The month of May brings such an abundance of colour for our gardens, as there are such a variety of flowers around now to really liven up the garden.

If you’re buying flowering plants for your garden borders, then try planting in blocks or sways to get a better effect than just planting single plants. For example a block planting of the same colour of tulip bulbs under planted with a mass of blue forget-me-nots will create a sunning border.

This month is the main flowering period for the wonderfully brash Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Visit public garden to see the amazing spectrum of colours they come in. If you do want Rhododendrons, then remember that they’re best grown in large containers with acid soil, as our London soil is mainly neutral.

A star specimen tree for this month is the Laburnum x watereri ‘Vossii’ with its long hanging racemes of golden yellow flowers. This lovely tree can be grown as a single specimen or can be trained over a pergola to create a stunning archway.

A very pretty shrub with masses of lilac-blue flowers flowering around this time of year is the Ceanothus, the common name of California lilac. There are many varieties of this shrub ranging from low-growing ground cover ones, to wall shrubs to beautiful small trees.

The clematis for the month of May is the Clematis montana, which comes in a white or a pale pink. This Clematis is a vigorous, deciduous climber and is great for covering walls, fences or it can be grown up a tree to give it additional the tree flower interest.

You can’t have a garden without some spring scented flowers, and one particular scented favourite is the Lilac -Syringa vulgaris. This is a vigorous deciduous shrub or small tree has a dense conical cluster of flowers that come in a range of pretty pastel shades to a dark lilac colour.

A lovely May flowering bulb to look out for this month is the Allium, which is an ornamental onion and it produces dense round heads of star-shaped tiny purple flowers. This flower is super in any sunny border and it has such an attractive seed head in autumn that can be dried and used for flower arrangements.

Enjoy the month of May with the colours and scents care of Mother Nature!