Five spring perennials for May

To help you choose, we've picked a range of May-flowering perennials, including shade-loving plants and plants for bees. To keep your perennials flourishing, make sure you follow our guide on which type of fertiliser to use.

• What to plant in May

Discover five beautiful spring perennials for May colour, below.

These stately perennials, also known as bear's breeches, produce large glossy leaves topped with elegant spires of white and purple flowers and are ideally grown in dappled shade. Keep an eye out for slugs. Try Acanthus spinosus, Acanthus mollis or the unusual white Acanthus mollis 'Whitewater'.

Ever-reliable hardy geraniums produce masses of beautiful, bright and bee-friendly blooms. Those of 'Anne Folkard' are a particularly vivid shade of purple, while 'Ingwersen's Variety' has smaller, white flowers.

Elegant and colourful – delphiniums are a quintessential cottage garden plant. Cut them down to the ground in autumn, once they're past their best.

Polygonatum, or Solomon's seal, are beautiful shade-loving perennials, with pretty, pendulous blooms, which are a creamy colour. For flowers that stand out even more, try growing the cultivar 'Red Stem'.

Depending on which aquilegias you're growing, May will either be the month they're beginning to flower, or the month they're ending their display. 'Texas Yellow' (pictured) flowers from March to May, whereas it's May to July for 'Chocolate Soldier'.