Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day has arrived again, and here we are at May. We’re nearly halfway through a year that still somehow feels vaguely new to me, and yet we’re within the final surge toward the summer solstice, which is a big milestone here in the desert.
As I look around the garden, I see May with all its beauties and foibles. The bloom seasons are transitioning away from spring into summer.
The lavenders are fading and need a hefty deadheading. The exception is my newly planted Lavandula angustifolia. I discovered it on a clearance table and grabbed it up because English lavender tends to be a bit harder to locate here. I’m happy to say that while it’s still wispy, it is taking root well and has opened some small flowers.
The rest of the story is that this is my second attempt with English lavender… perhaps enough said, except to add that this second one is planted so as to receive plenty of protection from the western sun!
Lavendula stoechas (left) and L. dentata (right) are still sending up the occasional new bloom, but they have pretty much finished flowering for now.
Salvias, on the other hand, are mostly going from strength to strength.
This Salvia greggii (upper left), with its deep rich red blooms, is proving extremely floriferous.
S. guaranitica “Black and Blue” (upper right) is just getting into stride, having waited for temperatures to warm before even bulking up, let alone flowering.
S. farinacea (lower left) is a mass of cobalt blooms.
S. microphylla “Hot Lips” (lower right) is taking a pause as it has bloomed its heart out for months now. I kept trying to deadhead it by spurts so as to leave some for the hummingbirds because it seems to be their favorite salvia. But the hummers are growing fewer as most of them leave for milder regions this time of year. And there are plenty of other blooms to visit. So a full all-over trim is in order for “Hot Lips”.
Not shown is a new, brilliant purple S. greggii, recently revived after I missed watering it for too long. The greggii types do seem to take a bit longer to settle in. They make up for it once they’ve taken hold!
The first flowers are opening on the so-called annual vinca (Catharanthus roseus), which is emphatically a heat lover. The plants were badly nipped by winter’s cold, but most of them survived. I’m curious to decide whether it’s worthwhile to continue trying to grow them as perennials here; a lot will depend on how they bulk up over the next few weeks.
The roses are fairly active though I don’t have many blooms to show. Buds are coming on Safrano (left) and Archduke Charles (right) as well as Paradise (not shown). The center bloom is from the young pink miniature noID (center), which looks set to be another very reliable mini.
The oleander (Nerium oleander) is a glory of white flowers.
Here are the first blooms on Leucophyllum frutescens “Green Cloud”. Now I’m not sure whether these arrived because of my recent watering or because of the elevated humidity from our current unusually early storm system moving through. Anyway, I am very pleased to see these.
The spectacular wildflowers deserve a mention, especially since each of these is actually part of the garden now.
Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla) is at its height now, and from the house I can see the yellow swathes clear across the river valley, on up the foothills of the Galiuro Mountains! These branches (top left) hang over the old garden fence.
The winter- and spring-blooming brittlebrush (Encelia farinosa) is almost entirely over now (center top).
A few blooms (top right) of globemallow (Sphaeralcea laxa) continue to open in shady spots.
This unknown wildflower (bottom left) showed up recently in the back of the garden.
The whitethorn acacia (Vachellia constricta) is also in full bloom (bottom center), though so far it isn’t flowering as heavily this year as the palo verdes.
Only a few flowers remain on the mesquite (Prosopis velutina) as it has reached the end of a very generous bloom (bottom right). Mesquite is not the showiest flowering tree, but I love its long fuzzy inflorescences.
The most exciting buds of all are these on the saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) that grows in the garden.
And lastly—dare I smirk—we have the desert’s answer to the showy yellows and oranges of May tulips! The prickly pear (Opuntia engelmannii) blooms have been magnificent this year.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little celebration of May in the Small Sunny Garden! Don’t forget to check the other GBBD posts from Carol’s blog!
When I first opened your post, before I'd pulled it all the way down, I saw the top half of the Opuntia and wondered: "Is Amy growing parrot tulips?" Nature manages to create look-alikes across a wide spectrum of climates :)
Nice to see our desert blooms getting attention!