frost' is blooming with tiny blue forget-me-not look-alike flowers. I planted this last summer. Aren't those leaves gorgeous?

Pulmonaria (Lungwort) is a passalong from Marie, also planted last summer. I love the combination of pink and blue blossoms and the lovely spotted leaves.

This creeping Phlox was given to me by my son and his wife last summer. I thought it was a different color to the one I already have, but it looks the same. Nevermind, now I have it in the front garden as well as the back.

Aren't these Delta Beaconsfield pansies gorgeous?

Vinca Minor makes a pretty ground cover.

Lamium spreads well as a ground cover too, and also looks pretty mixed with other plants in a container.

These creamy white tulips bloom a little later than most of the others.

There's a clump of bright blue grape hyacinths (muscari) close by.

This close-up shows the lilac in the photo above is budding. It won't be long before we'll be enjoying the wonderful scent of the lilac bushes.

Here are the Van Eijk tulips again, with Johnny-jump-ups behind them.

These little guys jump up all over the place!
I eventually become ruthless and pull a lot of them out to make room for some annuals and perhaps a few new perennials, but their early color is a welcome sight, and who doesn't love volunteers?

The beautiful red tulips are still looking good.

See the yellow at the base of the blooms? I love these tulips!

But I don't think I've ever met a tulip I didn't love

This is one of my favorite photos. The peony bush is growing in leaps and bounds. It's always the most vigorous of all the peonies.

This lonely little double daffodil is one-of-a-kind where there used to be a clump.....

.....and this sweet pale pink tulip is close by. Both are lone survivors from long-ago plantings.

The Abutilon grew very nicely during the winter in the warmth of the house, and has just begun to bloom again. It will be planted outside again soon. I haven't quite decided whether it'll go in a container or a garden.

I was pleased to successfully overwinter this lovely trailing Nemesia, and will plant it in a mixed container soon.

Well, that's more than enough blooms for Bloom Day! Now I'll be able to catch up on everyone else's offerings for May. See you soon!

You'll find more Bloom Day posts over at Carol's May Dreams Gardens blog.