Early May Blooms Around My Farm
Many of you comment on how much you love seeing photos of my farm’s landscapes and gardens.
When I’m home, I always take time to tour the property, take note of what needs to be done, and visit with all my dear animals. This time of year, the scenery at Cantitoe Corners changes rapidly from day to day, week to week, especially with all the glorious spring blooms.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here in the Northeast, May is when we see so many trees and flowers show off their beautiful spring colors. The trees are leafing out and so many blossoms are emerging in the gardens. This view shows the tops of my majestic pin oaks near the entrance to my farm.
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- Muscari is a genus of perennial bulbous plants native to Eurasia. Most may know it by its common name grape hyacinth. Muscari appears as spikes of dense urn-shaped flowers resembling bunches of grapes in shades of blue.
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- They also come in light blue, pink, white, and two-toned. Muscari grows to about six to eight inches tall – and deer don’t seem to like them.
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- The boxwood are growing wonderfully every year. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted here on both sides of the pergola. These boxwood shrubs were grown from small saplings nurtured in one area of my vegetable garden next to my chicken coops. They’ve grown so much since we planted them.
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- The alliums, with their bold purple colors, are starting to open in this pergola garden – wait until you see all of them in full blooom.
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- Of all the shrubs that flower in spring, azaleas provide some of the most brilliant displays. I have many planted outside my Summer House. Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the Ericaceae family, which includes blueberries and mountain laurel. They are also all rhododendrons and members of the genus Rhododendron. They’re all just starting to flower now – I’ll share more photos of my azaleas in another blog.
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- And look, one of the first tree peonies of the season. Like a rose bush, tree peonies drop their leaves and their woody stems stand through the winter.
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- And here’s another tree peony in deeper pink, almost red – about to unfurl.
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- This tree peony is called ‘White Lotus.’ When fully open, its flowers can be up to seven inches wide and each flower held high above its bold green foliage.
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- The herbaceous peony bed is growing beautifully. Soon, this garden bed will be overflowing with giant peonies in pink and white. We just finished staking the plants. The stakes and twine will keep the plants upright with their heavy flower heads.
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- Leucojum vernum, or the spring snowflake, is a perennial plant that produces green, linear leaves and white, bell-shaped flowers with a green edge and green dots. The plant grows between six to 10 inches in height and blooms in early spring. Leucojum is a genus of only two species in the family Amaryllidaceae – both native to Eurasia. These bulbous perennials have grass-like foliage and are quite fragrant.
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- Mertensia virginica, or Virginia bluebell, is a perennial that is native to North America. Its buds are actually pink, but the flowers are blue. They can grow in any garden and bloom in early to mid spring and continue blooming through early to mid summer. Mertensia virginica will grow to a height of 18 to 24 inches tall, so they’re great naturalization plants for use behind other, smaller ones. They do best in peaty, sandy soil, but once planted, they require very little maintenance.
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- Dicentra spectabilis, or bleeding heart, is a genus of eight species of herbaceous plants with oddly shaped flowers that look very similar to hearts. These flowers are native to eastern Asia and North America. The flowers have two tiny sepals and four petals. They are also bisymmetric, meaning the two outer petals are pouched at the base and curved outwards at the tip. They are shade loving woodland plants that bloom in the cool of spring and stay in bloom for several weeks.
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- Here they are in a bold red color.
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- This viburnum is growing in my white garden outside my Winter House. There are more than 150 species of Viburnum; many are native to North America, growing in USDA Hardiness Zones 2 to 9. Most viburnums flower in spring. The sometimes-fragrant flowers range from white and cream to pink-flushed or wholly pink.
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- I love Camperdown Elms. I have two outside my Winter House kitchen and outside my main greenhouse. Camperdown Elms slowly develop broad, flat heads and wide crowns with weeping branch habits. Its leaves are broad oblong-obovate to elliptic, rough-textured, and serrated. In spring, Campberdown weeping elm trees are covered with blossoms. Although the flowers are small and, individually, insignificant, many of them appear at the same time. When the entire dome is covered, the plant turns from dark green to light, silvery green – it’s so beautiful to see.
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- And the Japanese maples everywhere at the farm are all looking so bold in color. Many of my Japanese maples are varieties of Acer palmatum – trees that have been cultivated in Japanese gardens for centuries. Over the last several years, I’ve planted many of these trees.I just love them and always look forward to their gorgeous display every fall. These specimens provide countless variations in size, leaf shape, and color.
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- Solomon’s Seal is a hardy perennial native to the eastern United States and southern Canada. These plants produce dangling white flowers, which turn to dark blue berries later in the summer.
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- In my shade garden outside the Tenant House, I have lots of beautiful ferns. Every day more and more unfurl. A fern is a member of a group of roughly 12-thousand species of vascular plants that reproduce via spores. These are ostrich ferns.
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- Bloodroot plants are early spring bloomers and may be found growing wild in dappled sun in wooded areas, producing beautiful white flowers. Bloodroot plants, Sanguinaria canadensis, get their name from the dark red sap found in the stems and roots.
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- Fothergilla is a slow-growing, deciduous ornamental shrub that is native to moist lowland coastal plain bogs and savannahs in the southeastern U.S. from North Carolina to the Florida panhandle and Alabama. It grows two to three feet tall and as wide. The whimsical flowers are bottlebrush-like spikes that bloom in spring.
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- And here is my orchard, which surrounds three sides of my pool. We planted more than 200-fruit trees here, many of which started as bare-root cuttings. These trees are all growing very well – in part because of the nutrient-rich soil.
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- And here is the entrance leading to my allée of London planetrees and cotinus and the woodlands beyond. Spring is here, and there is so much to look at and appreciate. I hope you are able to enjoy the stunning blooms where you live.
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