Spring Flowers Everywhere

Flowers are blooming in the yard and on my loom. Now that it’s May, I have changed my color scheme for the tapestry diary. 

May will be a riot of sickly sweet spring flower colors. I’m also having fun weaving viney flowery leafy shapes. Click on any photo to see it larger.

Here’s a basket of May colored yarns.

It’s hard to do anything inside, with the weather SO perfect.

Warm, sunny and dry, with delicious breezes and the occasional shower.

I always have to plant pansies first, as early as I can. That’s usually in March, but with the floods this year, I had to wait til April.

It’s impossible to choose, so I end up buying 6 of almost every color, and now I have at least 6 pots of pansies. 

I grow them in pots so I can move them into the shade as the weather gets hotter, and it also helps to keep the slugs away.

These small violas are the ones I always used to give to my Mom for Easter.

There were many azaleas sprinkled all over the yard and in the flower gardens when we moved into this house 5 years ago. I don’t like them in the sunny flower gardens, and would NEVER choose some of the acidic psychedelic colors which can’t even be captured accurately in a photo. (that purple is more of a neon fuscia shade) So I moved a bunch of them to a spot under the tall trees in the front yard.

I have fond memories of azaleas growing in the shade of tall trees in North Carolina and mine are doing very well in their new location.  Clusters of tiny bluets are sprinkled around between the azaleas.

This huge azalea, which is about 7 feet tall, lives in the back yard next to the stone wall. I have to be vigilant because various evil vines like Asian bittersweet and wild blackberries, dewberries and grapes, come creeping over the wall and try to strangle my shrubs and trees.

I was thrilled to spot these gorgeous blood red rhododendron blooms from across the yard. This color is unusual, as most of the rhodies here are in shades of pink, or purplish pink.

This rhodie was too close to the house, in a sunny spot I wanted to use for a perennial garden, so I moved it 4 years ago.

The next year it seemed to be dead so I cut it all the way back to about 6 inches, and for the past few years it’s only had a few leaves on it. If you look closely you’ll see wild blackberries growing around it. I was determined to get rid of them finally this year, but then I noticed they are covered with flowers, so maybe I’ll let them live until August and see if I get a bunch of good berries.

My favorite spring plant is this white Japanese bleeding heart, which is right by the back door, and grows from a tiny sprout to a bushel basket sized lush green plant in just a few weeks.

It’s covered in pure white hearts on gracefully arching stems, that stick around for a month or more. 

So, for the month of May, I’ll be wallowing in flower colors, in the studio and the gardens.