May Garden Calendar

• Plant any perennials in your gardens now. Plant warm-season annuals, such as marigolds and impatiens, after your region's last average frost date. That's late April to May in the southern Midwest and around the middle of the month in the northern Midwest. You'll have your favorites, of course, but try something new this year, too. Pictured at left: A double petunia.

• Plant summer-blooming corms and tubers such as gladiolus corms, canna rhizomes, tuberous begonias and other summer bulbs.

•Plant or transplant perennial edibles now, including strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb and asparagus.

• Continue to plant trees, shrubs and roses. But don't plant bare-root types after the middle to end of the month, except in the northern part of Zone 4. They need cool, wet weather to take off.

• Divide and transplant most summer- and fall-blooming perennials now. They'll have plenty of time to get established by bloom time. Wait to divide spring bloomers until fall.