GBBD: June Is Heating Up

I can't believe it's mid-June already!  Where has the past month gone?  And why haven't I posted in over a month?  I could say that I've been spending all my time in the garden, but that's not exactly true.  But it is true that I've spent every free moment possible working in the garden, battling the never-ending weeds and trying to get all my new plants in the ground--there are still a quite a few sitting on my patio getting more root-bound by the day, I'm embarrassed to say.

But enough of excuses.  I have a plethora of blooms to share on this Bloom Day, so let's get down to business.

One or two lonely peony blooms are still hanging on, but the big show was at the end of May.

Taking a month-long blogging break meant I didn't get to show off some blooms like these Allium. 

I think these are Allium roseum.

Or these--maybe Allium unifolium?

The climbing roses are still blooming, but they, too, looked the best in late May.  The pink one is 'Zephirine Drouhin,' which has done extremely well this year.  But the red one behind it had three times as many blooms!

This is the first year I've had red roses on this trellis (and yes, it's leaning, and yes, I've tried to straighten it out with no success), and I was bewildered at first.  Finally I decided they were from the root stock, which I apparently let grow too much.  I suppose I should cut back all the canes from the root stock, but it's awfully hard for me after seeing all these gorgeous red roses mixed in with the pink!

One of the things that has kept me busy the past few weeks is planting containers, something I do enjoy.  Sometimes I plant my "usual," but many times I just grab what appeals to me while plant shopping and see what goes together when I get home.  This is one of those hodgepodge planters.

Another combo of Supertunias, 'Diamond Frost' Euphorbia, and Angelonia 

that I plant in this container every year.

We're definitely into summer now with the hot temperatures we've had for the past week, and summer flowers are bursting into bloom each day.  Red poppies are everywhere!

Two NOID Asiatic lilies are blooming--I still don't remember planting these:)

Always the first daylilies to bloom, old reliable 'Stella d/Oro' is also putting 

out its usual prolific blooms.

Another reliable bloomer--a little too reliable, sometimes--

'Appleblossom' yarrow is at its best right now.

Lamb's ears are putting up their funky blooms, too.

In front of the house, the Spirea 'Magic Carpet' is also covered in blooms.

Once there were many hollyhocks scattered around the farmstead here.  In recent years, they have succumbed to rust, and now only a few return each year.  They usually appear in places they shouldn't be, like this large one in the vegetable garden.  But I leave them be and scatter a few seeds in more suitable places each fall, hoping they will become more numerous in the future.

A perennial that I would recommend for anyone wanting a low-maintenance garden is the 'Walker's Low' Nepeta seen above in the lefthand corner.  It blooms all summer long and is a favorite of the bees and Toby, too.

Now, a few blooms I'm especially excited about--Indian pinks, Spigelia marilandica, just starting to bloom.  For a native plant, it certainly hasn't been easy to get started, but at least this one survived the rabbits this year.

A new daisy planted last year is looking good--another name forgotten, I'm afraid.

And what I'm really happy about is that the lavender has returned this year!  I planted one 'Phenomenal' lavender on the recommendation of Kylee, which is doing well.  But the one above--once again, I don't remember the variety--is especially thriving.

The 'Annabelle' hydrangea is beginning to bloom, but more exciting to me is this one that has grown so tall this year--nearly 4 1/2 feet.  'Mary Nell' is a lacecap, but classified by Michael Dirr as Hydrangea arborescens. It's quite a unique hydrangea: I got a start of this a few years ago from a fellow MG, and the story, if I remember it correctly, is that Dirr discovered this hydrangea growing on the University of Illinois campus and named it.

The first daylily bloom--other than 'Stella'--is 'Moonlight Masquerade.'  

Soon it will be coneflower and daylily season.  I'm hoping to get all the garden chores finished soon so that I can just sit back and enjoy my favorite time in the garden.

Thanks once again to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting this monthly celebration of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

A Chilly May Bloom Day

When I was a girl, my father used to watch the local weather forecasts religiously.  I thought he was rather obsessed with it, even though he was a farmer whose livelihood depended on the weather.  As for me,  if it was cold, I put on an extra coat or sweater; if it was raining, I wore a jacket with a hood--what else did you need to know?

