The waters of May

Everyone wants to be outside in this season, including these kids who are learning how to sail in the river outside the Buffalo Yacht Club. The garden centers are bustling, and it seems like the selection is getting better and better each year. Apparently, obscure native plants are the new exotics, so in my continual quest for novelty, that’s what I’m now buying. It’s not quite the same reason others buy natives.


So, on to my most belated Bloom Day post ever! Blah, blah, brunnera, blah, tulips, blah, bergenia, pulmonaria, etc. You know it all. There are, however, a few plants that capture my imagination every year, and some of them are the most common ones. Some of them are not, like the tulip acuminata above. I've had to replant it a couple times; it’s not terribly persistent. But it’s worth it (above). And if it will bloom, the blooms do last much longer than the usual species.


I also love my ground cover at this time. It is so fresh-looking; sometimes by the end of July it can get tired-looking—I must remember to cut it back some before that. I also love how it mingles. The gallium is by far the strongest, followed by the ivy, followed by the lamium.


The dicentra flowers are at their freshest pink. As Christopher Lloyd has observed, the continual blooming comes with a trade-off: flowers that do not begin to compare with the traditional bleeding heart. But I think the vigorous foliage is well worth it.

Next month I’ll be talking about roses. And so it goes.