May Flowers

We usually do one post per flower, but they come in so fast at the start of May that I’m just going to lump a bunch together.

First up is Creeping Phlox. This is the one that usually gets the most comments this time of year. There’s a long row of it which hangs over the edge of the stone wall by the driveway. It’s spread so much that this year it’s going to need splitting. You can see it swallowing other plants in the picture. Luckily I usually don’t have any problem finding someone to take the extras – this year our neighbor will be taking some for a new retaining wall they added last fall.

We also have a Wisteria which comes in to bloom this time of year. By mid-June we’ll need to start pruning it aggressively because it grows like a weed. It looks awfully nice now though.

I’ve trained it into a tree shape beside the driveway. This makes it really easy to see (and smell) the flowers. It does keep trying to grab the neighboring Butternut tree and start climbing though. Here’s a closeup of those interesting, pea-like flowers.

Then there’s a flower I call Cornflower, but it appears to have a lot of different names. You might know it as Bachelor’s Button or Mountain Bluet. I planted it because I remembered liking them in my grandmother’s garden. What I didn’t know is that they self seed prolifically. So after planting just one plant I have them all over the garden. In fact the one in the picture planted itself in a crack between the wall and the driveway.

Most of the other spring flowers don’t last very long, but this one will make a second appearance later in the summer. They’re pretty funny looking, aren’t they?

And then, of course, there’s the Lilacs. The Arboretum always has Lilac Sunday on Mother’s Day, but they’ve been coming early the last couple of years. You really should go see them sometime. They’ve got hundreds of different varieties.

We have a really big white one in front of the house which smells wonderful, but I’ve always liked the purple color better.

So when I got a free purple Lilac from Arbor Day I added it to the back garden. Now I just need to get one of those really dark purple ones and I’ll be completely happy, but where will I put it…hmm.