Styrax in bloom

I was blessed when I bought my current piece of property in that I have a large grouping of Styrax americana growing here. It is a wonderful large shrub/small tree. It has vibrant burgundy leaves in the fall and tiny, slightly fragrant bell shaped blooms in early May.
 I also planted a Styrax Japonica as a specimen tree. It has larger blooms, no perceptible fragrance. It makes a fine specimen tree though and I highly recommend it. If given the choice, and each was available (Styrax Americana is not widely available in the nursery trade) I would choose the Americana over the Japonica.

  This is one of my favorite times to get out in the gardens and just admire all the blooms. It helps that it hasn't gotten too terribly hot yet, and that we have so many wonderfully fragrant plants blooming now. In addition to the roses and irises that I have mentioned previously, the asian honeysuckle, star jasmine and ligustrum/privet are all blooming and their wonderful fragrance fills the air. For those of you who don't know, asian honeysuckle and privet are very invasive plants here in the Carolinas (and I imagine in other areas as well, check your local agricultural extension service for a list of invasive plants in your area). I did not, nor never would, plant the asian honeysuckle on my property. I will make another attempt, after it finishes blooming, to eradicate it from my property. But, with two acres of woodland, I am sure I will not get it all. I have been fighting this war for five years, and while I am not winning, I am holding my own.
 I did plant some ligustrum as a small hedge. I had to have it because as a kid we had a large hedge of privet at our home, and the smell takes me back to my childhood. I make sure to remove the flowerheads after it blooms so that it will not go to seed, but there is so much of it planted around here that it shows up everywhere. I have many wild plants in and around the edges of my woods.

I have two spots where I have planted Star Jasmine, one at the bottom of the pergola that holds our swing,

and the other on the wall under our bedroom window.  It is nice to sit on the swing and smell the jasmine and when the nights are cool, we open the bedroom windows and enjoy the fragrance as well fall asleep. 

Out in the veggie garden, the sugar snap peas are maturing. We had our first batch for dinner tonight and man, are they good! 

And I have more broccoli starting to head up in addition to some side shoots from the first head I harvested.

 The cabbage is ready for harvest and I'll be making some sauerkraut this weekend.

And the tomato plants are doing well, and as you can see in the bottom photo, some have started to fruit.