May is lush early summer in Alabama — the breeding bird chorus is at full pitch, southern magnolias open their great creamy flowers, the oakleaf hydrangeas bloom on shaded bluffs, and Chilton County's first peaches and the season's strawberries crowd the markets. The warm-season garden takes off as the long Southern summer settles in.
Week by week in May
April 30 – May 6
- The last passage migrants stream through — Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, and Cape May Warblers — as breeding song reaches full pitch statewide.
- The Eta Aquariid meteor shower, debris from Halley's Comet, peaks in early May, favoring the pre-dawn hours low in the southeast from a dark site.
- Strawberries hit their peak — local, ripe, and fragrant — and the season's first Chilton County peaches arrive late in the period.
May 7–13
- The state wildflower oakleaf hydrangea opens its big white cone-shaped clusters on shaded bluffs across central and north Alabama.
- Southern magnolia begins its great creamy-white, lemon-scented flowers across the Coastal Plain and Black Belt — the iconic tree of the Deep South.
- Beach-nesting Black Skimmers, Least Terns, and Wilson's Plovers settle the coast, and Painted Buntings sing from the coastal scrub.
May 14–20
- Gulf fritillaries build on the passionflower vines, and the meadows fill with great spangled fritillaries, pearl crescents, and grass skippers.
- Mountain laurel washes the Cumberland Plateau slopes pink and white, and roadsides glow with Indian blanket, coreopsis, and evening primrose.
- Plant heat-lovers — okra, southern peas, and sweet potato slips — and harvest the last spring lettuce, peas, and the first summer squash.
May 21–27
- Chilton County peaches and the first tomatoes flood the markets, with new potatoes, sugar snap peas, and the first blueberries from the south.
- Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites wheel and nest over the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, and the longleaf rings with Bachman's Sparrow song.
- The keystone of Hercules climbs overhead with its great M13 globular cluster, a telescope showpiece from a dark site.
May 28 – June 3
- Southern magnolia is in full bloom and the native sourwood sets its buds, while the crepe myrtles begin their long Southern summer display.
- The summer monarch brood works the milkweed and gulf fritillaries swarm the passionflower as the swallowtails fly strong.
- Peak summer harvest begins — pick squash, cucumbers, and beans daily, and water deeply as the heat and humidity set in.
Birds This Month
May is the peak of breeding birdsong in Alabama and the tail of spring migration. The last passage migrants stream through Dauphin Island and inland early in the month — Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, Cape May, and Magnolia Warblers, late tanagers and grosbeaks — while the breeding birds settle fully in. The woods ring with Wood Thrush, Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, Red-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireos, Acadian Flycatchers, Ovenbirds, and warblers — Hooded, Northern Parula, Yellow-throated, Prairie, Kentucky, Worm-eating, and Prothonotary in the swamps.
On the coast, breeding Painted Buntings, Black Skimmers, Least and Gull-billed Terns, Wilson's Plovers, and American Oystercatchers settle the beaches and marshes, and Brown Pelicans nest on the islands. The longleaf pine rings with Bachman's Sparrow, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Over the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and the lower Coastal Plain, Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites wheel and nest, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, orioles, and buntings are nesting statewide.
What's Blooming
May moves Alabama's wildflower show from the woods to the open country and the shaded bluffs. The signature native bloom is the state wildflower, the oakleaf hydrangea, opening its big cone-shaped white flower clusters on shaded ravine slopes and stream banks across central and north Alabama — a uniquely Southern shrub. The mountain laurel washes the plateau slopes pink and white, and the last native azaleas finish in the woods.
The meadows, longleaf savannas, and roadsides bloom — blue-eyed grass, fleabane, ox-eye daisy, coreopsis, spiderwort, Indian pink, lance-leaved coreopsis, and the first butterfly weed, coneflowers, and black-eyed Susans. In the southern Coastal Plain bogs, the pitcher plants still flower above their trumpets at Splinter Hill Bog, joined by grass-pinks and other bog orchids. Roadsides glow with Indian blanket, evening primrose, and coreopsis. In gardens, the roses, irises, gardenias, and Southern magnolia peak, the hydrangeas color up, and the first daylilies open as the warm season hits full stride.
Garden This Month
May is the lush, fast-growing month in Alabama gardens, frost long past statewide and the warm-season garden in full swing. The spring harvest peaks and then fades in the heat — pick the last lettuce, spinach, peas, radishes, broccoli, beets, and carrots, the first strawberries and summer squash, and new potatoes — while the summer crops grow fast. Set out any remaining tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil, and plant heat-lovers like okra, southern peas, and sweet potato slips into warm soil.
Direct-sow beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, melons, and more okra for a steady summer supply. Stake and cage tomatoes, trellis cucumbers and pole beans, and mulch deeply to hold moisture and suppress weeds as the heat and humidity build. Watch closely for the warm-season pests now in force — squash bugs and vine borers, cucumber beetles, stink bugs, and the tomato hornworm — and stay ahead of fungal blights with airflow and mulch. Side-dress heavy feeders, water an inch a week, and succession-sow beans and corn through the most generous, fast-growing weeks of the year.
