My Gardens in May
Today in the Northeast, we’re expecting scattered thunderstorms and partly cloudy skies, but so much continues to flourish here at my Bedford, New York farm.
The scenery changes rapidly from day to day, week to week, especially this time of year with all the glorious late spring blooms. If you follow my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48, you’ve seen some of the recent photos I’ve shared - the lush trees, the colorful blooms, and all the fresh green foliage at every turn. The gardens are magical.
Enjoy these photos.
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- When I first moved to my farm, it was a blank slate. Over the years, I’ve planted thousands of trees, shrubs, and plants. Here are Japanese maples planted in a garden near my tall and majestic bald cypress trees. Everything is so lush this time of year.
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- Behind my long carport not far from my Winter House are the blooming “Miss Kim” Korean lilac standards. The upright, compact lilac blooms later than others extending the season with pink and lavender flower clusters.
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- The little flowers are not only beautiful but amazingly fragrant!
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- Near my Basket House, I decided to plant heuchera. Heuchera is a genus of evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae, all native to North America. Common names include alumroot and coral bells. This is a ‘Northern Exposure Silver’ Heuchera. The burgundy foliage becomes heavily frosted with silver, forming a dense mound.
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- This is ‘Northern Exposure™ Sienna.’ It is long lived, hardy, and rust resistant and adds a pop of bright color to the shade garden. New leaves emerge green, then transform in summer to burnt-orange with yellow edges. And see the bright pink flowers and stems above the compact foliage.
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- I also have lots of Cotinus. Cotinus, the smoketree, or smoke bush, is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. Their smooth, rounded leaves come in exceptional shades of deep purple, clear pinkish-bronze, yellow, and green.
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- The hostas are so profuse with their varying leaf shape, size, and textures. Hostas have easy care requirements which make them ideal for many areas. I have them all around the farm.
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- This is Syneilesis – a tough, drought-tolerant, easy-to-grow woodland garden perennial that prefers moist, well-drained, slightly acid soils. If in the proper environment, syneilesis will slowly spread to form an attractive colony.
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- This is Pulmonaria, or lungwort – a beautiful, versatile, hardy plant. Lungworts are evergreen or herbaceous perennials that form clumps in the garden. The spotted oval leaves were thought to symbolize diseased, ulcerated lungs, and so were once used to treat pulmonary infections. The flowers are on short stalks that appear just above the foliage and have gently nodding heads.
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- Epimediums are long-lived and easy to grow. Epimedium, also known as barrenwort, bishop’s hat, and horny goat weed, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Berberidaceae.
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- This is blooming lady’s mantle, Alchemilla mollis. It’s a clumping perennial which typically forms a mound of scallop-edged, toothed, light green leaves. In late spring and early summer, the plant produces chartreuse blooms.
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- Known botanically as Podophyllum peltatum, this plant goes by various common names. “Mayapple” is used most often, but among its other nicknames are “duck’s foot” and “American mandrake. Mayapple is a native woodland plant that is widespread across most of eastern North America. This herbaceous perennial of mostly unbranched 12 to 18 inch tall stems are topped with umbrella-like leaves.
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- And this is Solomon’s Seal – a hardy perennial native to the eastern United States and southern Canada. These plants produce dangling white flowers, which turn to dark-blue berries later in the summer.
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- Japanese painted ferns are beautiful mounds of dramatic foliage with luminescent blue-green fronds and dark central ribs that fade to silver at the edges.
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- In contrast are the ostrich ferns – a light green clump-forming, upright to arching, rhizomatous, deciduous fern which typically grows up to six feet tall.
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- And popping up above its own green foliage are the columbine flowers. The columbine plant, Aquilegia, is an easy-to-grow perennial that offers seasonal interest throughout the year. Its flowers come in a variety of colors, which emerge from dark green foliage that turns maroon in fall. The bell-shaped flowers are also a favorite to hummingbirds.
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- Above my azaleas not far from my stable are several paulownia trees, which are broadleaf and deciduous. The flowers are pale violet and grow in 20 to 30 centimeter long panicles. The scent is a lovely vanilla fragrance.
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- I’ve planted several American horse-chestnut trees around the farm. These two are at one end of my Boxwood Allée. Aesculus hippocastnum is a large deciduous tree commonly known as the horse-chestnut or conker tree. It’s easy to spot by its showy bright pink flowers.
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- Here is another American horse chestnut in glorious bloom. These trees have dark green, coarse-textured foliage that bring out the bright salmon pink flowers.
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- There are very few plants that can compete with a tree peony in full bloom. They flower from late April to early May but the season often varies from year to year. These are in my Summer House Garden.
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- This is one of the many tree peony flowers. Tree peonies do not die back to the ground in autumn. Like a rose bush, tree peonies drop their leaves and their woody stems stand through the winter.
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- Iris is a genus of 260 to 300 species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris.
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- And here is one of many, many lupines that I grow. Lupinus, commonly known as lupin or lupine, is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus includes more than 200 species. It’s always great to see the tall spikes of lupines blooming. Lupines come in lovely shades of purple, pink, white, yellow, and even red. All my gardens are bursting with color and verve. They all look so great this year.
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