The Ornamental Vegetable Garden: Time out for the May flowers

We had plenty of April showers - and still having them. They've brought a lovely array of May flowers.

Let's just take them in alphabetical order:

ALLIUM

Here is giant allium just bursting out of its bud casing and beginning to show some purple where the sun has touched.

A week later...

BAPTISIA

This is 'Sparkling Sapphire'. The picture doesn't do it justice. The flowers are the darkest, richest purple you can imagine and look almost velvety.

In fact, I've a better picture of the color from last year:

There are two of them, and they've grown half again as large in one year. I've gotten a few seeds to germinate, so I'll see how long it takes to get one to this size.

CHIVES

CLEMATIS

This one is 'Reiman':

DELPHINIUM - BELLADONNA type

(BEARDED) IRIS

(JAPANESE) IRIS

(SIBERIAN) IRIS 'Black Joker'

LUPINE

I love the foliage (and the flowers are amazing) - especially when there are dew or rain drops beading on them. They hold a big bubble of water at the central joint of the leaflets that magnifies the spot.

These are all from the 'Tutti Frutti' mix. I've got my eye on a couple other ones on the Outside Pride website.

MARIGOLD

This was an early one from saved seed. It's undoubtedly a cross of whatever I had planted, which were saved from the previous year. They're annuals, of course, and normally I get lots of volunteers. Not so this year, and my seed had a very poor germination rate. Perhaps they didn't appreciate so much heat last year.

PEONIES

The only thing wrong with peonies is that they don't stay in bloom long enough. This one is aptly named 'Bowl of Beauty'.

I love the big round buds on peonies. Here are 'Sarah Bernhardt' and 'Karl Rosenfeld' growing next to each other.

''Karl' is a real showoff.

And 'Sarah' couldn't be prettier.

The size of these is impressive.

ROSES

I don't know what variety this rose is. It was already here when I moved back. For the first four years I was here, it was scraggly and puny with a few very small blossoms. I've been pruning and fertilizing it, and this year, after a hard pruning due to winter dieback, it turned fabulous. I'm going to prune it back hard from now on.

This is a double pink knockout. I'm not that fond of the knockout roses, but this one sure looks good in a pot.

I'm chomping at the bit for the hybrid teas to bloom. They have buds!

'Julia Child' is already blooming.

SALVIA

This is a gorgeous perennial salvia: 'Caradonna'. The color is so rich, and the stems are dark, setting off the bright green leaves. Again, the picture doesn't do it justice.

TOOTHACHE PLANT

Such a little cutie, with great foliage. It makes a lovely ground cover in a sunny area. I'm growing some in a shady hosta bed this year to see how it behaves. It's an annual, but it does self-seed quite prolificly.