It’s May Bloom Day – Who Cares? « Gardening Asylum

The garden in May is full of blooms, but they are almost beside the point, the flowers a colorful garnish on the tasty plate of fresh new foliage.

Without the delicate blooms of pink and white bleeding hearts and blue stoloniferous phlox, the scene would be a bit less colorful.
But without the foliage of corrugated hosta sieboldiana 'Elegans' and frothy native ferns, without hesperis matronalis and purple leaved lysimachia ciliata colonizing the dry shade permeated with tree roots, without the elegant horizontal layers of dogwoods and red Japanese maples, there wouldn't be a scene.
Blooms are nice, but in the shade garden now, foliage is the star.

The pairing of old fashioned bleeding hearts, now known as lamprocapnos spectabilis, with leucojum is sweet, I'll admit.

In the meadow garden, the first camassias are coming into bloom. Native, rodent resistant and a deep purply blue. Perfect.

Geranium macrorrhizum is just coming into bloom, hoping to outshine the Japanese painted fern. Not today.

Who cares about Bloom Day? Oh I do, if the exotic blooms of native arisaema can be seen, springing miraculously from the rocks.

For the full Bloom Day story, please consult Carol at May Dreams Gardens.