Top Ten Plants May 2025

This is a great tree to plant in the garden for several reasons. It’s one of the best disease-resistant crab apples, pollution tolerant and the perfect size and shape for the smaller garden. It also produces some of the best crab apples for making crab apple jelly! Visually, it’s a spring sight to behold, covered in a flush of fresh, white flowers which open from pink-red buds in May 2025. The crab apples turn shades of orange-yellow in the autumn and are much loved by birds. Although it can be grown in part shade, it flowers and fruits best when planted in full sun.

• Flowers from May to June
• Hardy
• Grows to 200cm tall and 150cm wide
• Moderately fertile, moist, well-drained soil
• Full sun
• Exposed

Another beautiful, low-maintenance deciduous large shrub/small tree. This can be left to grow to its ultimate height and spread, or pruned to fit any size garden. Unusually, its delightful, bright pink flowers grow on the trunk and bare stems. They appear between March and May 2025, before the leaves unfurl. Best planted in a sheltered spot at the back of a border or against a warm wall.

• Flowers from May to June
• Hardy
• Grows to 600cm tall and 300cm wide
• Will grow well in most types of well-drained soil
• Full sun
• Exposed

This is the ideal plant for a shady spot under a tree. Particularly delightful when in flower, it produces lots of dainty, small, white flowers on long, slender, branched stems. And it is generally trouble-free to grow if given the right soil conditions.

• Flowers from April to June
• Hardy
• Grows to 90cm tall and 40cm wide
• Soil that remains moist
• Full sun or part shade
• Exposed

Californian lilac is a much-loved, evergreen shrub producing masses of small flowers in the spring and May 2025. It is available in various shades of blue depending on the cultivar. The gorgeous, dark blue flowers of ‘Concha’ will stop you in your tracks. The first time seeing them massed on arching branches amongst the glossy, dark green leaves of the shrub is striking. They grow well in sunny, sheltered locations and may need winter protection if growing in colder parts of the country.

• Flowers from May to June
• Borderline hardy
• Grows to 300cm tall and 300cm wide
• Will grow well in most types of well-drained soil
• Full sun
• Sheltered

This is an excellent choice if looking for a specimen tree for a small garden. It has a neat, conical shape. And, during the spring months, it is covered in what look like large, creamy-white flowers botanically known as bracts. Whatever the name, the whole effect is glorious as they fade to pretty shades of pink. During the autumn, the leaves turn handsome shades of crimson-purple before falling, and, once mature, red, strawberry-shaped fruit appear.

• Flowers from May to June
• Hardy
• Grows to 700cm tall and 500cm wide
• Prefers moderately fertile, moist, well-drained soil
• Full sun part shade
• Exposed

An unusual, attractive, deciduous, ground cover plant. It’s ideal for shadier locations and has attractively shaped leaves turning striking shades of deep red during the autumn months. And, during May 2025, they are covered in sprays of pretty, bell-shaped white flowers. Plant in groups to maximise impact.

• Flowers from May to June
• Hardy
• Grows to 30cm tall and 40cm wide
• Well-drained, moist and moderately fertile soil
• Part shade
• Exposed

This undemanding, elegant plant is the ideal choice to brighten a pond, stream or bog garden. It loves consistently moist, nutrient-rich soil and grows well in part shade and full sun in the correct soil conditions. It produces semi-double, cup-shaped, pale primrose-yellow flowers on long stems from now until early summer. And its leaves are deeply divided, looking very much like buttercup foliage.

• Flowers from May to June
• Hardy
• Grows to 70cm tall and 50cm wide
• Moderately fertile, moist soil
• Full sun or part shade
• Exposed

When in flower, this plant bears a striking resemblance to a lupin, hence its common name. It tends to be slenderer than a lupin with yellow, pea-shaped flowers appearing on stems almost black in colour. Can be slow to establish but should then reappear for many years if left undisturbed.

• Flowers from May to June
• Hardy
• Grows to 90cm tall and 75cm wide
• Well-drained soil
• Full sun
• Exposed

Unlike other plants in this group, this grows upwards rather than outwards. And, during May 2025, it produces lots of large, velvety-looking, soft-purple flowers in between large, serrated-edged leaves. Bees particularly love these flowers, which provide a much-needed source of nectar for them at this time of year.

• Flowers from May to June
• Hardy
• Grows to 45cm tall and 45cm wide
• Well-drained soil
• Full sun, part or full shade
• Exposed

A pretty, evergreen plant for woodland or shady conditions, Tiarella will, in time, form dense mats of ground cover foliage. The pretty white flowers are small and star-shaped, suspended on top of thin stems. And the leaves will turn shades of red come the autumn.

• Flowers from April to May
• Hardy
• Grows to 30cm tall and 60cm wide
• Prefers humus-rich, moist soil
• Part shade
• Exposed