May was a month of up and down temperatures but there was a lot of color in the garden. It had long enough dry spells that flowers werent often ruined as can happen some springs. I'll start at the beginning and progress my way through.
First we begin with the white form of Geranium maculatum. This is a tough native perennial that is deer resistant. I got the rare white form some time ago and it has seeded around in the school garden in Chappaqua where I took the photo below. I have a plant at home too but unlike at school there are other maculatums to cross with in the more typical pink/purple shades. This species is variable in color and petal width if one looks carefully at wild populations during their relatively short blooming season in late April and early May.
The Lijiang Road rose had a tough winter, actually it was tough on a lot of tea roses, but this one almost died. Its at its limits here in USDA Z7a but did well enough through a previous harsh winter to bloom well last year. Not so this year, it is sending out long whiplike canes as I write this though wind storms broke off a couple. Here we see signs of life stirring after I cut it back to the ground.
A strangely colored Primula veris hybrid grown from seed.
Got this peony from someone who had them seeding around and wanted to get rid of it. It may be a species or hybrid, I can't tell as I don't know species peonies well enough. I liked the color so I took it. It stands in front of Helichrysum splendidum which is waking from its winter slumber under the snow, of which he had much this year.
Meanwhile trilliums of various sorts, most in this area grown from seed, are doing their thing. I am not always sure which species are there, its another (increasingly) complicated genus. Seed takes forever, first spring it roots, second spring it shoots one leaf, then maybe another 2-4 years till you get them to flower. But the seed was available from a trillium group and I figured why not, I'll just enjoy other things while I wait on them and the wait paid off well with dozens of plants of several species as a result.
Ipheon uniflorum Charlotte is the pink form of this easy South American spring bulb. Not often grown in NY despite their easy availability from the Dutch bulb sellers, it is worth growing and blooms a relatively long time for a spring bulb. Being in the onion family its not bothered by critters unlike the crocus which tend to be savaged by rodents when they go dormant.
Iris japonica (or confusa) does too well near the house by a camellia. This was a selection from Plant Delights iirc. The foliage tries to be evergreen and it spreads rapidly by slender rhizomes/stolons. Pretty in bloom but needs a sheltered spot here in New York.
In the evening light Amsonia ciliaris is making a spectacle of itself in the sand pile out front. I got these from a nursery in Missouri that sells wildflowers, mainly because I wanted to compare it with Amsonia "Georgia Pancake" which I also grow. No they are clearly not the same species if what I have is typical of A ciliata. But is is floriferous and dense, took time to grow to its best but worth the wait.
Double Trillium grandflorum looking good. Wish it multiplied faster but its just one of those things that takes its sweet time to grow.
Packera aurea from a small plant I found in Bluefield West Virginia. For years it grow slowly then someone warned me it can spread fast and its like it secret was revealed and off to the races it went. Makes a good ground cover in dry shade, and the flowers are quite pretty as is the foliage. Its also the host of a rare butterfly which I have never seen here. I keep it near the northern border with that neighbor's no mans zone (into which it is spreading) which needs frequent weeding and flower bombing from me to keep undesirable invasives such as black snakeroot, seedling norway maples, and garlic mustard among others, in check. This and hellebore seeds that I cast there are helping to build a low maintenance attractive ground cover that will help keep the other less desirable species under better control.
The native eastern camassia species are nothing like their much larger western cousins. Still pretty though and worth growing, I grew these from seed ex Prairie Moon Nursery.
A more typical camassia in bloom with a seed grown tree peony in the back gardens. Camassia are good spring bulbs with flowers in shades of blue, white and a pink form as well.
I got this Neviusia alabamensis from a fellow gardener when I gave a talk in the DC area. He lived in Maryland and hosted me for a night so this was one thing I brought back. It is rare but not at all hard to grow. In fact it suckers to excess but the pretty white flowers make it worth a try, not to mention its rareness in nature and the fact it never seems to set seed so its not going to spread everywhere.
Bellis perennis, the English Daisy, is always a delight in the cooler weather of spring. Grow them from seed and they persist, buy plants in bloom at a nursery and watch them perish in hot weather, never to be seen again.
Primula veris is the easiest of primulas, here in yellow and a small red one behind it.
