Walking the Garden
May 2024
Our temperatures still had not really come up much in May, but the flower display had really begun to ramp up.
The Jetbead shrub (in the lead photo) in the back garden is always early to produce its pretty white flowers. I find it interesting that it retains some of its jet-black seeds while flowering.
Bright displays of low-grow spring flowers were popping up around the front and back.
I was particularly happy to have added a newcomer to our garden, Alyssum (Alyssum saxatile) in the next photo.
When I first came to Canada, I noticed this cheery flower in garden borders in early spring. I grew it with great success at our house in the west end of Toronto, but for some unknown reason never brought any with me to this house. This past Spring, I found some on sale at our local nursery and decided to try it in the back garden.
Another low-grow spring flower is the delicate Anenome pulsatilla vulgares in the next photo. It is also called Pasque Flower and WindFlower. I love this little plant and hope that it will naturalize.
A couple of years ago, I was given some dwarf bearded Iris rhizomes. They are only 3–4 inches in height. I thought they would make a nice early border plant and dotted them around some of the front garden beds. Unfortunately, these two were the only ones that made it.
I have a bad habit of trolling around local nurseries in the late fall, looking for spring bulb bargains. Last fall, I found a large on sale collection of spring bulbs, including these lovely bi-colour orange tulips.
The next two tulips were also late fall buys.
When we moved here in 2004, I brought a small piece of this Kerria bush with us. I needed something for the shady back garden and thought this would be perfect. As it happens, it has taken it until now, May 2024, to begin to look somewhat as it should.
Another shady area favorite is the low-growing SweetWoodruff. Introduced to me years ago by my then boss, Dr. Z. Dr. Z was mad about shade plants due to having an intensely shady garden himself. Sweet Woodruff makes a great ground hugging shade plant. It only flowers in the spring but has such pretty leaves that it makes a great edging plant. Additionally, Sweet Woodruff can be used to flavour summer beverages.
Another Spring purchase was two different groundcover phlox plants. I hope that they take to this location and grow nicely. These little perennials make a gorgeous show in the spring and I see them used extensively and to good effect by folks with rock gardens.
A word about the Song Sparrows
Here I have to stop to tell you about the Song Sparrows.
In late April, I noticed we had multiple song sparrows around the garden, some in the front and some in the back. Whenever I was working the garden, I would hear them singing. As the days became warmer, I noticed that these birds were becoming bolder, often perched very close to where I was working, especially in the front garden. I could tell by the sound that they were close, but could rarely see them. They are masters at blending into their surroundings.
It seemed to me that they had a nest somewhere in the front garden, possibly in one of the bushes. I would see them rooting about for food then flying off with something in their beaks, but could never pinpoint exactly which spot they were headed to. My theory is that they would dive into a bush, then sneak off to a different bush to where the nestlings were located.
Back to plants
By mid May the Honeysuckle bush in the front had begun to flower.
The Siberian Iris in the front garden is a welcome spring surprise. It is so delicate. Unfortunately, the flowering time is shortlived.
In the next photos are the Cotoneaster and Tamarisk shrubs. The Cotoneaster shubs in our garden do really well and provide multi season interest. I love the delicate pink blooms in the spring, which will be followed by bright red berries.
The Tamarisk shrub was a really poor choice for the place I planted it, but it is so pretty. This shrubby tree really excels if planted alone in a sunny, open space. Putting it beside the driveway was not a good plan. It provides delicate fluffy flowers in May and grows attractive spiky leaves for the rest of the season.
Below you see some of my mid May Bearded Iris. Like the Siberian Iris, their flowering time is really short, but they are so beautiful it is hard to resist getting them.
I love the super early Daylilies in the next photo. Somewhere towards the end of May, they open up, providing a bright splash of colour.
I am always surprised at the variety of different flowers produced by the various columbine plants around the garden. This spring, the pink one in the photo below showed up in the front garden.
The pure white Iris below came with me from the previous house, I only recently found out its name, “Frost and Flame”.
To finish off the May Garden Walk, I have three special plants. On the far left, you will see a deep purple flower, which is a Baptisia, also known as Wild or Fase Indigo. I was especially pleased to see it flower because I had moved it two years prior, and it was refusing to flower.
The middle photo shows a flowering stem from a NineBarks Shrub, which was also planted two years ago. It has struggled a bit in that location, but this May, it finally began to look settled in and flowered beautifully.
Finally, on the far right is the CutLeaf Stephenandra (Stephenandra incisa) shrub in flower. The tiny cream coloured flowers are not spectacular, but the fall folliage colour is really pretty and it makes a very nice, low-maintenance, low-profile border shrub.
That is it for the May Garden Walk.
