by Pam Erikson
Special to the Langley Advance
While each month features different things of interest in the garden, May has always been one my favourites.
New growth is on trees, lawns have that wonderful ‘fresh-cut’ smell, perennials are up and looking so new and perky (especially the new leaves on the very popular hostas) and bloom has started on the peonies, rhododendrons and azaleas, among others. Everything looks, and smells, so fresh!
By the beginning of May, you should have completed fertilizing or amending soil to all the perennials in the garden.
The bulbs will be finishing, but make sure you leave all the foliage in place in order for the plant to take in nourishment for next year.
Once the foliage is completely decayed, you can easily remove – or, if you have planted your bulbs conveniently between other perennials, you won’t even see them now with all the new growth in place.
This past winter has been a strange one in our garden.
Some of the 80+ rhodos and azaleas that we grow lost their buds in the extended cold, while others seemed to have thrived and have more flowers than ever.
Roses got a little more damage than usual, but are all coming back strong now – they just required a little extra pruning this year.
Peonies and hostas have come back at double the size they were last year so we can only assume they did not mind the winter at all!
Some things to watch for this month – when the peonies have bloomed, clip off the finished flowers as the foliage will continue to be beautiful all year until hard frost.
Just because the blooms are over does not mean that the plant is done – peonies are wonderful foliage backbone plants in any perennial garden. For those growing the big double bloom varieties, watch out for heavy rain as the flowers have a tendency to ‘kiss the dirt’ – I try to pick bouquets for the house if I know bad weather is coming, hence getting to enjoy their beauty and fragrance indoors as well.
The single Japanese-style peonies are much easier to grow in our wet climate as the rain runs off them and they stand up much better.
Some varieties to watch for are Bowl of Beauty, Bowl of Love, Flame (one of my alltime favourites with its hot coral-pink blooms), and Madrid, one of the new Patio Peony series of smaller, more compact plants. We also enjoy the Itoh peonies; hybrid crosses between the traditional perennial and tree peonies and hardy for our coastal area.
If your rhodos are getting too big and need to be pruned, this is best done right after flowering – don’t wait until fall or you will be cutting off all the buds for next year.
Root weevils are also bad at this time of year – distinguished by their notched nibbles on the leaves of the rhodos.
Tanglefoot is a good product that you can apply to the base of the rhodos – the nocturnal root weevils get stuck on the sticky substance when they attempt to climb the plant and you can pick them off the next day. I have also used packing tape, applied sticky-side-out to achieve a similar result.
May is also an excellent time to start planning your annual containers and baskets.
We are usually frost-free by the May long weekend, so you can plant with confidence.
And a final note – remember to keep an eye out for those slugs and snails now – all that young tender new growth is like cheesecake to them.
– Pam Erikson is owner of Erikson’s Daylily Gardens and Perennials in Langley and president of the Langley Garden Club
