May Garden Notes

From my notebook on nature and the garden - May 2025

Ranunculus, sweet pea ‘Emily’, Nigella Persian Jewels, Olivia Rose Austin, sweet pea ‘Spring Sunshine Burgundy’, Common Foxglove, Nigella Persian Jewels, Clary Sage, more Nigella.

If colour comes back to the garden in April, then it’s May that sees the return of the scent. The first sweet cloud of Lily of the Valley as I walk past the bed at the end of the gîte, the heady notes of the wisteria, thrown into each room as the vine tries to climb through every window, and the bright floral scent of the elderflowers at the mouth of the woods, their pollen dusting everything as we pick them to make cordial. Then comes the musky, citrusy perfume of the roses as they slowly open in the sunshine, light and gentle at first, almost tentative, but then as every flower uncurls their scent sweeps into every corner.

By the end of the month the very first of the lime blossoms burst and we walk into pockets of fresh, honey-scented air on every trip into the garden, not cloying and sweet but a clean, soapy smell that makes me stretch out my arms and smile wide. Wherever I am, wherever I go I want there to be lime trees. Forever now, when I smell that smell I will be transported back to summers here, it will always be a memory trigger for me.