Finally the month arrives when the danger of last frost passes – May! Note that the danger of last frost is usually around mid-May, so don't be fooled by the wonderful, sunny and warm days. When in doubt about what to do or plant, check with one of our wonderful local garden stores. In general, they don't sell plants until they are ready to be planted.

Bulbs: Plant both summer- and fall-blooming bulbs.

Flowers: You may plant cool season annuals such as bachelor's button, foxglove, allysum, violas and pansies, nierembergia, lobelia, larkspur, diascia and calendula. Start warm season annuals such as blue daze, four o'clocks and pentas from seed.

Flowers that should not be planted until the danger of last frost has passed are the more tender ones like ageratum, begonias, celosia, geraniums, impatiens, morning glories, nasturtium, nicotiana, verbena and vinca.

Grasses: If you haven't done so already, trim any existing ornamental grasses to about 6" high and pick out any dead centers. Some ornamental grasses were in stores as early as April this year because we had some warm weather and they came out of dormancy early. It's a great time to plant new ones.

Roses: Plant new roses. Old ones should have been pruned at the end of April. For landscape or shrub roses, prune them 1/3 all the way around and clear the center. For climbers, count the number of canes you have and remove 1/3 (of the total number of canes) of the old canes from as low as possible on the bush. The only exception is if you have a young bush with 3 or fewer old canes. For example, if the bush has 15 canes total with 9 old canes, you'd remove 5 of the old canes (1/3 of 15). For hybrid teas, If the plant has bud eyes, take it down to about 18" tall if the plant allows it (each stalk should have at least 3 bud eyes on it, so don't take it down to 18" unless you can leave 3 bud eyes).

After pruning, sprinkle ~1 cup Epsom salts/large bush around the ground and then water it in with about 1 gallon of water. These contain magnesium, which our soil is severely lacking. Doing this once/season is enough.

Trees: It's a great time to plant all kinds of trees, shrubs and vines, including evergreens. Apply dormant spray to fruit trees before the buds swell. Treat any trees that have been effected by canker.

Forsythia and other spring flowering shrubs should be pruned after they flower if you want any blooms this year. Then they can be cut all the way to the ground if the shrub is really overgrown, or you can just cut out a few of the older canes.

Vegetables: Plant perennial and warm season vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant, and snap or pole beans and seedlings of cool weather vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, peas, radishes, beets and carrots.