Garden Blogger's Bloom Day May 2012

It's been a little while since I participated in the Garden Blogger's Blooms Day hosted at the May Dreams Garden blog.  Overwork and winter is my excuse.  But, if I can keep up my own blogging I should be able to contribute to this world wide record of what's in flower on the fifteenth of each month.  So, here's a sample of what's in flower in my Plymouth UK garden today.

Meconopsis cambrica

The chocolate scented climber Akebia quinata

Aquilegia vulgaris - just the wild strain

Begonia x 'Lucerna' in the shade house

One of my growing collection of epimediums.  Tiny flowered Epimedium x cantabrigiense

The small leaved - and very fragrant - lilac, Syringa microphylla 'Superba'

Rhododendron 'Willbrit'

Rhaphiolepis umbellatus

Pieris 'Flaming Silver' - this one rarely flowers with me.

Fuchsia magellanica 'Alba'

Shrubby, perennial, variegated wallflower, Cheiranthus 'Walburton's Fragrant Star'

Libertia formosa

Common primrose, Primula vulgaris.  Seeds in the front garden in shades of yellow, pinky red and white.

Spanish bluebell, Endymion hispanicus

The problem is that none of these, with the exception of my last remaining rhododendron 'Wilbrit', offer the bright colour that the increasing warmth of late spring (well, maybe not this spring) demands as I spend more leisure time in the garden.  The previous two months, with camellias and magnolia, daffodils, tulips and other spring bulbs on display, were actually far more colourful.  I've got every shade of green, some coloured foliage, but not that many flowers.  I have an early May gap - but lots of ideas to fill it without detracting from the more exotic display through summer and into autumn.  Clematis, Camassia and dutch iris for example.

Having said that, does this one count?

The photo was taken last year.  This year the Dicentra is nearly finished and Geranium endressii (peeping in from the right) is only just at bud stage.  But Polar Bear, our female long haired Jack Russell, is still in full bloom.