June Bloom Day

Happy Bloom Day from Chicago's south suburbs, where it's 98 degrees one day, 58 the next; and where one can't be sure if there'll be blazing sun and oppressive humidity, or torrential rainfalls and power outages. The weather has kept us on our toes this month. While a little beaten up after over 5 inches of rain last week, the gardens here continue to bloom nicely, even as weeds and tree seedlings sprout in record numbers and grow at record speed.

Starting at the top left and going clockwise. here are some of our June blooms: The hellebore 'Mrs. Betty Ranicar' started out white earlier this spring, is still lovely in June, and has aged to a pretty soft green. The Lawn Man wanted to see more annuals blooming, and brought home (among other things,) some white and red New Guinea impatiens - plants we haven't had here for a few years. Last fall's pansies are still hanging around in spite of last week's oppressive heat, and the mini-rose that has outlasted all the others has half-open buds and is fuller and healthier-looking this spring than ever before. Last year's Lacinato kale came back to bloom and set seed which I'll collect for next year's vegetable beds.

I fell in love with Tahitian bridal veil (Gibabsis geniculata,) in a hanging basket when I saw it last fall in the Master Gardener office. Although it was labeled as African bridal veil at the nursery, when I wanted to learn more about it, everything I found on the internet calls it Tahitian. Whichever, it's lovely. The blooms close in the early evening, and open again each morning. It's growing and blooming well even with very little sun.

Lamium 'Pink Pewter' has settled in well after a few years of underwhelming performance, and has been blooming since April. The hanging basket begonia was another gift from the Lawn Man, who was a bit underwhelmed by the overwintered double impatiens cuttings which grew very slowly during our chillier-than-usual spring. In the center, snow peas, also a bit slow this spring, have the loveliest blooms that would be just as much at home in an ornamental garden as they are in our vegetable bed. They look like little orchids to me.

The blooms of Heuchera 'Lime Rickey' are tiny, but I enjoy them all the same. I enjoy their delicacy, and they glow in the waning light of evenings enjoyed relaxing on the patio. I've been a little afraid of spiderwort's spreading ways, but I've always loved them and said yes to a few passalongs. Penstemon 'Huskers Red' has been a stalwart of our June garden since the beginning. It was one of the first plants I added to what was, eight years ago, a barren bed of mulch under three huge silver maples. The yellow foxgloves Digitalis grandiflora have been here almost as long. A few more were started from seed two years ago and they're blooming for the first time this month.

The tall blue bellflowers Campanula persicifolia 'Telham Beauty' were passalongs from Mom, taking the place of the ones that broke my heart just a little when they didn't make it the first time I tried them here. Their translucent violet-blue blooms have been favorites in several gardens before this one. They glow just as beautifully in moonlight as they do in midday sun, and our bumblebees visit them from early morning to dusk.

Penstemon digitalis is a native plant relatively new to our garden and blooming for the first time this year. It's a little floppy thanks to our torrential rains, but it's pretty all the same, and the pollinators are loving it. It's time to divide Geranium x Cantabrigiense 'Biokovo,' and it's a little worse for wear after the rain, but the bees don't seem to mind a bit. Nepeta x faassenii (catmint) attracts lots of pollinators too, and I like its shorter, less sprawly form better than 'Walkers Low' (a misnomer if you ask me, since it gets about three feet tall. :) Oops there's another pea blossom - guess you can see I really like them! And finally, in the center is Centaurea Montana also known as Mountain bluet, and a favorite of mine for longer than I can remember.

There are quite a few other things blooming here in June, but lest this turns into a book as I wax on over this month's blooms, I'll leave it at this for now. Happy Bloom Day all. To see more June flowers from gardens all over, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Baby Pak Choi

Earlier this spring I received an offer I couldn't refuse: a Media Kit from Renee's Garden, which included my choice of 18 free packets of seeds. Now that our weather has sufficiently warmed, (finally!) last weekend many of those seeds were sown in our two tiny raised bed veggie gardens. Earlier this spring I sowed a few cool-season vegetables including Renee's Broccoli Raab Super Rapini (also delicious, and all gone.)

