Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May '09

Here in upstate NY, our May garden is alive with tulips, lilacs and crabapple blooms, with a few other flowers tucked in between. Cows are grazing happily in the meadow, creating a peaceful scene.

The lawn is bright green and has been mowed twice. Dandelions have sprung up after our recent rains and the grass is in dire need of another mowing.

Spring is such a glorious time, but it brings lots of work. There's too much to do all at once!

Centaurea (Perennial cornflower or Bachelor's Button) grows on the edge of the garden above.

The two biggest crabapples are putting on their best display ever, while the two small ones have no blooms at all. Those rosy pink blooms are such a delight to see as the afternoon sun backlights them.

In other years the blooms have been mostly concentrated on one side, but this year they're spread all over the branches.

Wind and rain have taken a toll on the tulips and many of them, like these Van Eijks, are beginning to drop their lovely petals.

Just a few days ago they looked like this.

I don't recall ever seeing the old lilac bush in such full bloom. This is a wonderful lilac year!

These red tulips, however, haven't come back as well as they have in past years.

These pretties are "Passionale".
Notice the peonies shooting up on the right of the photo. Everything grows so fast after a good rain....especially the weeds!

Down in the lily garden there's a lovely mix of purple and pink.
Hannah is keeping me company.
I've been working at pulling out most of the Johnny Jump Ups that grow like weeds in this garden. There are still a bunch to pull on the left of the photo.

At the moment though, they look pretty with the tulips.

Over in the rock garden are these lovely Angelique tulips.

And Basket of Gold perennial Alyssum making a bright splash.

Up in the Spring Garden the Bleeding Hearts are magnificent!
Last Tuesday and Wednesday we had frost, but luckily it wasn't severe enough to damage these beautiful blooms.
Last year we had a hard frost just after they began blooming and it set them back a little. They bounced back fairly quickly though.

They're surprisingly tough for such delicate looking plants.

The white one is always a little later with it's blooms than the pinks.

Arabis (rock cress) blooms beside the big pink bush above,

....as well as Forgetmenots.

There's a bloom stalk above the lovely leaves of the Brunnera "Jack Frost". The tiny blue flowers resemble forgetmenots.

I love the combination of the Red Emporer tulips....

....and grape hyacinths.

Up around the corner in the Rose/Clematis Garden there's more purple to be found.

The gorgeous purple Iris unfolded their lovely petals just a couple of days ago.

And the Blue Heron fringed tulips have been going strong for about 2 weeks. I'm always sad to see the tulips fade.

This little beauty is Blue Ribbon.

Across the driveway is the Top Lilac Garden and the bushes are laden with blooms. I have yet to see a butterfly, but guess who showed up yesterday? The hummingbirds! It's such a joy to have them back! They're loving the Bleeding Hearts.

White tulips hold their graceful blooms high between the lilac bushes.
Do you see Hannah in the garden?

This sweet flower is Aubrietta, aka purple rock cress. It's up in the Pink Garden....

....and so are these "Dynasty" tulips.

The creeping phlox is just beginning to bloom, and there are flowers on the lamium as well, but they're not showing in this photo.

My dear hubby planted tulips and daffodils in the veggie garden to be used for church bouquets. These reds are "Oxford", Darwin hybrids.

The "Salome" daffs are still blooming. The purple tulips are "Negrita".

Isn't she lovely?

Happy Bloom Day everyone!

Be sure to stop by Carol's May Dreams Gardens to see what's blooming in gardens all over the world.
I'll try hard to catch up with as many of you as I can during the next few weeks. I've missed reading your blogs!
Isn't May rushing by?