Birds, Bees, Color, Sweet Scents, Fruits, Seeds! (and pilgrims… but that’s another story)
2025: Time for an Update of the Garden in May!
For the Love of Bees!
More May Flower Stand-Outs:
2013: What a Gorgeous Year!
List of Bloomers in Our Back Acre (2013)*:
NECTAR/POLLEN PLANTS
Azalia
Bachelor Buttons
Barberri shrub
Borage
Bugloss (Alkanet)
Ceanothus, Blue & White
Cinquefoil, 3-toothed
Clematis
Clovers – red & white
Columbine
Comfrey
Creeping Buttercup
Daisy
Dandelion
Daphne Ceneorum
Dovefoot geranium
Elder
Forget-me-not
Fuschias
Geranium, “Carmina Cranesbill”
Iris, Purple bearded
Iris, Yellow (water)
Lamb’s Ears
Lupine
Magnolia “Star”
Maple tree
Mock Orange
Money Plant
Mustard Family/Brassicas
Pansies
Peony
Periwinkle
Phacelia (aka Scorpionweed, heliotrope)
Phlox
Poppies – CA orange / wild types
Potato Vine (aka Jasmine Nightshade)
Potentilla cinquefoil (Miss Wilmott)
Primroses
Purple deadnettle
Red Hot Pokers (aka Torch Lilies)
Rhododendron1
Rose – Domestic varieties
Salvia, Purple
Sedums – mixed varieties
Solomon’s Seal, Giant
Sweet Peas
Trillium
Vetch
Viola
Wallflowers
Wild daisies
FRUITS
Apples
Autumn Olive
Beach Plum
Varieties: Nana & Ecos
Blueberries
Cherries
Crabapple
Currant, Black
Currant, Red
Currant, Red Flowering (Native)
Gooseberries, assorted
Hawthorn, “Black”
Highbush cranberry
Honeyberries
Huckleberry, Native
Jostaberry
Kinnikinnick, bearberry
Korean Bush Cherry
Lingonberries
Medlar: Royal
Nanking Cherry
Plum
Quince – Flowering
Raspberries – Meeker
Raspberries, Tulameen
Red Autumn Berry
Saskatoon, Regent
Strawberries
Strawberry, wild, groundcover
HERBS
Basil
Calendula
Catmint, Mrs. Edgehill
Chives
Horseradish
Lady’s Mantle
Nettles
Onion, ‘Evegreen’ Spring Bunching
Oxalis
Rosemary
Sage
Soapwort
Solomon Seal, Giant
Sweet Cicely
Thyme (assorted)
Woodruff, Sweet
VEGETABLES / PRACTICAL PLANTS
Artichoke
Arugula
Fava beans
Good King Henry
Kale
Miner’s Lettuce
Rhubarb
Sea Kale
Wild Mustards
Willows, basketry types
*The problem with such a list, of course, is that there is so much overlap in trying to categorize plants. Is it a fruit? an herb? a bee pollinator plant? a “practical” plant? all four? some of my sorting might seem a little random. Some flowering plants are not necessarily great for pollinators; some herbs are not really herbs, but maybe native groundcovers with useful properties. Where to put the giant maple tree? And I can’t begin to list all the annual vegetables…they pretty much grow freely wherever they reseed anyway.