Advancing the Season: GBBD, May 2022

Maine’s spring has been long and cool this year, a slow unfolding more characteristic of regions to our south. But the arrival of unseasonably warm weather last week noticeably advanced the season as plants put on a spurt of growth and burst into bloom.

This is the time of year to enjoy colorful carpets of wildflowers, like these bluets (Houstonia caerulea) and moss phlox (Phlox subulata), growing at the foot of the front slope.

Wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana), which grow abundantly in my sandy soil, are now in flower, promising lots of delicious tiny fruits in late June. I have transplanted these into some of my flower beds as native groundcover plants. But, even if I don’t plant them, they show up on their own. I did not plant these at the corner of the patio, but I’m happy for their weed-suppressing presence there.

Violets are another native wildflower that I welcome into the garden. Most common on my property are sweet white violets (Viola blanda), but here and there, common blue violets (Viola sororia) have also been popping up.

At the front of the new woodland border, flowers of wild strawberries and violets mingle with the flowers of other native plants, including columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) and Geranium maculatum.

Not all the spring flowers blooming in my garden are natives. The serenity garden is currently featuring flowers of variegated solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum variegatum), bleeding hearts (Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’) and Epimedium.

The woody plants blooming in mid-May include both natives and exotics and both purchased plants and volunteers. The volunteer pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) that I first noticed growing outside my study window half a dozen years ago now holds its spring flowers well above my head. Another member of the Prunus genus, beach plum (P. maritima) is blooming profusely for the first time since I planted it in the new front border in 2019.

In a nearby planting of shrubs, old fashioned lilacs (Syringa vulgaris),  two varieties of Fothergilla, and pinkshell azalea (Rhododendron vaseyi) are all adding their lovely blooms to the spring scene.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted on the 15th of each month (although some of us are chronically late to the party!) by Carol Michel at May Dreams Gardens. Visit her web site for links to May blooms from many gardens.