I took advantage of the opportunity to try a number of new varieties, and in some cases, entirely new-to-me vegetables, including the broccoli raab, and baby pak choi. I have eaten pak choi (also known as bok choy,) but have never grown it until this spring. I grew Renee's F-1 hybrid Baby Pak Choi Green Fortune. Beautiful, tender, sweet, crisp, and delicious, its small size is perfect for a small vegetable garden like mine. Although neither of our two raised beds receives full sun, the pak choi grew very fast, and very well. Before planting, the soil was amended with organic vermicompost from my basement worm bin. (The red wiggler worms are fed only organic kitchen and garden scraps.) No other fertilizers were used or needed.

Traditionally used in stir-fry in Asian cuisine, I've yet to try it that way. Green Fortune is so delicious raw in salads, that's how I've been eating it, every day for over two weeks. And no, I haven't gotten tired of it. Besides eating it myself, I have also been using it as the vegetable in George's homemade dog food. He loves it too! He eats it mixed in with his food, and also enjoys it picked straight from the garden, as a treat unadorned. Since it's an early-spring vegetable that matures quickly, I planted a lot of it. After it's all harvested there will still be time to fill in the empty space in the garden with summer vegetables. As you can see in the photo above, I've already done this in one section of the garden, with tomato plants surrounding the remainder of a row of pak choi. Well-planned succession planting is one of the ways we manage to get an incredible amount and variety of vegetables even from our very small beds.

Pak choi is very low in calories, yet is one of the most nutrient-dense foods available. A nutritional powerhouse, it's packed with vitamins A, C, K, carotene, lutein, B vitamins, respectable amounts of several minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and zinc, and 28 different polyphenols, including kaempferol, a phytonutrient shown to have strong anti-cancer properties.

Renee's Baby Pak Choi Green Fortune has been very easy to grow, not bothered at all by pests, and very productive. I'm so glad I picked it as part of the Media Kit. I will definitely grow this again!

Wildflower Wednesday

It's Wildflower Wednesday - the fourth Wednesday of the month, when bloggers all over the world share their love of gardening with native plants and wildflowers.

I've always loved the beautiful columbines, and grew a variety of cultivars in the past. Columbines are perennials, but can be somewhat short-lived. The solution - natives! While they too are sometimes short-lived, when allowed to set seed, they sow themselves freely around the garden. Extra plants can be left where they're growing, moved to more desirable locations, shared with other gardeners, or easily weeded out if they're too plentiful. Deadheading (removing spent blooms,) will prevent them from self-sowing if you prefer.

The columbine shown above is Aquilegia canadensis, also known as Eastern red columbine, or Canadian columbine. Although one of its common names is Canadian columbine, it's also native to much of the US, including Illinois. A few of them were added to our garden three years ago. All three have continued to come back each year, and we also now have a few extras that have sown themselves around the garden.

This one is Aquilegia coerulea, also known as Colorado blue columbine or Rocky Mountain columbine. Ours were started from seeds three years ago, and bloomed in their second spring. Native in the Rocky Mountain states, they've been happy here in our Illinois garden. Their soft blue and white blooms are most welcome.

Polygonatum commutatum, commonly known as Solomon's seal is native in Illinois. There's a nice little patch of Solomon's seal here. The blooms are small and demure, and hang sweetly beneath the foliage. I was given a half-dead pot of Solomon's seal that had struggled in a nursery's 'hospital zone' all year. It was mislabeled as Tricyrtis "Lemon Twist,' commonly known as toad lily. Since this plant struggled in our garden for a couple of years, and since I'd never grown either toad lilies or Solomon's seal, although I questioned its identity, I didn't know what it was until it bloomed for the first time last spring. Since then I've added a few toad lilies, and I'm thrilled having this nice patch of Solomon's seal in our garden. I'm not convinced this is a native Solomon's seal, since it came from a nursery that doesn't specialize in natives, the foliage is shinier than what I've seen on the natives around here, and it was mislabeled as a Tricytris to boot.

Senecio aureus, commonly known as golden ragwort, is in its glory right now. Covered with small, yellow, daisy-like blooms, it's native in Illinois, as well as in Tennessee where Gail, the host of Wildflower Wednesday lives. A few years ago Gail shared some with me. They've been happy here in our woodland garden. I love the shiny evergreen basal foliage and the bright yellow blooms.

