With Memorial Day (U.S.) approaching, some readers may be curious as to the meaning behind this holiday. Specifically, how does Memorial Day differ from Veterans Day? Or perhaps you'll be using Memorial Day Decorations for the first time this year and need some pointers.

For instance, how is decorating cemetery monuments for Memorial Day different from doing so for Veterans Day? The former comes on the threshold of summer (the last Monday in May), so there are better options for Memorial Day decorations than for the holiday that falls on November 11. Click the link below to read my article on Memorial Day decorations and learn about some popular flower choices.

Read article: Memorial Day Decorations

As a baseball fan, I sometimes have mixed feelings about a game that my team is winning by a lopsided margin. One side of me revels in the joys of the moment, but the other side of me wishes that we could somehow "save some of those runs" for the next game, when every run might well turn out to be precious.

I have similar feelings about May in the landscape. May is a "blowout" month for floral display in my yard. And while I'm enjoying every moment of it, I can't help but wish that I could somehow save up a bit of this floral abundance, turning it loose at some future time of my own choosing.

In fact, I have so many May "stars of the yard" to report on that I'm going to hold back on telling you about a few of them: they'll still be blooming in June, so I'll include them in my report for that month, instead.

But without further ado, here are my stars for May:

• Gibraltar azalea
• Hawthorn
• Sweet woodruff
• Candytuft
• Kwanzan cherry
• Columbine
• Kiwi vine
• Lilacs
• Flowering dogwood
• Stewartstonian azalea
• Daphne
• Oriental poppy
• Golden Oriole azalea

How about you? Vote in my poll and let us know what plants are shining most brightly in your own yard right now. Or to mention a specific plant I didn't include in the poll, vote "Other" and tell us about it in my forum.

Let Us Know What Plants Are Currently Delighting You!

Some plants are so gorgeous and so unusual-looking that it's hard to describe them adequately in just a few words. It's really best to see them for yourself (at least in pictures); only then will you understand what all the hoopla surrounding them is about. Schubert's flowering onion is one such plant, so I won't even attempt to describe it here in a blog post. Instead, I hope you'll click through to my article on Schubert's flowering onion, where I discuss it in detail and provide a photo.

For a quick peek to see what I mean, you can also view my full-sized picture of an ornamental onion (Allium schubertii).

But the subject of this blog post is a warning regarding the growing of alliums. Many of you own pets, and some of you are already aware of how many compromises you have to make between landscaping and the keeping of those pets. I treat this issue (from the perspective, specifically, of keeping dogs outside) in my story on landscaping with dogs.

My warning to you is that alliums are toxic to dogs and cats. As I relate in my article on Schubert's flowering onion, our cat became quite sick from nibbling on the dried seeds. So should a pet owner grow Schubert's flowering onion? Well, it depends. If you own a pet that stays indoors, you can compromise easily enough: just don't bring the dried seed head indoors. The seed head is highly decorative, and our mistake (since we have an indoor cat) was in yielding to the temptation to bring it inside to display it.

Read article: Schubert's Flowering Onion

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I make no bones about it: I'm not crazy about mowing lawns. My attitude comes from a lifetime of wearing this green albatross around my neck. You see, whether as a child or as an adult, and no matter where I've lived, I've been expected to mow the lawn.

While the landscaper in me appreciates the reason for mowing lawns, I'm not speaking specifically as a landscaper in today's blog post: Instead, I'm speaking as just a regular human being (hard to believe, I know). As such, it's so easy to find mowing lawns an exercise in futility. It brings none of the satisfaction derived from tasks where you can say, "OK, let's do it and have done with it!" After all, the grass will just grow back to the same height again soon after, necessitating another mowing. In that sense, mowing lawns is like shaving; but since the grass doesn't grow out of my face, it's much easier to slip into an out-of-sight-out-of-mind frame of mind regarding mowing.

Anyone else in need of some motivation to get going on your mowing? If so, this piece on grass pollen allergy may give you a bit of incentive.

Read article: Grass Pollen Allergy

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