“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” ~Gerard De Nerval
I am grateful to April. Yes, the weather was ugly….mostly frigid, with what seemed like constant snow. And it ended much like it began...wet and cold. But even with the wintry weather, the flowers began….three weeks late….but they started to bloom at month’s end. And with this nasty weather and amazing garden, I was taught patience, perseverance and resilience once again. So thank you April, as we come into May.
I love May. Maybe because it is my birth month, but mostly because the weather warms, and the garden blooms like crazy. A tradition I started last year, was to make a May Day posy for my doorstep. It is said to bring luck and ward off evil. This tradition comes from my Irish heritage, and the stories about May Day and the Celtic festival of Bealtaine.
I hope to chronicle the flowers of May in many vases this month, and I will posting a new flower blooming each day in May on Instagram and Facebook.
I placed the flowers, from my May Day posy, in a pitcher made by my husband’s Aunt Lucy. I dearly love this pitcher.
You can see daffodil, hyacinth and hellebore as these were the only large flowers blooming as of May 1st.
I was surprised when the daffs finally started bursting all over the garden in May.
So I picked a variety for another small vase. I wasn’t sure how long some flowers would last as temps were topping 90 on May 2nd and 80 on May 3rd and 4th.
And the pussy willows were popping and needed some trimming so they seemed a perfect addition to the vase.
It is strange to see hellebore just starting to bloom in late April and early May. I hope they last for a while as I love them, but with the sudden heat wave, I am not sure how long they will be around. So of course I snipped a few to float.
The dusty rose color is so exquisite. I am sure I will pick others from around the garden soon, but they are hard to get to as the paths around the back garden are flooded from recent heavy rains.
And of course all the little bulbs that come up in the cold early spring, came up as cold April ended, and warm May started. The Puschkinia scilloides or Striped squill are a favorite of mine.
Add a few Scilla siberica or Siberian squill,
along with Chionodoxa or Glory-of-the-Snow (3 different colors growing), and voilà….
a lovely little vase to remember these flowers that will be gone quickly since they don’t usually appear in May.
And let’s give a cheer for my native Bloodroot…..Sanguinaria canadensis…..a true ephemeral especially given they are blooming in our hot start to May.
Another short-lived, early flowering native is Jeffersonia diphylla or Twinleaf. A similar (to Bloodroot) sweet, white flower comes up as the leaves begin to grow. But the twin-leaf foliage sticks around and is quite lovely.
And look who is finally showing up. I was unsure the Forsythia would bloom, but they finally were spurred on by the hot temps. The poor plant has been confused, since February, with our weather. But it was finally safe for it to flower although only about a quarter of the plant bloomed….but I will take it.
The heat wave this week helped to catch us up, and my garden is looking only about a week or two behind. And as we settle into May the temps have calmed back to near normal, 60s, 70s in the daytime and 50s and 40s at night….with a cold night in the 30s. We can still have frost well into mid to late May around here so I am always careful.
So as you can see May has begun bloomin’ like crazy. What do you love about May? What’s blooming like crazy in your May garden?
I am joining Cathy@Rambling in the Garden for her wonderful In A Vase on Monday meme. The pictures shared here were created with my iPod Touch camera and two free apps, Pixlr and Prisma.
I am posting poetry, almost weekly on Sundays, on my other blog, Living From Happiness. You can read my latest poem here.
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