Zone 7a (highest Cumberland Plateau & northeast Alabama): the warm-season garden is fully in now that frost is safely past. Set out any remaining tomatoes and peppers, direct-sow beans, corn, squash, and cucumbers, plant sweet potato slips, and keep harvesting the cool-season peas and greens before the heat ends them.
Zone 7b (north Alabama & Tennessee Valley): peak planting and early harvest. Set out all warm-season crops, plant okra and southern peas in the warm soil, harvest the last spring lettuce and peas, and begin a steady mulching and watering routine as the heat builds.
Zone 8a (central Alabama): the summer garden takes off. Keep tomatoes staked and side-dressed, succession-sow beans and corn, plant heat-loving okra, southern peas, and a second round of squash, and mulch deeply against the rising heat.
What's at the Farmers Market
May is when Alabama markets reach their first full summer abundance. Strawberries hit their peak — local, ripe, and fragrant — and the season's first Chilton County peaches arrive late in the month from the famous orchards around Clanton. The vegetables pour in: new potatoes, lettuce, spinach, sugar snap and English peas, radishes, spring onions, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, broccoli, cabbage, beets, and the first tomatoes from the warm coast.
Tender herbs, green garlic, bunches of cooking greens, and cut flowers brighten the stands, and the first blueberries begin in the south. The Gulf shrimp season is well underway, and fresh Gulf shrimp appear at coastal and inland markets. Bedding plants and tomato transplants still crowd the tables for late planters. Choose strawberries fully red and fragrant — they won't sweeten after picking — and refrigerate them dry and unwashed for a day or two; ripen firm peaches on the counter, then refrigerate once soft; and eat sweet corn the day you buy it. The markets are bright with the first real bounty of the Alabama summer.
Night Sky This Month
May's warm, comfortable nights make for some of the easiest stargazing of the Alabama year as the spring sky gives way to summer. The state's dark-sky havens — the Von Braun Astronomical Society observatory at Monte Sano State Park near Huntsville, the Cumberland Plateau and Bankhead National Forest ridgelines, and the unlit Gulf beaches of west Dauphin Island — offer the best escape from the lights of Birmingham, Huntsville, and Mobile.
Orange Arcturus in Boötes stands high overhead, the Northern Crown (Corona Borealis) and the keystone of Hercules climb in the east — the latter holding the magnificent M13 globular cluster in a telescope — and Virgo with blue-white Spica dominates the south. The Eta Aquariid meteor shower, debris from Halley's Comet, peaks in early May, favoring the pre-dawn hours low in the southeast from a dark site. Late in the night the Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb, and Altair rises in the east, and the summer Milky Way begins to return. The printable Alabama night-sky guide lists this year's exact meteor-peak dates, planet positions, and the best dark-sky sites for your region.
Butterflies & Pollinators
May is a high point of the Alabama butterfly year. The big swallowtails are out in force across the state — eastern tiger swallowtails (often the dark female form), zebra swallowtails over the pawpaw, and spicebush, black, pipevine, giant, and the coastal palamedes swallowtails patrol gardens, wood edges, and blooming flowers. The meadows fill with great spangled and variegated fritillaries, pearl crescents, common buckeyes, common wood-nymphs, silver-spotted skippers, and a wealth of grass skippers.
The monarch's home-grown summer brood is on the wing from the milkweed, and gulf fritillaries, cloudless sulphurs, sleepy oranges, and red-spotted purples brighten gardens. In the longleaf savannas, look for Carolina satyr, gemmed satyr, little wood-satyr, and southeastern hairstreaks; in the southern bogs and delta, the coastal specialties fly. Watch the blooming milkweed, butterfly weed, oakleaf hydrangea, mountain laurel, and clover for clouds of nectaring butterflies on warm sunny days, and check milkweed undersides for monarch eggs and striped caterpillars. The pollinator garden is at its busiest and most rewarding.
What to plant for them is in the Alabama native plants guide
Trees This Month
May's forests are in full deep late-spring leaf, and the late-flowering trees bloom across Alabama. The grand event is the southern magnolia, which begins its great creamy-white, lemon-scented flowers across the Coastal Plain and the Black Belt — one of the most iconic trees of the Deep South. The tulip tree lifts its orange-and-green flowers high in the canopy, and the fragrant clusters of black locust, the showy panicles of native fringetree, and the white spires of chinkapin and basswood open.
On the Cumberland Plateau, the trees complete their leaf-out, and the understory blazes — the mountain laurel washes the slopes pink and white, and the last native azaleas finish in the high coves. The native sourwood sets the buds for its summer flowers, and the sweetbay and swamp magnolias bloom in the wet woods. The developing fruits and seeds form — the winged samaras of the maples already falling, the small green acorns swelling on the oaks, the catkins of the hickories spent, and the green cones forming on the pines — as the forest settles into the long work of the Alabama summer.
Weather & Daylight
Across Alabama, a typical May day averages a high near 83°F and a low near 59°F, with about 4.2 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Warm 83-degree afternoons and mild nights near 59 bring shorts weather, even as showers still pass through fairly often.
| Average high | 83°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 59°F |
| Precipitation | 4.2 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 5:48 CT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 19:39 CT |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (CT).
Next month's version of this page, by email
One short note when Alabama's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
Go deeper with the Alabama guides
The complete Alabama birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: May in Arizona · May in Arkansas · May in California