May in the Northern Hemisphere 2020

[cohan]

Some beautiful pictures already on this thread. Thought I'd take the camera round the garden and greenhouse again.

Arenaria for some reason I can never remember it's name.
Aster alpinus from the western Alpes courtesy of Gerd Stopp.
Azalea took this picture and sent it to friends saying do you remember buying us this for our Silver Wedding. It's 24 years old.
Cypripedium Emil.
Geranium Bill Wallis, you can see the flower power of this plant we had it in the raised bed last year and have found well over 40 seedlings in the bed and the gravel surrounding it.

Great stuff! sweet little Geranium

[cohan]

Hi all, been a while again since I posted here, hope everyone has been well and having a good spring!  Melt was a bit late this year (more like classic springs, rather than the early snow melt we've had in recent years). My theory that bulb plants flower sooner after snow melt when it is late seem to have been borne out this year-- when the snow is gone early, it can be weeks before anything flowers-- my thinking is that because nights are still very cold at that time, the soil remains very cold, and things are slow to emerge. When snow stays on the ground longer, by the time it is gone, nights are not so cold anymore, and things can get going faster. So, while flowering is still a bit later in a year like this, there is not that anxious time of looking at the inactive garden beds wondering when something will happen!
It's also interesting to see how various plants survive, thrive, change over time-- all of my Crocus are from mixed mainstream packages of 'Vernus and Flavus'. They've generally done well, with vegetative increase (no seeding, ever on any of them) but up and down years-- one year only when a local Snowshoe Hare was eating flowers, and at least one spring when, for some reason ( I think mild weather in December followed by sudden deep cold) there was diminished flowering. This spring they were looking good, but I notice the small whites and yellows that had been clumping nicely seemed less in evidence, and the larger ones-- the big deep red violet, so hard to capture, and the big reticulated (?) ones have been slowly but steadily increasing..... Crocus must seem very long ago to those of you had them in flower much earlier-- it even feels like another season here, and it is only a few weeks back! These shots are from May 02 - May 14.

[cohan]

More no-name Crocus, still from early to mid-May, West Central Alberta... keeping in mind we had basically mid-winter conditions (regular snowfall, still deep on the ground in many places, blizzard like days and temperatures in the mid minus teens to twenties) in early April!

[cohan]

Perhaps the most interesting thing in the early garden this year-- due to the later snow melt, or...? was that the Galanthus started flowering before the Crocus-- up till now, I've always commented that not only do they not flower here super early as in mild climates, obviously, but they were not even the first things to flower here-- well, this year, specifically in one of the Sempervivum Beds in front of the house (last photo some days after first flowering), they were up and at it as the first of the early Crocus was just breaking ground....

[cohan]

Flowering now:

That Genista is fun

[cohan]

More pretties from our Sacramento, California garden.
Dichelostemma multiflorum with Ixia.
Triteleia bridgesii is a favorite in our garden.
Collinsia tinctoria seeds itself around our garden.

The Collinsia is cool...

[shelagh]

Thanks Cohan. Getting towards the end of the month but the sun keeps bringing things on.
Campanula F1 Takion Blue
Campanula portenschlagiana
Erodium Pippa
Geranium Frank Hedley
Genista in front rock corner

[shelagh]

The Geraniums definitely prominent at the moment.
Geranium sanguineum Ankrum's Pride
Geranium Westray
Geum Sunrise
Japanese painted fern in the shady border
Primula capitata

[shelagh]

Finally perhaps, a lovely spotty Saxifrage in the raised bed.

[David Nicholson]

Lovely stuff Shelagh.

Here's Verbascum x 'Letitia. I completely forgot to give it a bit of a haircut after it finished flowering last year, but, having said that whenever I have done it's died on me.

[shelagh]

Letitia is always one of my favourites David.

[kris]

Nice weather today made me stay outside in the garden all day.
Here are two pictures of the rock garden with partial views.

[cohan]

Geranium Frank Hedley

I guess that's a Pelargonium, Shelagh? are you able to leave that out in your climate, or it goes under cover for winter?

Whatever you did or didn't do, David, it seems happy

Looking good, Kris

[David Nicholson]

Nice weather today made me stay outside in the garden all day.
Here are two pictures of the rock garden with partial views.

Lovely garden Kris

[Leucogenes]

Only five centimeters high, yet very detailed...  Jassione orbiculata from the Baba Planina in Northern Macedonia (2100 meters)