My Garden in May

A few photos of rhododendrons, bluebells, Celtic sacred trees (hawthorn, ash and oak), and some friendly robins.

First, a general view. A little bit of colour comes from wallflowers, doronicum and primroses. And scattered throughout are forget-me-nots...

The lush tall spiky leaves (not in flower) are hemerocallis. I have plenty of hemerocallis, because it's one of the few good plants that will grow happily on my heavy clay soil.

Beyond the border are some rhododendrons, and beyond them are the hawthorns and some big trees.


Rhododendrons

The rhododenrons are the most showy individual plants in my garden, right now.

This is Anna Rose Witney. It's the earliest, and also the biggest and blousiest, though not the brightest.

Right now, this is the most popular nectar plant for the bees.

I think that this rhodendron is Nova Zembla, only just coming into flower, near the end of the month...

From huge flowers to the tiny ones.

These are daisies, growing in short grass.

Grass does need to be cut in order to keep daisies. Daisies won't grow in long grass.





Bluebells

These are English bluebells.

You can tell that these are English bluebells by their nodding heads.

Bluebells like lightly shaded locations beneath trees.

Celtic Sacred Trees


These are the opening buds of hawthorn, also known as May.

This shot was taken at the start of the month. These are the 'Buds of May', as they appeared on the 1st of the month.

The Buds of May were the subject of a previous post The Darling Buds of May.

I have several hawthorns.

Hawthorn is a wonderful plant for wildlife.

This are the flowers of May, photographed on the 21st.

It has only just come into flower, which is very late.







The hawthorn is one of the three Celtic Fairy Trees. The other two are the ash and oak. See Wiki: Celtic Tree Worship.

Right at the far end of my garden there is an ash, and some oaks, together with some hawthorns. The ash is late coming into leaf this year, and the leaves are only just beginning to open in the shot just below, taken on 21st...

It is said to be particularly auspicious if these three fairy trees are grown together (See: Fairy Lore).

Fairies are very elusive, and very hard to spot. In fact, there is a fairy, barely visible, in this shot...

She is sitting at the foot of the hawthorn at the right.

Just here-->

Blossoms

Most of the fruit trees blossomed at the start of the month, well before the hawthorn.

This is a pear...

And a cherry.
 

And, just below, a Bramley apple...

Wildlife

Here's a nest box, up in an old apple tree..

And here's its little occupant, a blue tit...

And these are the tadpoles, as they were at the beginning of May.

A friendly robin...

Robins like worms for breakfast.

In fact, anything that wriggles...

This one is on the edge of the pond, fishing for tadpoles.

He has his head cocked on one side, because that's what robins do when looking at the ground, or looking into the water, in this case.

More Recent Post

My Garden in June 

Earlier Posts

My Garden in April
My Garden in March
Frogs Spawning (in March)