GBBD May 2012

It's time for another  Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens  Our garden in Montrose briefly bathed in a shaft of rare, watery sunshine. A large pot of "Queen of the Night" tulips in the foreground.Soon after this photograph was taken the sky darkened and there was a heavy shower of hail. The tulips looked a bit bent and bedraggled afterwards.

Another tulip blooming in a large pot of the walkway. This is called Van Eijk which is a glorious deep pink. (it is pinker than this in reality)

And just to show how different, here's a photograph of the pot of Van Eijk tulips with the pink camellia still flowering in the background.

In spite of the bad weather, the wet and blustery winds this is the time for the first show of flowers in the garden and also rampant new growth. The first pollinators are also about taking advantage of the early flowers.

A bee collects nectar from the tree peony.

The Chaenomeles or ornamental quince has produced an abundance of flowers over the past few weeks.

The architectural cirsiums hardly seem to have stopped flowering for the last 12 months

The star flower at this time of year has to be the mecanopsis. 
This one is called mecanopsis cookei. It's a dainty little plant with nodding pink tissue paper flowers. 
Carol Klein enthused about them last week on Gardeners World at the Malvern Spring Show.

 The electric blue of mecanopsis sheldonii about to burst forth...

 In all it's glory...

 Then this magical blue mecanopsis adds to the show.

It's a several shades of blue through to purple within the one flower and fine hairs on the stem.

The back of the shade border has a mass of arching Soloman's Seal.

The delicate bell like flowers of the semi-aquilegia. It's very similar to the common aquliegia but without the spurs.

This anemone was a new addition to the border last year and was given to me by a fellow gardener. So far I haven't got a name for it. Maybe somewhere out there recognizes it.

It grows to a height of about 5 inches with pale buttery yellow flowers flushed with pink on the back.

The double Blood root or Sanguinaria canadensis is a family favourite. The button like flowers are covered by the leaves until they gently unfurl and the flower opens reveal the perfect white petals. All the blooms have been a bit damaged by the weather this year.

You have to get down on your knees to find the Children's favourite, the Mouse Plant (Arisarum proboscideum)  You can see where it get's it's name. It's a bit of an introvert hiding it's flowers under the foliage

The flowers nestle close to the ground and have to be searched for under the leaves.

That's some of the flowers in the garden today.
Be sure to drop by Carol's at May Dreams Garden to find out what's blooming in other gardens this month