I’m a bit distracted today, and frustrated with back pain again. I think I can do things when my back doesn’t hurt, but forget that overdoing it causes the pain to return. Evidently, I’m a slow learner. Or maybe just stubborn.

Anyway, let’s look at my garden as we close out this beautiful month of May. Last week I showed only white flowers, but I’ll bring some color to this post today.

I love hibiscus syriacus, common name: althea or rose of Sharon, and wish I had more. What color would you call this one in the top photo? Lavender with fuchsia center?

The French/bigleaf hydrangeas are really looking great now. I have eight edging the yard and enjoy watching the clusters deepen their blue color.

These mini yellow daylilies are getting started as is the patch of coreopsis. My photo has one of each, but more buds are popping up.

My center rose bush is getting a second wind, and I wanted to show these blossoms here before I cut them for an arrangement.

This crinum lily wasn’t blooming last week when I showed the white flowers in the garden. It is named Milk and Wine due to the pink streaks in the white trumpet-shaped blossoms.

Green is a color too. Yesterday, I rested in the chaise lounge with a view of the prolific gingers with lush tropical foliage. They’ll show out in late summer and fall, but the upright structures add some interest to this bed. In the background, you can see the big gardenia in full bloom.

I was so pleased with my accomplishments over the past couple of weeks: painting some metal garden objects, doing some clean-up in the shed, and digging holes to plant some crepe myrtles. I forget that my seventy-year-old spine isn’t what it used to be, and I probably shouldn’t do any heavy lifting.

You gardeners know that it takes a lot of work to maintain a garden, and the work is never completed. I wish I’d considered that I might get old one day when I envisioned this space, and that’s a hint of advice to young gardeners starting out. But the joy of accomplishment and the pleasure of the beauty outshines the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to get there.