Fast forward a few many years later, and I have turned into my father. For the past few weeks, especially, I have checked the forecast every morning, looking at both the hourly and the long-range forecasts:  what time will the rain start today?  Is there one sunny day this week I can work in the garden??  We've had so many rainy days lately that farmers are beginning to worry if they can get their crops planted in time, and workdays in the garden have been few and far between.  I've been especially concerned about the Nursing Home garden where I volunteer on Mondays--we've had to cancel so many workdays recently because it always seems to rain on Mondays!

On top of the rain, the temperatures dropped to an unusual low this weekend with frost warnings for last night and tonight.

A few hardier plants were left outside to fend for themselves.

I went on a major plant shopping spree last week with my friend Beckie, and all those plants were sitting on my back porch and patio waiting for dry weather to plant.  When I heard the forecast for frost, I tucked most of the plants into the barn for protection and covered up my blooming clematis.  Fortunately, there was no frost on the ground this morning, and all the blooming perennials were fine.  But we have one more night to get through before I feel safe enough to bring everything out once again.

Oh well, such is the life of a gardener.  In a couple of months, I'll probably be complaining about the heat and the lack of rain:)  Since there's nothing we can do about the weather, let's take a look at what is blooming on this chilly and windy May Bloom Day.

Some of my friends farther north are concerned about their lilacs this weekend, but that was one thing I didn't have to worry about since they have already finished blooming here.  Little 'Scent and Sensibility' above was covered in pink blooms, and the 'Bloomerang' lilac did well, too.  But my old-fashioned, huge lilac was a disappointment this year.  There were fewer blooms than last year, and they weren't as large as usual.  I've decided this large shrub needs a good pruning soon, but talking to friends, I found I wasn't the only one with this problem.  It may have been a late freeze in April that nipped and stunted this year's blooms.

'Jack Frost' Brunnera is almost finished blooming, but a few tiny blue flowers still remain.

More small blooms that I love on the Solomon's Seal.

The Lamium is also sporting its purple blooms right now.  Plants in the shade garden seem to have doubled in size in the past week, making me wish I'd gotten busy and divided more of them earlier.  The Lamium and the Sweet Woodruff in the forefront, though, are definitely getting moved or culled soon before they engulf this poor hosta!

One of my favorite spring blooms is Amsonia.  Both the Amsonia tabernaemontana above and the Amsonia hubrichtii have done extremely well here, unlike my poor Baptisia which has fallen victim to some kind of varmint, I'm afraid.

Love these pale blue blooms!

Most of the garden is still in that lull between spring and summer blooms, so 'Purple Sensation' Allium really stands out among all the green foliage.

Not much blooming in the Butterfly Garden either, except for Phlox pilosa, which has made itself quite at home here.  This was a gift some years back from Gail at Clay and Limestone, who has gifted many with this practically perfect native.

The blue columbines I planted several years ago have not returned, but this reddish lovely has been a faithful returnee for several years.

It's also iris season.  All of my irises are passalongs, so I don't know their names,

 but I enjoy them nonetheless.

I have several of these lavender lovelies.

My favorite--this is the first time it's bloomed. 

 I'm pretty sure this is one that Beth of Plant Postings gave me; I love it!

Finally, one of my favorite blooms this time of year--'Nelly Moser.'  I'm so happy to see her full of blooms this year after a disappointing show last year.  She's the only plant I took time to cover up last night just to make sure she wasn't nipped by the cold; I can't wait to take off her covers tomorrow to enjoy her blooms again.

There are more blooms, as well--Nepeta, 'May Night' Salvia, and Bleeding Heart, to name a few.  But soon there will be many more, and as you can see, I'm anxiously waiting for the peony show to begin!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is celebrated monthly on the 15th and is hosted by the ever-optimistic Carol at May Dreams Gardens.  

Mid-May Blooms for GBBD

An old friend texted me this week and asked if he could stop by: "I want to see all your flowers." I knew what he wanted to see--all the different tulips I had been posting daily on Facebook the last few weeks.  Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be home that day, and in my reply I explained that all the tulips were finished for the year.  "What? The tulips are gone?"  How do you explain to a non-gardener that spring blooms are fleeting, that you must enjoy each day because a garden is not static, especially in spring?

