May Bloom Bliss

It's almost half May and time once again for my contribution to Garden Bloggers Blooms Day. There are so many blooms in my garden at the mo that I've decided to show just a selection of them as showing them all plus making long lists of blooms would take up way too much of my time. Last year writing a post for GBBD took up 4 hours of my time from May until October. That's just too much time to spend writing a blog as I also need time to visit my favourite blogs and, something that is very important and much appreciated by almost all garden bloggers, to leave comments.
Clematis Snow Queen

So what is in bloom at Bliss at the moment ? Well, we have Irises in flower, and Clematis too.
Clematis Multi Blue
Clematis montana rubra

I don't have the names of the Irises as I thought I'd bought one particular Iris but then was surprised to find that so far, none are of the variety I wanted. That can and does happen when you buy plants not in flower.

The garden cottage is looking very pleased with itself now that all those beautiful flowers are in bloom. Such a cheerful sight for sore eyes, don't you think?
New on Bliss is this climber
Wistaria Floribunda Longissima Alba

a lovely white Wistaria. No, not a spelling error, the person this plant was named after was called Dr Caspar Wistar not Wister, hence Wistaria. I bought my Wistaria last year when it was not in flower. Buying plants not in flower can be a bit of a risk as sometimes plants are not labelled correctly (we have all been burned that way, right?) and I could have ended up with a blue Wistaria but, I'm very happy to say, it turned out to be a white one and its scent is heavenly.
Also new this year are these lovely little Anemones; they are white with a pink circle around the heart of the flower. I think they are gorgeous and hopefully there will be more of them next year.
Most of the early spring bulbs are gone now but other bulbs have taken over the flowering baton. Here are some pretty aliums to enjoy. They are in my front garden, together with the last of my tulips Queen of the Night.
It's difficult to do these gorgeous tulips justice as their dark colour does not photograph very well. Let's try again.
Better, but not quite right yet. How about this pic, it's showing a lovely combination of dark burgundy purple Queen of the Night tulip with pink Columbine.
Underneath the tulips the white Geraniums are coming up. It won't be long now before my front garden will change her colourful spring frock into a scrumptious bridal white. The roses are already working hard to turn my front garden into a white, wonderfully scented Bliss.
Madame Alfred Carriere is already in flower, she was the second flowering rose this year, just like last year. The earliest, both this year and lasts, is Rosa Moonlight.
Rosa Moonlight

Moonlight is a very strong rose with loads of beautiful white blooms with a wonderful scent and it flowers for most of the year. Its stems and new leaves are a very pretty burgundy red, the older leaves are dark green and glossy.
Rosa Madame Alfred Carriere

Dear Madame Alfred is not quite white, I've smuggled a bit here, but a lovely pale pink and her scent is pure bliss.

I've planted the roses in my front garden in June of 2006 so they have been here for almost 2 years now. Most of my white roses have a bed of their own and are growing up a rose standard. But what a difference there is between the roses.
Rosa Moonlight is filling up her bed nicely.
Here's Rosa Sombreuil, who is a rather modest rose although her fragrance is not modest at all; it's of the kind you want to bottle and douse yourself with.
Sombreuil
Rosa Blanc Double de Coubert is also of the more modest kind. Its flowers are of the purest white and its scent is a bit like pineapple, very fresh and fruity.
Rosa Blanc Double de Coubert

I have two of those and although they are not real climbers they do very well in the beds they share with white lavender. They haven't reached the top of the standard yet but they will in time.

But what about this one, Rosa Guirlande d'Amour?
This isn't growing, it's exploding all over the place. You can hardly see the bed it is in and it's is covered in buds right now. Can't wait to see this one flowering, it will be a riot!

One of my favourite May flowers is the Elderberry. I love its delicate lacy flowers, both for their beauty and for the delicious things you can do with them. You can fry the flowers in batter, use them in pancakes or make a very tasty and refreshing non-alcoholic champagne from the flowers. Here you can read how to make this delicious champagne. Cheers!
Elderberry blossom

Copyright 2008 Y.E.W. Heuzen

From personal experience I can tell those who look with longing eyes on a neighbour's lovely garden (...) that this is all possible for you (...) with no experience, provided you are willing to become acquainted with the plants through personal contact, the glory of success, the sorrow of failure, a little patience and some work.
Mrs Greenleaf Clark, The Garden Magazine, May 1917