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The Fernwood Almanac

May in the garden in the Fernwood Almanac, Ludlow, Shropshire

The best fortnight of the year, and the frost date at last. Plant out after the middle of the month, and cut half your border down on purpose.

PlateAlliums in the long borders, May
In flower

In the nursery and in a garden within about ten miles of Ludlow.

What is out in May

  • Allium Allium hollandicumThe long borders are the reason people drive here in May.
  • Aquilegia Aquilegia vulgarisSeeds everywhere and never comes true. That is the fun of it.
  • Wisteria Wisteria sinensisTen days. Prune it twice a year or it is all leaf.
  • Hawthorn Crataegus monogynaThe hedges go white the same week every year.
  • Peony Paeonia lactifloraLast week of May here. Stake before it needs it, not after.
  • Laburnum Laburnum x watereriThe arch by the tea room, for about twelve days.
Planting calendar

Written for the Marches, where the last frost is usually the middle of May and the first is usually the end of October.

Jobs for May

Plant out

  • Tender bedding, dahlias, tomatoes and courgettes, after the middle of the month and once they have been hardened off for a week.
  • Runner and French beans, direct, at the end of the month.

Cut back

  • The Chelsea chop: take a third off sedum, phlox, helenium and aster in the last week. Later flowers, shorter plants, no staking.

Support

  • Stake delphiniums, peonies and anything else that will be three feet tall in June. Do it now while you can still get the ring over the top.
  • Tie in sweet peas weekly. They do not do it themselves.

Prune

  • Spring-flowering shrubs, straight after they finish: forsythia, ribes, kerria.
On the benches

What we have in during May

  • Summer bedding, hardened off and ready
  • Tomato, chilli and cucumber plants
  • Hanging baskets, planted
  • Herbaceous perennials in flower
  • Peat-free multipurpose compost

Stock turns over with the calendar. If you are after something specific, ring on 01584 555 0234 before you drive over and we will walk out and look.

From the nursery

A note on this month

The Chelsea chop is the one piece of advice that changes a border more than anything else we sell. Take a third off the back half of the planting in the last week of May. It flowers a fortnight later, comes up shorter, and you will not need a single stake.

Ellie Fern, Head of nursery
What's on

Annual fixtures, so the dates move by a day or two but the months do not.

Around this time of year