I loved May in graduate school at North Carolina State University. Being free of homework and tests allowed me more time to focus on graduate work and research. And, in the evenings I had even more time to go visit the JC Raulston Arboretum. May was the first month where the garden didn’t feel like it was trying to decide should it be spring or winter. Warmth had settled in and the plants responded beautifully. Enjoy this reflective plant list of many of my favorites of mid-spring.
THE WOODIES
Hands down one of my favorite shrubs of all time is Corylopsis spicata 'Golden Spring'. It has beautiful late winter flowers, but to me the best show is when the yellow foliage emerges with hints of pink in the new growth.
The parade of magnolias continued in May with many of the evergreen species flowering. I was always delighted to search for the hidden flowers amongst the strap-like leaves of Magnolia yuyuanensis.
I can smell a banana shrub from 100 feet away. Usually the flowers are white, but this variety Magnolia figo var. crassipes has intense purpling in the tepals.
May is also one of my favorite times of the year to see variegation. Most of the leaves have emerged and started growing, and they aren’t burned yet from the heat of the summer. While there are a few variegated redbuds, Cercis canadensis 'Floating Clouds' was one of the best for holding color into the summer.
Deutzia get a bad wrap for being scraggly shrubs that only flower for a few weeks each year, but I still love them for their pearl-shape buds and beautiful chains of flowers. This variegated Deutzia crenata 'Summer Snow' helps extend the season with its white speckled green foliage.
Wowzers, even if this Hydrangea paniculata 'Shikoku Flash' never flowered, I’d still be happy with this spectacular cream mottling.
May is the month that some of the first fruits of the year ripen after late winter and early spring pollination. Here the native Amelanchier ×grandiflora 'Silver Fountain' is loaded with serviceberries ripe for the picking.
Our native Wisteria are often flowering in May. Seeing them reminds me of the plant at my grandmother’s house. This native Wisteria macrostachya 'Aunt Dee' was the first hint that maybe the plant that my grandmother raised wasn’t an exotic but a form of Kentucky wisteria. The seeds that the plant developed a month or so later were a second clue.
I’m not much of a rose person, but the pink stamen filaments on this Rosa 'Meiguimov' The Charlatan® really caught my eye.
Clematis 'Princess Diana' clambers through Cotinus coggygria 'Ancot' Golden Spirit for a striking combination.
I swooned the first time I saw the patina foliage of Cotinus coggygria 'Old Fashioned'. Isn’t it rich?
Oakleaf hydrangea are one of my favorite shrubs, and I was so delighted to discover this Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Turkey Heaven’ at the arboretum. The massive flowers hold up a bit better than ‘Harmony’, another cultivar with large blooms.
A close up of the billowing inflorescences of Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Turkey Heaven’
Now we are getting into some of the subshrubs. Leucosceptrum japonicum 'Golden Angel' has some woody characteristics, but most people treat this Japanese shrub mint as a perennial. The vibrant foliage certainly brightens a dark spot.
Lavandula stoechas is one of the few lavenders that we can grow in the deep south. Seeing how well it performed in humid Raleigh lent me to trying it in Texas. It has performed well here, minus dying back from the below 0F temperatures we had this past February.
I always loved the long border designed by Edith Eddleman and all the color combinations therein. Here Phlomis fruticosa contrasts nicely with the blues of Tradescantia, Amsonia, and Nepeta.
I’ve always loved Phlomis fruticosa for its vibrant yellow bilabiate flowers. You can also see its pubscent foliage here.
THE HERBACEOUS
I was surprised to see Digitalis growing well in Raleigh early in my grad school days. I thought they were more of a northern plant, but it seems getting them started in the fall and then overwintering them works.
I’m a sucker for poppies. I loved this cute little Papaver pilosum with its salmony colored petals.
Yes, I know Paeonia 'Bartzella' is a hybrid between a tree peony and an herbaceous peony, but I stuck it here in the herbaceous section because I feel most people treat it like a perennial. And, wow, does it have incredible yellow flowers. Seeing a peony thrive in the south was certainly a welcome sight.
And, here’s another peony doing well in zone 7b/8a! This is Paeonia lactiflora, the straight species that we know has resulted in many cultivar selections. I admired its blushed white petals and the simplicity of the single flower.
Romneya coulteri was always an interesting spring flowering plant in the scree garden. I liked the glaucous blue foliage that held the white and yellow flowers, and it really popped against the faded wood wall. I vaguely remember it spreading via runners or roots.
A close up of the beautiful flowers of Romneya coulteri
And, I can’t feature some of my favorite May plants from the arboretum without mentioning Asclepias tuberosa. Seeing it thriving here in the scree garden certainly provided some subconscious ideas about growing plants in gravel.
May was also the month that the tropicals really started growing again. I knew this very hardy Hippeastrum ×johnsonii from Tennessee. My parents have it in our front yard. Here it pops against the dark foliage of a Dahlia in the geophyte garden.
Another beautiful red flowering geophyte was the interesting Sprekelia formosissima. Don’t you just love that flower architecture? Native to Mexico, this plant is somewhat tender but worth finding a spot for in the garden.
I loved the two-tone red and yellow of Canna patens. The narrow petals are not as gaudy as the hybrids on this species.
Here is a nice mass planting of Eremurus 'Lemon Meringue', a geophyte I discovered during my visits to the arboretum. The flowers last for several weeks.