May Sunshine.
It is a piece dark outside today , but I have some syndicate of sunniness yellow brightening up the garden . Next month will be all about tasteful pastel , but in May we still hunger smart colour .
In all the lanes round here , moo-cow parsley is take a leak a fog of white and it looks wonderful but it is not tame enough to grow in the garden .
For mythical foliage in the brightest , wise color we necessitate to go to another umbelliferous plant which alternatively of feature white flowers is wonderful for spreading pool of undimmed yellow in the dappled shade of trees . It is calledSmyrmium perfoliatum . I know some people resist Latin names but this is a lovely name to rove around the tongue . ‘ Smyrmium’derives from the word gum myrrh , the Hellenic word for perfume and if you stab up this plant the solution smell spicy . And indeed it is edible , it has a vaguely celery - alike savour . It is a relation ofSmyrmium olusatrumor Alexanders as it is commonly telephone . The Romans brought this to use as a vegetable and papistical soldier would bear it on longsighted border district as all parts of it are edible . So presumably where you see it growing alongside the route , Romans have draw by . But it can also be find on sites of medieval monastery as monks used it as a pot herbaceous plant . If you are tempt to try it then do n’t confuse it with another umbelliferous plant with hollow stems , hemlock , which is deadly poisonous as Socrates would tell you .
Smyrmium perfoliatumis delightful because the leaves are perfoliate which means they wrap round the stems as if a magician is whirl dish round a pole . And they are such a beautiful colour and then you have the dear small umbel of Paris green heyday . They reckon like genus Euphorbia but they do n’t have the horrible caustic tomfool of euphorbias so you do n’t postulate hazmat suits to handle them . Actually , they are not flowers at all , they are bract , but never mind that , they look like flowers . flush transcriber love them because they set off whatever is in the vase so beautifully . In the garden they look fabulous with the gloomy flowers of brunnera or the mauve ones of Erysium‘Bowles Mauve ’ . I remember seeing them at Great Dixter grow with the tulip ‘ Spring Green ’ and edged with forgemenots .
But for a bit of dynamism , my favorite combination is with the elegant lustrous cherry-red flowers ofTulipa sprengeri . It is not always easy to find this very late- unfolding tulip and it is expensive but it set ample seed and if you get these on you need ever be without it . The buds have not quite opened yet , this is one I took last yr .
Smyrmium perfoliatumis monocarpic and that intend it dies after flower , but it seeds around exuberantly , some people would say too expansively . But I like to have puddle of it under the trees . I ca n’t see the item of only have one or two plants . And if it shows planetary house of taking over , you could always find willing taker for any spare works . Or you could eat it .
After being so rude about Euphorbia I do allow to growing some , although not as many as I used to because the sap is really awful if you get it on your skin and dangerous if you get it in your eyes . The colours range from sharp lime green to acid scandalmongering . But those ofEuphorbia melliferaare bronzey orange and they sense of honey which I find irresistible . It get a nice dainty big bush with bright green leafage . It come from the Canary Islands and Madeira where I have seen huge Bush of it . It does n’t get so enormous here and it needs a nice sunny spot . Insects sleep together the honey flowers and as you could see the emmet are love them .
Euphorbia polychromais a must have plant at the front of my border . Oh , hang on , I think it is calledEuphorbia epithymoidesnow , but its vulgar name is the cushion spurge . It is an outstanding plant in April and May with neat cushion of bright yellow flower . It seed about , but not excessively .
Other euphorbias in the garden were here when I come and refuse to be force out . Euphorbiawulfeniicrops up everywhere and I weed most of it out . But I like the way it has put itself in front of this sure-enough gate Emily Price Post at the end of the cause and it stops go past dogs from using it as a public convenience . A fully grown plant ofEuphorbia wulfeniiis a lovely sight with big domes of fresh quicklime gullible bracts .
Euphorbia robbiaeis more trespassing because it runs around . But I let a base of it spread under some Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree where it looks good with blue genus Quamassia grow through it . The adorable hydrated lime light-green heyday demand to be ignore off before they reverse an ugly brown later in the summer .
Another trespassing euphorbia isEuphorbia cyparissias , it makes an attractive groundcover with its small acerate leaf - similar leaf and dainty yellow flowers , but I would never insert it , it is far too greedy for quad and I am eternally pulling it out .
Somehow these shadowiness of lime green , superman yellow and chartreuse seem to fit out the season of May when all the foliage is so light-green and tonic . Soon we will be look for a more sophisticated palette ; once the peony and rose take over , the garden will look as if it is get dressed in velvet , silks and rich brocade and it will be wear upon the most sensuous perfume . But for now yellow causa the mood .
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26 Responses toMay Sunshine.
Oh those chartreuse , green and yellow shades all sing springiness to me and how adorable and clean they count in soft May sunshine which has been a precious commodity here so far this calendar month . We did have some yesterday afternoon and it was bliss but back to pouring rain today . I like to see Euphorbia in other people ’s garden but dare not risk growing any .
I hold to an affection for Euphorbias but I do exercise a capital good deal of caution when cut the stems because of the sap . They escape a piffling rampant here too , specially E. characias ‘ Black Pearl ’ , which I ’m tempted to uproot even though I enjoy it when it ’s in heyday . I ’ll have to look into Euphorbia mellifera , which I ’ve not seen here . My own garden was full of temperateness colours about a month ago but the colors are balancing out now in May , even though Achillea ‘ Moonshine ’ is in full blossom . I tried to grow a species of moo-cow Petroselinum crispum here double but it set up my garden wholly inhospitable .
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