The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.
- Edwin Way Teale
Spring truly is the season of renewal and hope as the landscape around us turns green. There is new growth everywhere uplifting our spirits, especially after the destructive hurricane last fall. Now the earth comes alive again with May's promise of nature's revival.
Flowers begin to open this month, with colors, shapes and sizes that we haven't seen in nearly a year. The early spring blossoms fade as new ones appear, to our delight and inspiration. Perennials seem like old friends returning after a winter season. We are happy to see them!
Different Flowers to Look For
One of my favorites is the clematis that lives on my trellis, with its star shapes in pink, lavender, maroon and white. This plant climbs high and produces large flowers. Peonies also begin to open with various colors and delicate, cloud-like blossoms. I grow both herbaceous and Itoh peonies that are yellow, pink, red and white. Over time, the flowers fade but the evergreen foliage lasts throughout the summer.
My Siberian and bearded irises display their variety of colors in May. Lupines show their tall yellow and blue forms with distinctive palmate-shaped leaves and multiple leaflets radiating from the center.
What a treat it is to stroll through my yard or to visit public gardens such as the North Carolina Arboretum. There is a visual feast of color everywhere, especially with dogwood and magnolia trees opening pink and white blooms. Native viburnum shrubs, including the Arrowwood, Mapleleaf, Blackhaw and Witherod, put on a spectacular floriferous show for our senses.
Blooming Shrubs
Azaleas are another shrub that blooms in May displaying a wide variety of colors. The orange flame azalea, which is indigenous to Western North Carolina, appears in many locations in May. Much more rare is the pink-shell azalea, which has flowers that are "the color of apple blossoms, and [in appearance] is exceedingly graceful," writes Elizabeth Lawrence in her classic book, A Southern Garden. This azalea is native only to the mountains of Western North Carolina, particularly Grandfather Mountain.
May is also the month of roses, which everyone loves. My yellow and pink Knockout roses begin to bloom every May. During the winter I prune them, then they grow rapidly in April, and by May they have grown enough to produce perfect blossoms. I grow the Knockout variety of roses because they are disease-resistant and produce blossoms throughout the spring and summer.
The Kalmia, or mountain laurel, another North Carolina native, produces pink and white bell-shaped flowers. You will see mountain laurels along the Blue Ridge Parkway and on mountainsides in the spring.
Last, but not least, the rhododendron puts on quite a show during the later part of May with pink, white, lavender and red flowers. The best way to experience the many colors of rhododendrons and mountain laurels on a spring day is while hiking mountain trails. Be sure to get outside this month and enjoy the unfolding beauty around us.
Judith Canty Graves is an award-winning columnist with a home garden in Asheville. Follow @TheObservantGardener on Instagram to see new garden photos daily. This article appears in The Laurel of Asheville.