I'm always a little sad, too, to see the end of tulip season, but now I'm eager for their complete demise.  The late ones are still standing erect and green, but headless, and most are withering away, their papery, brown leaves cluttering up parts of the garden.  I'll be glad when I can clean up the last of the remains.  I did find one tulip in the shade garden that I thought looked rather pretty in its dying days.  This is a tulip new to my garden this year, 'Blue Spectacle,' which was advertised as a true blue tulip.  It was a pretty double tulip, but I was sure disappointed that it was lavender, not blue at all.

I did find a few late tulips still blooming in the roadside garden,  I don't remember the name of this one, but I do know it's supposed to be lavender.

While the tulips may be gone, other flowers are beginning to take their place on this May Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  Behind the lavender tulips, the Baptisia is blooming.  It's smaller, though, than in past years, and I'm not sure why.  In fact, the spring display in this small garden area was a disappointment--only the newest tulips bloomed, and one lone allium appeared.  I noticed when cleaning up this bed in March that it looked like the soil had been really disturbed--perhaps interlopers like deer or other wildlife dug up some of my bulbs and plants.  The good news is the lilies and coneflowers are growing like crazy, so this area should have a better display come summer.

The warm weather the previous two weeks kick-started many of the later spring bloomers.  While I was busy admiring the tulips, I neglected taking photos of these until almost too late.  The 'Purple Sensation' Allium in the arbor bed, for example, are already past their prime.

The perennial geranium in the Arbor Bed still has a few blooms, but not as many as a week ago.

The same is true of the lilacs.  My huge old-fashioned lilac is no longer blooming, but a few blooms remain on two newer and smaller varieties.  This is a new compact lilac I bought last fall, purely because of its name 'Scent and Sensibility.'

'Bloomerang' also is quickly fading.  It wasn't such a pretty sight this year as it is still recovering from the winter of 2013-14.

A new plant in my garden this year--Camassia.  I am kicking myself for not taking a photo when it was in full bloom.  Only the very tops still have petals, but these were such cool-looking plants when the whole stem was covered.  I think I might have to find a place for more of these bulbs this fall.

The irises are just beginning to bloom--the first to bloom was this purple passalong from my aunt.

'Immortality' was a close second.

Mid-May to early June is a time of transition in the garden as spring flowers fade, and summer flowers have yet to bloom.  I like to fill in the gaps with colorful annuals, and I've spent a lot of time plant shopping--one of my favorite activities of the spring!  I've only begun, though, to start planting all the containers.

One of my favorite annual combos--'Raspberry Blast' petunias, with Persian Shield and Helichrysum.

There are more perennials beginning to bloom, though.  One of the welcome signs of spring, Phlox pilosa, better known to most people as PPPP, thanks to the generosity of blogging friend Gail of Clay and Limestone.  Gail kindly sent me a few starts several years ago, and it is now spreading through the Butterfly Garden, much to my delight.

Another spring favorite of mine is Amsonia; this is Amsonia tabernaemontana,

 but my Amsonia hubrichtii is starting to bloom as well.

'May Night' Salvia, one of many salvias in my garden.

A new plant in the shade garden last year, Sweet Woodruff. 

 I'm surprised how much it has already grown since last summer; I hope I don't regret planting this.

Speaking of the shade garden, my intention was to divide more hostas again this year before they got too big.  Oops, looks like I'm late once again.  The poor 'Georgia Peach' Heuchera barely visible in the center of the photo has to be moved soon before it's completely overtaken by one of my favorite hostas.

'Sweet Tea' Heucherella, fortunately, is at the front of the border where it isn't as likely to be swallowed up.  I've noticed several of the Heucheras are sending up blooms already.

While there isn't as much in bloom right now as a few weeks ago, there are promises

 of much more to come very soon.  Above, the spireas are covered in buds.

And a bud I am very excited about--the first peony about to open up.  This is a new one given to me by a friend as a bare root last fall.  I was not expecting it to bloom this year, but I can't wait to meet 'Scarlett O'Hara'!

What is in bloom in your garden in this merry month of May?  Join us at May Dreams Gardens, where hostess Carol welcomes you to share on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.