Primula sieboldii in various forms. Got most of them from a fellow member of BNARGS who grew a lot of them from Japan. Not all of what he gave to us each spring survived but what did is flourishing well.
The first leaf of a great fern from Yunnan emerges. It will, I hope, one day grow to be the large species it is, this juvenile form gives no hint of what it can become in the future.
The pink camassias are back. I got them years ago from a woman named Lisa who sold them under the nursery name Buggy Crazy. This was way before the Dutch growers started offering them for high prices. As easy to grow as other camassias, they do multiply and set seed every year. Blue camassias are nearby but I have not noticed any hybrids yet.
A closer look at the hypoxis. It is an interesting genus to me, with most species by far in Africa, mainly South Africa where they are common veld plants. The South African species range from as small as our native hirsuta to much larger and are easy patio plants that can be brought inside and dried off in their pots for winter. Our native one prefers sandier soils for optimal growth. I can grow some of the South African species in the garden in protected spots and with winter wood chip mulch.
Speaking of things that get wood chips for winter protection, gerberas do well with this practice and become long lived garden plants here. The species do better and hybrids I have created than the monstrosities from the big box stores, but they can often get through a winter or two here too with winter mulch. Below are the yellow and white forms of Gerbera ambigua.
Some nice hybrids of Gerbera jamesonii and ambigua.
Aquilegia canadensis and blue camassia and a ranunculus species I grew from seed ex NARGS back when I was doing my doctorate. Still dont know what species it is, it has tuberous roots like R asiaticus and dies back after flowering only to send up new leaves in cooler weather. It doesnt like competition but I have more in another garden too.
I'm pleased the double form of Rancunculus acris is doing so well here. Unlike its single flowered version it will not take over the garden, I'm just glad its alive and well.
This dwarf yellow yarrow is an early bloomer and does well. Species name long forgotten and I dont recall the source of it.
A Lithospermum grown from seed has persisted in this area near the walk. It shows no signs of spreading though.
Aethionema grandiflora is an easy rock garden plant from seed and will self sow. There are other species in the genus and they are a mess when getting seed from the seed exchanges as they are easy to confuse with each other unless you are already familiar with them.
The bearded iris begin their show in early to mid May. The aril breds are also out, they have interesting patterns. The single colored ones first shown are supposed rebloomers from an online nursery. I got the rhizomes in late spring and thought they must be dead but every single one grew. Got three or four types in the mix, would have liked more variety but they were on sale so I'm not complaining and sometimes one or two will rebloom.
A lone pink rhodohypoxis escaped the ravages of the voles last year and is coming up next to a formosa lily.
Another amsonia species blooms out front, grown from NARGS seed no doubt. Which one it is is a mystery to me.
Not far away in the sandpile Amsonia species Georgia Pancake blooms. In nature it grows in sandy soils in one area in Georgia where I happened upon it some years ago. This was after I brought my first plant from Plant Delights so I immediately knew what it was when I saw it in the wild. Its a wonderful amsonia that spreads out to form a mat of the most narrow foliage in the genus. Not as fast growing as the other species, at least in our climate, but totally hardy.
And, you guessed, it, another amsonia. Got this one from Elizabeth Zander and it comes true from seed. It might be A montana "Short Stack". One of the best, its small enough for a rock garden and very floriferous.
A closer look at the mystery ranunculus species blooming on May 12.
Iris species, probably I lactea, blooming out front. Iris are not long bloomers but are generally very pretty things and easy to grow.
As mid May dawns, more and more things are either coming into bloom or blooming better than before. This is when the tiny Gerbera parva blooms. I've not succeeded in crossing this diminutive species with other gerberas yet but if I could it would impart more cold hardiness as it comes from the Drakensberg of South Africa near the Lesotho border.
Gerbera ambigua in its yellow form opens wider in the warmer weather. Other gerberas are flowering more profusely now.
Some delospermas cover themselves in flowers which open only in the sun. Called vygies in South Africa where they are from, they come in a near infinite variety in their home nation but relatively few can be grown outside here. More can be grown in the West as the drier and sunnier winters favor them and many species can take frost but not all can take our winter wet.
More peonies are blooming on May 15, all grown from seeds.
A dark blue baptisia hybrid grown from NARGS seeds in the front gardens near the walkway.
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