The Merry Month of May – gone but not forgotten

I am behind in posting some pictures of my flower garden from May. May is when things really start to come alive in my garden. In the words of poet John Milton, “The flowery May, who from her green lap throws / The yellow Cowslip, and the pale Primrose...” It’s a wonderful month, with cool spring breezes, that makes you want to work in the garden.

May is when the purple Columbine are at their best. They love to re-seed and pop up in different places each year.

Columbine close-up.

Columbine and my garden statue (we named her Winnie).
(Pretend you don’t see the neighbor’s play-set in the background.)

It is also when the Peonies show their pretty faces. These white ones are actually in my front yard (mixed in with the Azaleas).

We had a lot of rain after this picture was taken.
Unfortunately, the rain spoiled the rest of the buds.

I love the little reddish bits in the white peonies.

The bright magenta Peonies are in the back of my flower garden. This plant used to be in the front yard with the white ones, but seemed like the odd man out, so I moved it to the back yard. It struggled for a couple of years, but looks really healthy now.

Taken from the back of the flower garden, looking towards our shed.
(That’s the neighbor’s big house in the background.)

Other flowers that bloom in May are the climbing Hydrangea and climbing rose on the arbor, some other roses, white Dianthus, the purple spikes of the Catmint, both purple and magenta Clematis, purple Siberian Iris, purple Spiderwort, pink Weigela, purple Bellflowers, and some white flowering shrub (I’ve been trying to figure out what it is). May is a profusion of mostly pinks and purples in my flower garden, with a bit of white and yellow mixed in.

View of the flower garden from the steps of my back porch.

The arbor with climbing Hydrangea, pink climbing roses and purple Clematis.
That’s white Dianthus on the bottom right.

Fine Wine Weigela with roses and Catmint in the background.

Purple Bellflowers.

Purple Spiderwort, Catmint and pink roses.

Siberian Iris and light pink Abraham Darby roses. Yellow roses in background.

I had to include a picture of the Smoke Bush that I planted last year.
I love the changing colors of the leaves as the sun hits them.