What’s looking good at the moment

May is the month for inspiration, particularly with the number of tulip displays and festivals in the UK rising every year. Increasing the chance of finding one on the doorstep, a chance to enjoy wandering around to garner a few ideas for our own gardens. Many of the festivals provide forms to pre-order bulbs, ready to be delivered for planting in the autumn. The only issue with tick boxes on a form is that is so easy to get, ahem carried away and wonder why the box being delivered to your house is so large. If you can’t wait until next spring for a display of your own, I’ve also noticed that many of the pick your own flower farms that have sprung up have started opening earlier. They are now offering daffodils and tulips, for picking too.

What a difference a year makes, this time last year I was writing about how short lived the blossom season in the UK was, most of it being washed off in the rain. This year’s dry weather has created an amazing display. Big, fluffy blooms that have covered the trees in shades of pink and white, not mention how much longer the displays have lasted for. The apple blossom in the garden is almost over but the later flowering cherry trees in the local park still have plenty of buds waiting to open. A beautiful avenue of mainly white blossom, to wander underneath with a coffee or enjoy while taking the dog for a walk.

The zingy, acid green of the euphorbias are lighting up shady corners, creating a sense of sunshine in the darker areas of the garden. Whether they are being used as the dominant plant or mixed in with a few blues. From Forget me nots, the veined leaves of Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ with its dainty flowers and Pulmonaria. Normally Anchusa azurea ‘Loddon Royalist’ flowers around June but I’ve already seen a few clumps locally getting ahead of itself. The warm weather has made some plants think summer is already here.

Aftercare and development

The warmer weather has meant some plants are flowering earlier than the usually would, the garden is already filling out, with some climbers already trying to scramble over the fence. Here are few thoughts on keeping the garden looking at its peak, ready for summer.

• Irrigation: If the dry weather continues, any planters or pots will need keeping an eye on and regular watering. Any new plants will also need regular watering to help them to become established.

• Pruning: Spring flowering shrubs such as chaenomeles (Japanese flowering quince) and Choisya (Mexican orange blossom) can be pruned after flowering. It is early this year but I’m already tying in climbers and giving the more vigourous ones a prune. Normally I’d prune them later but they are trying to make a run for it, over the fence.

• Plant supports: I have plant supports dotted around the garden, ready to prop up the floppy stems of perennials. Particularly if there is a sudden downpour, filling the flowers with water and causing them to flop over.

• Summer flowering bulbs: While enjoying the spring bulbs in the garden, there is just time to order and plant a few bulbs to enjoy over summer. Adding a few lilies to a pot, going mad with the dahlias to enjoy in the garden and overflowing in a vase or just because. Along with a few agapanthus and crocosmia.

Trends

No mow may: The idea behind No Mow May is to let the wildflowers come through, providing shelter and food for insects and pollinators. Whether choosing to leave the whole lawn unmown or a narrow strip either side, it can be a gentler way of blending the lawn into the borders. Personally I prefer wildflower strips that are left for the season, it allows any insects that are using the longer grass for shelter, to keep it. It is also a chance to see the succession of wildflowers that appear through the year, rather than a snapshot of one month. I’ve found Cardamine pratensis or cuckoo flower appears around the apple tree when the grass is left, seeing the small delicate pink, almost white flowers appear is something I look forward to every year.

Flower Shows: A lot of garden and garden design trends come from the flower shows, May being home to both the Malvern Flower Show and Chelsea Flower Show. It is always interesting to see what the colour palettes of the year is, recently there has been purple, and green with white highlight. The trend has been to soften formal planting, less pleached trees and clipped hedges and more umbrella trees. Allowing the branches and leaves to become feathery at the ends, with softer planting underneath. Sustainability, gardening for climate change and biodiversity have all become increasingly more important. It will be interesting to see what this year brings.

Forest Gardening has been a trend for a few years and is also something I’m increasingly being asked to include in garden designs. I have to admit enjoying the aesthetics of it, layering up fruit trees, with shrubs and under planted with herbs, for example. A change from the traditional productive area or raised bed. In a planter it could be as simple as a small apple tree or cordon, under planted with strawberries or a few herbs. Even against a fence, fan-trained fruit trees could be used, perhaps under planted with a redcurrant bush or two and some Galium odoratum (sweet woodruff) with its dainty white flowers. In borders or larger gardens there are amazing array of combinations to play with, from combining a range of fruit trees, early and later fruiting apples to plums and pears. A middle layer of red and blackcurrants, maybe some gooseberries or raspberries. Then under planted with herbs or alpine strawberries. Then there are nut trees to consider, planning what to plant is half the fun.

I’m currently enjoying a few days away but there will be more in the next newsletter on some of the projects I’m working on. In the meantime if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Camilla Grayley is an experienced garden designer, speaker and writer based in York. She designs gardens and delivers garden consultancy services for clients in Yorkshire and across the UK. Get in touch if you’d like help planning your garden for 2025 on 07887 926095 or info@camillagrayleydesign.com