May 2025

[Martin Bohnet]

No one want's to start May, one of the most beautiful months at all? Well, at least here in temperate Europe. OK, so I'll do it...

lets start in the Garden, and let's start with a mystery: A spring-flowering, tall and slender Acis should be Acis trichophylla

, but I don't find any records of me getting one. Definitely not nicaeensis, that's more coarse and not even half as tall. No idea where that came from.

Next is my striped Convallaria majalis

- it already grew a reverted pure green leaf on one of the stolons, which I had to pull - always have to be careful with reverting variegated forms. Lets stay with borderline geophytes and add in Tulbaghia simmleri

(potted) and, in the bog, Pinguicula grandiflora.

May is also a good orchid month - here in the garden you can see Calanthe tricarinata

Height:	20-30 cm (0.7-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	green, brown

in front of Cypripedium 'Barry Phillips'

Height:	30-45 cm (1-1.5 ft)
Flower Colors:	yellow, green
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer
Climate:	USDA Zone 5-8

(at least the biggest stem with 2 flowers wasn't eaten up by caterpillars...), but yesterday I also went to my favorite place in the Swabian Jura to find some in habitat: Orchis militaris

Height:	20-60 cm (0.7-2 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple
Flower Season:	early summer
Life form:	tuber
Climate:	USDA Zone 6-8

, Ophrys sphegodes

Height:	30-45 cm (1-1.5 ft)
Flower Colors:	green, brown, patterned
Flower Season:	late spring

and some Orchis mascula

Height:	45-60 cm (1.5-2 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer
Life form:	tuber

in the background of a not yet opened and thus hard to identify Orobanche-Species. I actually was surprised to find them in rather good condition as we had a VERY dry spring up to today - in the last 24 hours we had as much rain as in April and March, respectively which all wasn't much: 27 l/m³ each.

To finish the excursion to my Wasserberg I found a rather dark form of Arum maculatum

- Not sure if there could be anything mixed into this?

[Rdevries]

Few things in bloom here in Kentucky
Arisaema kiusianum
Eucrosia aurantica (yellow)
 and E eucrosiodes (red)
Sprecklia howardii
Collonox albucoides (supposed to be a winter bloomer)
Resnova magaphylla

[Rdevries]

Thog brittenea

[Wylie]

This last fall I got some Iris spuria from the EU Bx, donated by Martin Bohnet. The first one has opened - yellow form.

[Martin Bohnet]

Dear Wylie,

It's not really a surprise that your Island is about a month earlier then my garden, for me those will flower in June (so these pictures are NOT current). I am somewhat surprised by the color though - I offered both a clear yellow (Iris xanthospuria - esque though most likely a hybrid) and a form that ends up orange-brown for me - it is VERY likely the latter one is quite temperature sensitive and will stay lighter in your likely less extreme temperatures - in the beginning of June I easily reach 30°C, so I think your perceived yellow is indeed the Imperial bronze.

[Rdevries]

spuria iris? 

[Wylie]

Dear Wylie,

It's not really a surprise that your Island is about a month earlier then my garden, for me those will flower in June (so these pictures are NOT current). I am somewhat surprised by the color though - I offered both a clear yellow (Iris xanthospuria - esque though most likely a hybrid) and a form that ends up orange-brown for me - it is VERY likely the latter one is quite temperature sensitive and will stay lighter in your likely less extreme temperatures - in the beginning of June I easily reach 30°C, so I think your perceived yellow is indeed the Imperial bronze.

I had this happen to a daylily I bought years ago from someone who lives Northwest of Munich. He claimed it was orange, but in my garden it is a definite brown. This Iris has colored up a little and looks more orange, now.

[Too Many Plants!]

Moraea Polyanthos

[Too Many Plants!]

Ixia Polystachya

[Randy Linke]

Martin,

This is the orange-brown iris I received in the exchange from you.  It just fully opened today in Armilla, Granada, Spain.

[Uli]

Some Aroids are flowering in the garden right now:

Helicodiceros muscivorum: flowers are impressive but short lived. They do not smell as badly as I had thought 

Dracunculus canariensis in the open ground in my shade garden 

Zantedeschia aethiopica ,,Pink Lady" the pink tinge is most pronounced on the bud and will fade as the flower ages 

Dracunculus vulgaris. Impressive flower, again, not as smelly as anticipated.

Zantedeschia aethiopica ,,Glencoe" one of the best named varieties 

[Arnold]

Hi Uli

Maybe your olfactory organ is not up to snuff?

[Aad]

Arisaema urashima Hiyou Gara Hana

[Wylie]

It is the time for Neomarica, blue form to open. It did really well over the winter, but the leaves got a lot of wind burn.

Herbertia lahue is also flowering.

Then there is a strange hybrid form of Lilium called 'Apricot Fudge'. It looks like a rose, but doesn't fully open.

[Martin Bohnet]

I'd like to start today with the Thelymitra - pink one is a rubra-heavy hybrid, while the blue is a pure Thelymitra granitora - i guess.

Staying in the bluish world, next up is Camassia, the relatively new "Sweet Candle" and "Violet Candle" named plants - sources are somewhat unclear if it is a Camassia leichtlinii

selection or a hybrid. Structure is very leichtlinii, so maybe a cultivar. I hope it will bring it's genes into the pool of C. leichtliniis seeding around, even though I think the color is not as attractive as I hoped for. Not shown: i also ordered the variegated C. leichtlinii, so let's see what will come from seedlings...

Speaking about seedlings: this tall bearded Iris is a open pollinated seedling from a darker yellow cultivar, but it is actually more floriferous than the mother - a bit like it distributes the same amount of color to at least 50% more flowers...

Some plants are beautiful in bud, like this Merwilla plumbea

  - and I was already concerned it could have been too dry over winter....

Sarracenias have a woody rhizome, so let's call them borderline geophyte - this display of Sarracenia flava was just too good not to show... It seems to be the only species clever enough to flower before the new traps open...

and finally: my 2.5 kg Amorphophallus konjac

Flower Colors:	black
Flower Season:	mid spring
Special:	edible storage organ
Life form:	tuber

has opened - in mid-may, outdoors and with considerable wind, the smell is OK - actually I had more problems with the distinct horse dung aroma of Arum pictum

in fall. It can also be seen in the flies attracted - the Amorphophallus attracts the usual carrion oriented ones, while the Arum got me Genus scathophaga...