Thursday, June 14, 2012

June Bloom Day



Hard to believe it's mid-June already, and time for Bloom Day!  It's been busier than usual, hotter than usual, and much drier than usual this month, much like the rest of Spring 2012 in our little corner of the world.

Still, Bloom Day goes on, and these are some favorite blooms in our garden this month. Tree pruning last year left us with a bit more sun, and that's meant more blooms at once than ever before on this 8-year-old mini rose.


Borage grown from seeds from Renee's Garden last year happily reseeded, and are most welcome for their second year.


The ballast on our basement light burned out this winter.  It was replaced under warranty but in the meantime most of the overwintered plants didn't fare well including a poor fuchsia.  Since the hummingbirds love them so much, we sprung for a new one.  The buds look like little lanterns.


Centaurea montana has been blooming for several weeks.  We're enjoying the last few blooms, and so are the bees.


'Happy Returns' daylilies generally start blooming here in June.  Some summers they go nonstop until October.  Other years they rest a few weeks between bloom periods.


Salvia nemorosa 'Blue Hill' is another long-blooming perennial here.  Last year they bloomed all summer. Aside from it's long bloom and attractiveness to pollinators, it has among the cleanest foliage I've seen on a salvia. 


Some years heavy rains have rotted Rieger begonias.  Not this year.  Rain has been far too scarce.


Heuchera x villosa 'Mocha'  has become a favorite of the coral bells we grow here.  The photo doesn't do justice to its large, rich, coffee-colored foliage.  This heuchera blooms all summer.  Even when the bunnies eat the bloom spikes I don't fret, since there will always be more.  The flower spikes are really pretty in cut flower arrangements, and they glow in morning sunlight in the garden.


Geranium 'Rozanne' is another long-blooming perennial, even with very little sun.  It gets dappled sunlight here a few hours a day, but still manages to bloom from June through the first hard frost.


Overwintered Dragon Wing begonias didn't fare well after the ballast for the basement light burned out, so we sprung for new ones.  They're a container staple here in our shady conditions.  They're so easy care, and bloom beautifully all summer.


Two  pelargoniums in this pot survived the ballast debacle and are starting to bloom.  Besides the two pelargoniums (commonly called geraniums,) basement survivors, this pot has a few cell pak impatiens, some ivy, purple fountain grass, a couple of orphaned celosias given to me by my favorite local nursery since their cell-pak mates were dead, and a couple of 'Crystal Palace Gem' pelargoniums.  'Crystal Palace Gem' is a cultivar that's been around since the 1800's.  They have great chartreuse foliage that's so pretty, who cares whether they bloom.


A stem on Asclepias purpurascens suddenly wilted inexplicably, so it was cut back.  The flower head came indoors to be enjoyed, along with a few sprigs of curly parsley.


March was uncharacteristically warm here. The heat jump-started many perennials, and we've had a lot of early bloomers. None have been so early though, as this sedum, 'Matrona,' budding several weeks earlier than usual. 

To see more June blooms from gardens around the country and around the world, please visit the host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

30 comments:

  1. Beautiful collection! You have a lot blooming this month. That geranium 'Rozanne' is beautiful. I love blue flowers. Happy GBBD.
    David/:0)

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    1. Thank you David. I love blue flowers too. Happy Bloom Day!

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  2. Wow what a beautiful collection of contrasting colours where the bright stand outs splash just enough in and around a canvas of various greens and tectures. I love that.

    I the Chaparral country of Southern California you will notice this in the springtime with certain vining and ambling species adding a dash of colour here and there, but certainly not overwhelming their support hosts.

    My Heuchera are both blommong wonderfully in the massive fractured granite bed rock in my backyard. I'll have to photo it. The most exciting bit is the reseeding of themselves in some new cracks a crevaces in the rock which looks to be promising. Adding bit of columbine and Heuchera even strawberry plants is about all I can do with this rock. But we receive so much rain here in Sweden that it's almost a given it will succeed.

    Thanks for these photos - Kevin


    --

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    1. Thank you Kevin. Since most of our garden is shady, foliage definitely dominates, and we enjoy the varying colors and textures of it. There are so many varying foliage colors and textures among the heuchera cultivars and they're among our favorites here. You might even say I'm a heuchera addict.

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  3. Like the heuchera.

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  4. The heuchera you planted here are blooming beautifully, too, Linda. Also, this year we've had the best blooms on the columbine you planted two or three years ago. I've kept the spent blooms picked off and there are still more coming. The rain has gone either north or south of us, or just failed to reach the ground because the air is so dry. That means we don't have as many mosquitos, but we do have a lot of grasshoppers and they are eating everything in sight in the veggie garden, especially smaller transplants. We've done quite a bit of replanting, but it's getting late in the season for much of that. The good news is, they only take a bite here and there on plants that make it through to get large enough. Some of the smaller transplants, though, are getting stripped down to the stems. They seem to like the cucumbers in particular. :-(

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    1. Glad the heucheras and columbine are doing well, Mom! You might want to leave the last few columbine flowers to set seed, since they're generally not terribly long-lived. That way they'll hopefully give you some new plants in case the current ones don't come back up next spring.

      Sorry about the grasshoppers. We have cucumber issues here too, though a different problem. I only had three seeds sprout, oddly enough. I'm babying them in pots, since sometimes the rabbits eat the seedlings. Once they've got a few sets of leaves I'll put them out. Looks like it won't be a great year for cukes. Usually we have more than we can use, but not this year.