According to the Illinois Wildflowers website, the nectar and pollen of golden ragwort attract small bees and flies. Among the bees, are such visitors as Little Carpenter bees, Cuckoo bees (Nomada spp.), and various Halictid bees. Among the flies, are such visitors as Syrphid flies, Tachinid flies, and miscellaneous others. The caterpillars of the moth Orthonama obstipata (The Gem) feed on Senecio spp. (Ragworts).


Podophyllum peltatum, commonly known as mayapple, is a recent addition to our garden. Last spring while visiting Mom, I spied a large colony of mayapples in Mom's woods, and brought home two of them to add to our garden. I was excited to see it bloom this year! Most native plants are slow to establish in our silver-maple-root-riddled garden, but one of the mayapples surprised me with this lovely bloom a couple of weeks ago. The blooms hide beneath the umbrella-like foliage, and are worth looking for. Later in the season, the blooms form little fruits that are edible, although toxic consumed in large quantities. Mayapples have medicinal value for cancer and certain skin conditions, however due to their toxic properties, medicinal applications are best left to those who are highly knowledgeable in their application.

I called this trillium red in my recent Bloom Day post, but it may actually be a purple trillium. It was purchased five years ago at a big box store, and was labeled only as a trillium. If anyone knows what kind it is, I'd be thrilled if you let me know. It only took five years to finally bloom, and whatever its botanical name, I'm happy it finally did!

I first saw Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) three years ago at Chicago Spring Fling, and promptly got two of them at a native plants sale a few weeks later. The second one disappeared last fall, and this remaining one is blooming for the first time. I hope it seeds itself around the garden. I'll probably save some of the seeds too, to boost the odds of having a few more of these neat little plants in our garden.

Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) was also first seen during Chicago Spring Fling, at the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool garden in Lincoln Park. It too jumped into my hands at the same native plant sale prairie smoke came from. Unlike the prairie smoke, wild geranium bloomed in its second season here.

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense,) is a commonly occurring woodland native in Illinois, and the most recent native introduction to our garden. You must look under the foliage, close to the soil surface to get a peek at its unusual bloom. Although not related to the ginger root found in your grocery produce section, or the dried, powdered spice, wild ginger root smells and tastes very similar and can be used in cooking. There are no plans for that here - our wild ginger will be left in the ground to form a colony in its new home.

To see more Wildflower Wednesday posts, please visit Gail at Clay and Limestone.

A Murder of Crows

A few weeks ago a pair of robins built their nest on our guest bathroom windowsill. Not wanting to disturb them too much, I opened the window exactly three times - once to sneak a peek at the eggs while Mama robin was at the edge of the garden in search of worms, scattering mulch all over the patio (a daily ritual.)

Once while Mama was way in back taking a dip in the swale,

And one last time, after a ruckus between a pair of robins and a couple of crows. I hoped this wasn't what the ruckus was about. Sadly, it was. Crows are back. We started seeing them again around here late last summer. They'd been absent for years, possibly due to West Nile Virus.

I worried about those babies. Two stories down, below the guest bathroom window, is our concrete patio. I wondered how they'd fare when it was time to fledge. I'm sorry they didn't get that chance.

A group of crows is properly called a murder of crows. Maybe this is why.

May Bloom Day

It seems to be the refrain this spring . . . After an unseasonably warm few days last week, we're back to chilly, damp, rainy weather again.

The rain is welcome, as last week's extreme temperatures parched the soil. As for the chill . . . well . . . since I'm not a fan of extreme heat, the cooler temperatures are welcome too. 94 degrees in May, which we had last week, is just a bit much. If I got to choose, I'd pick sunshine and temperatures in the 60's, 70's, and 80's all. year. long, with rain only at night. I think that means I should be living in Maui, although even there it rains during the day.

In spite of the vagaries of this month's weather, our garden is blooming beautifully. In spite of how busy spring can get for me, I always remember to take time to stop and smell the flowers. Working in a client's garden last week, I thoroughly enjoyed the intoxicating scent of Korean Spice viburnums following me everywhere I went. I'm sure this weekend's weather has done them in. I find myself looking around our garden for space for one here.

Happy Bloom Day to all. For more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.