June Bloom Day

It's hard to believe it's already mid-June - time for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, when garden bloggers around the globe play show and tell with what's blooming in their gardens on the 15th of each month. June has been by turns, hot, humid, and sunny, other times, cool, humid, and rainy. It's been one of those Junes when we've had plenty of rain, and even the pots have needed little to no supplemental watering.

This pot was overwintered in the basement, primarily for the geranium, (in the center of the pot, budding.) The surprise here is the Spring Fling petunia (swag from Proven Winners.) I never expected it to be happy in the basement over the winter. I had cut it back severely, and left it in the pot to see what would happen. THIS is what happened! The geranium looks a bit lost, and the petunia spread, rooting itself in three places in the pot, making a nice second-year memento of Chicago Spring Fling.

Rocky Mountain columbine is almost finished. Columbines have been blooming here since early April.

I tried Diamond Frost euphorbia for the first time in the center of a few double impatiens baskets a few years ago. They're overwintered in the basement too. Each year they get larger and more glorious, blooming sweetly and adding their airy loveliness in pots and hanging baskets, and even in the ground. Easy-care, drought-tolerant and blooming well even in our dry shade, they're favorites here.

Happy returns daylilies start blooming in late May, and have continued, with intermittent rests through frost. Last season they never rested. I hope for the same performance this year.

Walker's Low catmint is nice, but a bit too large, sprawling, and spreading for this spot. This is Nepeta x faassenii 'Blue Wonder.' Shorter than Walker's Low by at least a foot, it blooms respectably in part sun.

I love Dragon wing begonias. A cross between wax and angel wing begonias, they have nice foliage, graceful form, and bloom all season. There are a few here that are overwintered indoors, where they continue the show until they're cut back in winter. Within weeks, they're blooming again.

Penstemon 'Husker Red' was moved last fall. This spot is (normally) a little sunnier than where they were before. They're happier and more upright than they were in their previous spot.

Indian Pinks are natives. New to the garden last year, I fell in love with their unique, adorable blooms when the Chicago Spring Fling committee got together last summer for a reunion lunch date and trip to Gethsemane Garden Center on Chicago's north side.

Speaking of Spring Fling, I was inspired by alliums in the gardens we visited. I'd never grown them here - didn't think they'd be happy with so little sun. The purples are finished blooming, and their seedheads are wonderful. The whites, whose foliage is nicer than the purples, are just getting started. Time will tell if we have enough sun to keep them happily blooming in future years.

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'Rozanne' is my favorite geranium. It starts blooming in late May here, and will continue non-stop until frost. I love long-blooming perennials, especially those that are happy in our mostly-shady garden.

It's been a wonderful spring for astilbes with all the rain we've had. There are pink and white ones blooming here.


The red mini-rose continues to hang on. They're sweet, yet short-lived. This is the last of five the Lawn Man gave me a few years ago. It's the same one that bloomed, covered with snow, in December last year.



The last foxglove blooms. (See those seed pods, Monica?)


This geranium is one of the few plants that made it here from my last garden. (Chicago Gardeners shouldn't move in February!)

I was thrilled to see the first nasturtium bloom! Renee's Garden provided free seeds for a group of about 40 bloggers participating in the Seed GROW project. We're sharing our trials and triumphs, all growing this 'Spitfire' Nasturtium. On Renee's advice, I thinned this pot a little. Too cute to kill, I carefully lifted a few and transplanted them to one of the veggie beds, where they'll mingle with peas and cukes on the trellis.

It's supposed to be a TALL bellflower, but the rabbits have chewed them all down almost to the ground. They're still hanging in there, and finally started blooming. Our garden is beginning to look kinda funny with all the little fences I've put up trying to protect the most vulnerable plants. One might think a crazy plant woman lives here.

This little sundrop was found blooming in the wayback yard behind the Cornelian cherry hedge. It was discovered about this time last year, and moved into the garden where it struggled and wilted the rest of the season. I was happy to see it come back this spring. I think it's some kind of primrose. They have such bright, cheery blooms, I'm happy to have these (sometimes considered) lowly blooms in our garden. The first time I had these in a garden was nearly 30 years ago when an elderly neighbor shared some from her garden. She just called them sundrops, so I will too. It's a fitting name for them.

Also blooming are single and double impatiens, perennial bachelor's buttons, peas, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, arugula, wax begonias, fuchsia, cyclamen, lilies, other hardy geraniums, Johnny-jump-ups, several kinds of coral bells, feverfew, a hellebore that holds onto its blooms until after frost, celandine poppies, a few sporadic old-fashioned (pink) bleedinghearts, wax begonias, and a white blogalong passalong penstemon from a dear blogging friend. Thank you Gail!

For more June blooms from gardeners around the globe, please visit the host of Bloom Day, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.