Oh May! - Japanese Primroses

I don't even know where to start!  The garden looks marvelous in May! Especially at the end of May.  I can't seem to keep-up with the weeds but most beds are so grown that the weeds are not so visible.
I can probably write a post a day based on the amount of flowers blooming every day in the garden!  It is insane and gorgeous at the same time.
Lets make the focus of today's post the Japanese primroses which I started from one plant given by my neighbor and friend and a hand full of seed scattered in a moist spot eight years ago.  As long as you have continuously moist beds you can also grow these gorgeous candelabra primroses.
Primula Japonica charms all my visiting friends and gardeners with its showy pink flowers and spreading whorls of bright green, wrinkled edge foliage. It grows well in zones 4 to 9 and it will reach a mature height of 12 to 24 inches.  It is is seldom plagued by pests or disease and will live for many years if kept in suitably moist and shaded conditions.  

Primula Japonica

This spring I noticed so so many new seedlings of these primulas that I decided to build a new garden bed on a lawn spot that was always too wet to mow.  The result?  A stream of Japanese Primrose enchanting us this time of the year:

 See the stream of primulas?  And it is going to get better and better every year!

So I will wrap-up this post with this picture! My favorite garden view so far this year!

Foliage follow-up- May 2014

Astilbe

Hosta "Friends", Japanese Fern, European Ginger, Heuchera "Caramel"

Same grouping as above but including the Siberian iris and the Geranium phaeum "Samobor"

Sedums

Fig

Lupine

Japanese Ferns

Hosta "Sagae"

Hosta "Great Expectations"

Fern

Bleeding Heart

Moss and ?

Thanks to Pam at Digging for hosting the May focus posts on foliage.

Garden Blogger Bloom Day - May 2014

What a splendid spring we are having here in Northeast Ohio, USDA hardiness zone 5b. I do not remember the last time we had a slow cool start of spring where native plants, spring bulbs, perennials and trees got to have their own moment of fame. I am enjoying this spring even though the last couple of days we had a lot of rain coupled with temperatures as high as 88F which  made the crab apple trees bloom and look good for exactly one day!  I kept a watchful eye on the weather and got all my seedlings hardened last week and all the veggie garden planting done on Mother's Day as I was hoping to do.  Lots of annual seeds and flowering bulbs went on the ground as well so all this rain and heat should help the new plants.

Keep reading..

May Vegetable Garden up-date

What are you eating from your garden today?

Tulips time

As I mentioned yesterday, everything is happening so fast in the garden.  Today is going to be a hot day so the tulips will be forced to finish, reason why yesterday was probably the peak for these beauties.  I didn't plant a lot of them last fall but I had to since now I consider them a must presence for my mid Spring garden.

The "Roses Bed" in spring

The mad rush into spring of 2014

We waited and waited and waited for winter to be over. For Spring to unveil its beauty! It is all here! Happening before our eyes!  The mad rush of spring flowers and foliage growth! A rainy week coupled with mild temperature make for the perfect conditions for plants, bushes and trees to grow fast. I can see the hostas growing at the rate of 1 inch a day! Yesterday the foliage was closed. Today it is opened! The garden recovered from being behind last spring by 3 weeks to only being behind by 1 week.

Muscari and Tete-a-Tete Daffodils