Gosh, but April and May have been busy months. My last post was for April’s Carol’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, and here I am at it again one month later. April and May are busy months in the garden too. Things start growing, things start blooming, and with them we gardeners’ to-do lists grow and bloom as well. Here’s what’s going on in my garden right now, and in the past month:

Centaurea montana, or mountain bluet, bloomed this week. These were purchased last year during a midsummer perennial sale, and boy did they look sad when I planted them. Not anymore! You wouldn’t know these plants were ever sad. I’ve read they can be temperamental, but I gravitate toward blue and silver plants (these are both, with their silvery leaves), so I’m hoping they continue to thrive.

I’d be remiss not to mention Malus sargentii, the crabapple, blooming all over the place around here this month. We have a grand total of seven at last count, all of which came with the place: three venerable old trees and four youngsters. This is one of the oldest, situated by your back porch. Crabapples aren’t so attractive in leaf, especially with winter moth larvae intent on making Swiss cheese out of them, but for their twisted old trunks and two weeks of pure bliss in flower, I wouldn’t trade them.

Cercis canadensis, or Eastern redbud, bloomed this month. I have two, and this photo is from last week, but one is still very much in bloom. Redbuds are an outstanding native understory tree, meaning they take shade and compete well under large trees, and whaddya know? They have a great flower and leaf to boot. I got these on closeout at the end of the season last year. Like the mountain bluets, they looked a bit sad, but you wouldn’t know it now by how much they bloomed.

Finally, we have Kerria japonica ‘Pleniflora,’ my old double-flowered Japanese kerria. A large old clump of this airy shrub came with the house, and I’ve been busy transplanting bits of it around the backyard. It blooms most this time of year, then sporadically throughout the growing season. Makes for a great closeup too.

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So what’s blooming in your garden?