Springmoor Floral Focal Points: You Know You're a Gardener If ...

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor Landscape Manager

You Know You’re a Gardener If:

Thom Morgan

• You have stored enough garden hoses in your garage that they could wrap ten times around the Earth’s equator (and they don’t all connect, or they all leak).
• You leave so many plants in your yard unplanted that people knock on your door, asking if the plants are for sale.
• Your children claim abandonment issues because you’ve spent more time in the garden than with them.
• You have every tool and gardening gizmo known to mankind, and some are still in their packaging.
• To you, there is no “Rain Day” or “Day Off” from gardening.
• Your car has sheets of plastic, or cardboard, all over the seats to place recently purchased plants upon.
• Your kids can’t ride with you to the nursery because there will be no room in the car for them—and the plants.
• You’re always the first one on your street to mow the lawn each spring.
• Your neighbors always knock on your door to borrow gardening tools.
• You have lights on your lawn tractor so you can mow your lawn at night (because you were too busy planting and pulling weeds when the sun was out).
• You are still mowing your lawn when there is a tornado warning, and you’ve been told to take cover.
• You’ve given your lawn tractor a name like “Old Sal” or “Betsy”.
• You don’t step on worms; you throw them into the compost pile.
• Strangers show up on your beautiful front lawn with golf clubs
  
  If any of the above applies to you, don’t worry: you are not alone. Americans spend $40 billion each year on gardening, and the average home owner spends 150 hours in their garden each year. 

Springmoor Floral Focal Points: What’s Blooming in May

Late season azaleas (Azalea sp.) such as pink, and white gumpo azaleas.

Rhododendron Nova Zembla (Nova Zembla Rhododendron) has bright red flowers in May, prefers filtered sunlight, and acidic soils.

Rhododendron calsap (Calsap Rhododendron) is not as hardy as Nova Zembla, but this rhodendron has a white flower with a purple center—a real eye-catcher.

Pieris Japonica (Japanese pieris) is a good companion plant to the rhododendrons because it likes the same conditions. Japanese pieris have hanging white chains of flowers, and some leaf growth comes out red at first.

Weigelia Florida Wine and Roses (Wine and roses weigelia) is a deciduous shrub, likes full sun and has red flowers. In addition to the red flowers, wine and roses have purple-green leaves.

Albizia julibrissen (Mimosa) People either love this tree, or hate it. Wildlife can spread the seeds to the point that the tree seems invasive. At Springmoor, our trees are located in a natural area where it does no harm. Mimosas have fern-like deciduous leaves, and unique powder-puff like flowers.

May Gardening To-Do List:

1. Plant the warmer weather vegetables such as watermelons, cantaloupe, peppers, and eggplant.
2. Side dress your vegetable rows with the soil from your compost pile.  Apply like a mulch to keep the weeds down, and moisture in.
3. Lawns and vegetables should be getting one inch of water per week.
4. May is the last month to plant  large balled, and burlapped trees, and shrubs. High air temperatures put a lot of stress on large plants, so if you can’t get to them in May, it’s better to wait until fall’s first freeze to plant.

Next Month: Great Books to Read:

“How to keep Deer out of your Garden” By Barb Wire

“Popular House Plants” By Phil O. Dendron

Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community is a continuing care retirement community in beautiful Northwest Raleigh, N.C. To find out more about Springmoor, check out our website and find us on Facebook.