Today’s photos are from Joe in northern Indiana.

May has ended, and hot, dry weather has arrived; it officially feels like summer in the garden. But the last few bits of spring have been beautiful. Here are some of my favorites from the last weeks of May.

I planted a LOT of these white Iceland poppies (Papaver hybrid, Zones 3–8) last year, but rabbits ate all but this one (sigh). At least this one is beautiful, and I think a fox or something has moved into the neighborhood because I’ve seen far fewer rabbits this year.

I inherited this peony when I bought my house. It was buried under weeds and not thriving, but I cleared the area and moved it to a sunnier spot, and it is now flowering! I think it is the old heirloom variety Paeonia ‘Alba Plena’ (Zones 3–8).

This isn’t my garden, but one I walked past with my dog the other day. Wow—just an incredible planting of bearded irises (Iris hybrids, Zones 3–8).

Here’s another shot from a walk around my neighborhood, this one of a beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis, Zones 4–8). It is an old-fashioned shrub I never see for sale any more, but the older neighborhoods in town have a lot of them. It looks so incredible in bloom, but isn’t much to look at the rest of the year.

The roses are just getting started. I don’t have a name for this little one, but I really like it.

I have sandy soil, so lots of penstemons are happy here, including this Penstemon heterophyllus ‘Electric Blue’ (Zones 5–9). I adore the color of this one.

As usual, the annual poppies (Papaver hybridum) I carefully grew from seed are still small, but this one, which self-sowed from last year, is huge and loaded with brilliant orange flowers. It seeded itself right in the front of the bed, blocking everything behind it, but it is so pretty I don’t have the heart to pull it out.

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