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  5. I love the pretty blue blooms on your borage, Linda! This is something I tried to start by winter sowing, but without any luck. If I still have some seeds left, I should just try direct sowing it, especially since I read it's a good companion plant for tomatoes and squash. So sorry your ballast went out on your basement light and you lost many of your usual overwintered plants. I have two gorgeous geraniums this year that spent the winter in the garage--I forgot to even water them, but put them outside in March, thinking they were dead. They're now blooming like crazy--no more babying geraniums in the house all winter for me:)

    I've been spending more time watering this June than I usually do; I sure hope July and August aren't this dry!

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    1. Borage grows really fast Rose, and seems to be able to tolerate dry soil. Ours haven't been watered at all, and they're doing great even without rain. The blooms are so pretty, and tasty and colorful in salads, too!

      I may try overwintering the geraniums in the garage this winter, but not those 'Crystal Palace Gems.' They'll be babied in the basement.

      Not much died in the basement without the light, just looked awful, spindly and anemic. The poor fuchsia is recovering, but not quick enough for the hummingbirds who love them so much. Better luck this winter I hope.

      I sure hope we get some rain soon, it's crazy how dry it's been. I'm so tired of watering.

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  6. aloha,

    beautiful, thanks for the wonderful garden tour :)

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    1. Aloha, Noel! Thank you - glad you enjoyed it!

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  7. You've got so many beauties on show at the moment. I just adore that Rose. The Daylily is wonderful and so is that absolutely gorgeous Salvia. It was the Begonias that caught my eye though. I've never been able to get a Reiger through our wet season but I do so love them. I'll have to keep an eye out for another at the nursery soon I think.

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    1. Thank you Bernie! The mini-rose is a sentimental favorite, given to me by my husband the summer after we met. I'm glad it's still around - they tend to be rather short-lived. I love the salvias and begonias too. The survival of the Reigers is a small compensation for the lack of rain here.

      Thanks for visiting, and Happy Bloom Day!

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  8. Very pretty. I love the mini rose. And I am a bit jealous of your heuchera. I have planted several, but they never return for me. :(

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  9. I love the mini rose too, Holley.

    We've had good luck here with heucheras, and I've got quite a collection of different ones. They're so nice in our shady garden. It seems a lot of people have trouble with them though. I don't know why they seem to like it here so much. Maybe it's the soil. Some varieties are tougher than others too. The villosas seem especially sturdy. I plant a lot of 'Autumn Bride' for clients, and they seem to do well in a wide variety of conditions. 'Purple Palace' seems to be another particularly tough, long lived heuchera.

    The chartreuse varieties are among the more delicate, though we've had 'Lime Rickey' and 'Key Lime Pie' here for several years. As long as I divide them every couple of years, they do well here.

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  10. A coffee colored heuchera - sounds nice. We haven't had much luck with heuchera in our upstate NY garden but they normally do well in this area. We will look for "Purpla Palace" and "Autumn Bride" and perhaps try them again. We are trying again this year with one I featured on my GBBD post today. I haven't grown borage in years, either - it was nice to see those flowers again. Happy GBBD.

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    1. Your peachy heuchera is lovely, Bookworm - hope it thrives for you. Sounds like you've already tried 'Palace Purple' and 'Autumn Bride' - sorry they didn't do so well.

      Last year was the first time I've ever grown borage. Since I'm so enamored of blue flowers, it's a natural here. I love that it reseeded on its own!

      Happy Bloom Day!

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  11. Hi Garden Girl
    Wonderful photos! I love especially the one of the fuchsia. Hmm, our May/June was rather to wet. It seems as if we have the contrary weather from you :o). But now summer has finally come since yesterday.
    Have a lovely Sunday.
    Alex

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    1. Thank you, Alex!

      Lucky you getting good rains. Glad you're enjoying some summer weather. Hope you have a lovely Sunday, too.

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  12. Hi GG,

    You have a lot blooming and I am seeing everything early as well especially the daylilies. I don't have much luck with fuchsia not alone trying to winter it over. I am trying Autumnale fuchsia again this year, not as showy but seems to do better for me.

    Eileen

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    1. It's been an odd season so far, Eileen!

      Some years I have better luck with fuchsias than others. It seems like the trick is keeping them on the drier side - a bit counterintuitive since they like lots of water when they're outdoors. Good luck with youre 'Autumnale.'

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  13. Anonymous2:40 PM

    Linda, that red color in your mini-rose is scrumptious! I should try 'Blue Hill' salvia. I've started growing Salvia 'Rhea' and another one I can't remember the name of right now. They're such reliable performers I couldn't do without them. Happy Bloom Day.~~Dee

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    1. I think so too, Dee! It really is that red.

      I think you'd like 'Blue Hill.' Salvias sure are tough, and their tolerance of dry conditions is especially helpful this year.

      Happy Bloom Day!

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  14. The dry conditions are starting to be a problem! I was so thankful it rained last night...hope you got some rain too. Your garden looks like it's hanging in there very well!

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    1. I can't remember such a dry spring, Rose. :(

      We did get rain last night - almost two much-needed inches. I'm so glad! We've had to water here - so much had been wilting.

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  15. Wonderful...don't you just love 'Rozanne', it seems to grow well almost anywhere! You know, I just noticed today that my 'Matrona' were starting to bud and couldn't believe it...guess I'm not alone!

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  16. Yep, LOVE 'Rozanne,' Scott! I recommend it to clients all the time. It does seem to do well pretty much anywhere.

    I was shocked too, seeing buds on 'Matrona.' It doesn't usually bloom here until August. Strange, but interesting gardening season! Hope there will still be stuff left to bloom in late summer and fall.

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  17. We've noticed our plants are a bit off this year also. I'll have to try borage again one of these days. Nice plant list!

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  18. Very strange spring and summer so far, Victoria. :(

    I love Borage! I also love that it self-seeded without being ridiculous about it.

    Thank you!

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