Marvellous May Days

The month of May is fickle and marvellous... it May rain, it May be sunny, it May snow, it May be warm and so on.... we are ready for Spring which means we are ready for... shorts, t-shirts, winter jackets, rubber boot, snow boots.

And yet we still LOVE Spring... I do.

No matter how it comes.

May is full of hope, longer days and the incredible glory that little brown bulbs we shoved into the cold soil last fall can give us so much joy.

“If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,

And of thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,

Sell one and with the dole

Buy Hyacinths to feed thy soul.”

Attributed to the Gulistan of Moslih Eddin Saadi”

My gardener friend, Noriko, sent me this lovely photo of the "Pink Frost" Hellebore (Lenten Rose) in her garden.

May is the month of lovely surprises:

a month of renewal and fresh breezes,

as crisp sunshine moves the wind aside

to show off glorious flowers…

Our peach Hellebore

Let's Get into the Garden !

I know…. “they” say to wait for overwintering insects to emerge…. I get that but I've never actually taken time to sit and watch for any wee flying thing to emerge…. in fact, not one of them has ever given me the signal when that time is.

It is a good goal, though and I know “they” mean well…. but I have many gardens to tend… mine and some friends who can no longer garden but still love to sit in them. If I waited for some sort of bug-signal it could be mid-summer and all would be overgrown and full of hysterical weeds laughing at my indecision.

I cut back broken stems that want to decapitate my daffodils and leave some hollow stems in staggered heights for those wee beasties still snoozing.

As for leaves? unless they are Oak (which take forever to break down because they are covered in Lignin that repels water), I leave as many as I can and try hard not to stomp over the soil …. glad I put down stepping stones because they keep me away from the struggling plants.

Here is something I do early. Cut back grasses: Otherwise, when they start to grow and I wait too long, I'll cut off their pointy little stems and then they just look cross.

...and I now use a Root Knife (yes, from Lee Valley)

... it's much faster then using hand pruners as I used to do....

By the way: When I share the tools I use, please note I don’t work for,

or get paid to promote any tools I use…

. I buy what I love and what works for me

- so should you.

Time to Prune...

HYDRANGEA:

ANNABELLES:

These grow voraciously with large white heads

and make lovely thick hedges or along a plain wall.

Because they grow each season from the ground up, if you leave them untrimmed in the spring, those new stems will bud out from the tips of last year’s stems and be weak with the heavy blooms and be weighed down by mid-summer

Prune or cut these down almost to the ground. If they grow up against a wall or building, cut them close to the ground at the front and then graduate their height upwards to the back

…. this way the blooms will be all over and not just at the top.

I don’t usually recommend using motorized trimmers for pruning, but this is a long hedge up against the wall of a business in the country.

It can take a long time to cut each stem by hand with a hedge this long (30+ feet) so this year we used a trimmer .

However, trimmers leave ragged ends so I still had to go back and trim the ragged ends by hand, and cut the front lower than the back.

It looks messy now but soon it will be covered with green and then flowers.

HYDRANGEA TREES

Cut these stems below a fork… all the new growth will grow from each bud on the sides of the stems.

If you leave all the forks, a new fork will grow and the blooms may be too heavy to be supported by each branch.

To prevent blooms too heavy: Do this below:

OTHER HYDRANGEAS

These are most popular around Easter and Mother’s Day….

Sometimes they will live a few seasons if planted in the garden in a protected place but they are not too hardy in zones below 6.

They bloom on old wood so wait till the buds begin to show along the stems and cut back to a bud as in the sketch below.

Time to Prune Roses...

There is a lot of detail on my site on pruning different roses… but yesterday I tackled the Rambling Rose that takes over the space below the deck.

There is only a bit about Ramblers on my 'pruning roses' page but I wanted to rant a bit about this one.

In the early summer, it is gorgeous…

Pruning Roses

When the blooms are done and it has been deadheaded, the foliage bursts forth.

However, in the early Spring, when the canes are bare, this rose needs a severe haircut.

That being said, it is full of prickles (yep, prickles on roses, not thorns)

- it has a mean streak whenever I attempt to prune it.

Look at a this mess !!

I wear leather gauntlets and start by using long handled hedge pruners until it looks like this below.

It is easier then to go and use my hand pruners to tidy up any dead ends.

Although, last summer, a huge cane (see below on table) popped up behind the summer tangle with white blooms - not pink…. a wilder version of this one….

Other Roses...

Cut all by hand... one cane at a time...

Go slowly and remember if you know how it grows

you can prune it Pruning Roses

If you have rose pruning questions.

... please contact me.

.. I LOVE talking roses and pruning....

Redbud Rebound !

Remembering the damage from the ice storm

and bunny snacking.

Here is the pruning.

And here are the early buds…

Not as many, but I hope it is a sign the tree will survive

A Beautiful Thug...

I will most likely get some flak for talking about saying how gorgeous these are… yes it is on the invasive list and no I did not plant it…. there are so many thoughts about how it gets into our gardens - from local plant sales, embedded in the roots of plants from friends and neighbours… and it spreads by seed… so on our boots, clothes, pets.

We could spend hours a week trying to dig the wee bulbs and never get rid of it…. its real danger lies when it spreads and overtakes our native wildflowers in nearby woodlands… so how do we deal with it in our gardens?

Cut the blooms before they go to seed…. in your lawn? mow them down.

They are usually threaded among precious perennials, making them impossible to eliminate… but in a few weeks, the leaves will disappear, lying flat on the ground among your emerging perennials...

Do your best and don’t let your kids or pets eat them (toxic).

In the meantime, take photos, sketch them and enjoy them while you look for ways to get them out of your garden.

Until Next Time...

Lucy says...

... the mornings can still be chilly

so go outside and be sure to be

snuggled up all cozy.

... works for her.

Books...

Have you read “The Light Eaters” yet?

If not, why not?

It has been a long time since I have read something so profound about plants... how they communicate (not how you think).... do they "see"? (likely)

- do they recognize their own "kin"? (yes they do)

It is not a quick read - although it is very readable... and on every page there is a moment or line that shocks me....

It's about a journalist's quest to find just how intelligent plants really are and what that means for us....

She follows the scientists who follow the plants...

If you only read one plant book this year, let it be this one.

No do's or don'ts - no plants to choose or not.... just a mind-blowing read.

More Books...

Other titles to read - go sit in your garden if you can

and read for at least an hour a day

…. Oh yes, you can

but you will have to MAKE time

because no one will give it to you:

“Fifty Plants that Changed History” - Bill Laws

“Carbon - The Book of Life” - Paul Hawken

“Braiding Sweetgrass” - Robin Wall Kimmerer

“Gathering Moss” - Robing Wall Kimmerer

Now, go see some art....

Ashburnham Alehouse

My Great Lakes Series

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