A Week of Flowers – Day Five

Cathy at Words and Herbs has been asking gardeners to join her during the first seven days of December in posting photos of flowers taken over the past year. It’s a way to help dispel the climactic gloom many of us experience this time of year. I missed the first day, but for the past three I’ve posted photos of a few of my favourite white flowers. I thought I’d keep with the white theme today, but take a look at some of my flowering shrubs. Almost all of them, it turns out, have white flowers, and at least half of them were blooming in May. In addition to white flowering Lilac, Serviceberry and several Viburnums, here are five other shrubs that harken back to May, starting with the feature photo, above, of Ogon Spirea – Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon,’ the first to bloom at the beginning of May.

Bridlewreath Spirea – Spiraea x vanhouttei – is glorious at the end of May.

Pearl Bush – Exochorda x macrantha ‘The Bride’ also bloom near the end of May.

This is a dwarf sour cherry tree – ‘Juliette’- it’s supposedly self-fertile but I have ‘Romeo’ not too far away, just in case!

Finally, Garland Spirea – Spiraea x arguta – also blooming in mid May. These small shrubs have a special place in my heart – it was one of the first things I planted when I started gardening here in The County. Since we built the house closer to the front of our property, this garden in the back field has become a bit neglected, the older branches on the bushes are covered in lichen, small birds nesting within the tangled thicket of branches…