June GBBD: Almost Summer

If I had written this blog post last night, it would have been another one of my whiny, grumpy posts.  It's been in the 90's here this past week, and I don't do well in heat--I turn into a complete grouch when sweat starts running down my face.  As if that weren't bad enough, it's been bone dry without a drop of rain for two weeks or more.  About all I've gotten done outside lately is drag hoses around to water and then water some more.

That is, until last night--it rained!!  I don't know how much rainfall we received since I discovered my rain gauge is cracked.  But whether it was 1/2 inch or an inch, my garden--and this gardener--is so much happier.  It's still unbearably hot, but I'm so thankful for rain I'm not going to complain today.

So, let's take a look around the garden and see what is blooming on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day in June.

People may turn up their noses at the ubiquitous 'Stella d'Oro' that seems to be the staple of every commercial planting.  But when they bloom this prolifically every June, I just don't have the heart to tear them out.

And who knew the bees like them??  Actually, the bees much prefer the 'Walker's Low' Nepeta next to the Stellas, but this bee seemed to find something to his liking in the lilies.

Another plant one of my gardening friends considers a weed rather than a flower is Yarrow.  This is 'Appleblossom,' and the blooms are actually much pinker than this photo shows.  Yarrow is one of those plants that will spread, but it's easy to pull out wherever you don't want it, and I happen to like it, especially since it's such a tough plant that doesn't mind the dry spell we've had.

While we're talking about plants that not everyone likes, the Chicory is blooming.  It's another one of those weedy wildflowers that I happen to like, especially when it is blooming along the roadsides.  For me, it's hard not to like these pretty blue blooms.

In the butterfly garden I have a new addition that I'm sure I didn't plant--Evening Primrose, perhaps??

Another volunteer in the Arbor Bed--Nicotania.  I haven't planted any of these for five or six years, yet every year they keep coming back.

Back to the butterfly garden, the Butterfly Weed is just beginning to open up.  You can barely make out the blooms behind them of Phlox Pilosa, which have been blooming for more than a month.

The native/wildflower I am most excited about right now is the Indian Pinks, Spigelia Marilandica.  I planted these three or four years ago, and they are finally spreading out--a bit.  Although these are considered natives in Illinois, they are not found very often in natural settings, especially in central and northern Illinois.

Elsewhere in the garden, a couple of Asiatic lilies are blooming.  Both of these are NOIDS, probably passalongs from a friend.

I much prefer this brighter red one, but it's rather hidden away under taller plants at the back of the Arbor bed.  Maybe someday I'll get around to moving it to where it can really be seen.

The last two weeks have been poppy time.  I don't have as many as usual this year--I plant them in late winter, scattering them over the snow, so they tend to pop up in some strange places.  But we didn't have any late snow this year, so I have a feeling many of the seeds just blew away.

I don't grow many roses, but 'Zephirin Drouhin' is doing well climbing the arbor trellis, though the heat and drought have taken their toll on her, too.

Only a couple hydrangeas are blooming so far, including the 'Annabelles.'

I've planted two different hydrangeas at the back of the shade garden in the last few years that have really grown. One is a 'Mary Nelle,' a unique variation of 'Annabelle,' but I have no memory of what the other one is!

Another mystery at the front of the shade garden are these little purple blooms.  They seem to be coming from an Epimedeum, but I'm not sure--anyone recognize this plant?

The rest of the shade garden is growing to jungle proportions as usual.

Nearby, the miniature Japanese garden is almost ready for visitors.

Spirea blooming along the front of the house.

In the sidewalk garden one lavender plant is blooming, which makes me happy since I cut them back to the ground in the spring, not knowing at the time you should cut them back only by a third or so.

Some of the lamb's ears in the Lily Bed are sending up their quirky blooming stalks.

I took a break yesterday in the middle of writing this post, because I wanted to finish planting while the ground was soft from the overnight rain.  I can finally announce I have ALL my new plants planted!  (Well, except for three new shrubs . . . but they're going to wait till it's a little cooler.)  My back porch and patio no longer look like I'm holding my own plant sale:)  Some of those plants, I'm embarrassed to admit, had been sitting there since April 24, my first plant shopping trip.

I did lose a few annuals by holding them so long, some to poor watering by the gardener, and some to toads.  We have quite a family of toads here, much to the delight of the grandsons and Frank (the pug) and Teddy (the mini Yorkie).  While I'm happy to have them, they like to burrow into the moist soil of the pots.  Many times I've been startled while planting containers when a toad jumped out of one of the annuals!  It's not a problem, except when small pots have been sitting too long, as mine have,  and one of the fatter toads has burrowed in and out of the same pot, displacing some of the soil. Now that I've planted all those small containers, I'm not sure where the toads will sleep--I'd better not dig too deeply in my large pots:)

I think I went a little crazy this year buying annuals, especially petunias.  I won't show you all my annuals--this post is getting too long already--but I do want to share a couple of my favorite petunias.  This is 'Johnny Flame'; it really caught my eye when I saw it at our local nursery, and I quickly snapped up the last three, with no idea where to plant them.

Two favorites I buy every year--'Royal Velvet,' a dark purple planted in the porch planter here as well as several other containers, and the contrasting 'Bordeaux.'

One of my favorites I plant every year--Supertunia 'Raspberry Blast.'

Two new varieties I just couldn't resist this year--'Latte' and 'Black Mambo' (I think I have those names correct.)  I'm not usually a fan of black petunias, but I like this combo.

Although it seems as if I have a lot of blooms, most of my garden is still green right now.  The summer show of color won't begin for a couple more weeks.  Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit' is one of the early arrivals for the summer riot of color.

'Moonlit Masquerade' is always the first daylily--other than the Stellas--to appear.  It will soon be joined by many more.

And, of course, my summer garden wouldn't be complete without purple coneflowers.  A few are blooming, but the mass of blooms is still a week or two away.  I'm hoping they will bring back the butterflies that seem to have disappeared.

This weekend is the annual Garden Walk of our local Master Gardeners group, and I'll be very busy, especially since the nursing home garden, where I volunteer, is featured on the walk this year.  But I'll catch up with everyone's Bloom Day posts in a few days.

Thanks, as always, to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting another Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

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.

Summer lessons learned: It's A Mystery To Me

I love a good mystery.  Give me a book by Martha Grimes or Sara Paretsky or Debra Crombie, and you won't hear a peep out of me all evening.  In fact, you probably won't see me very early in the morning either, because I invariably stay up way too late as I turn page after page, caught up in what is going to happen next.  But novels aren't the only forms of mystery; there are mysteries in the garden as well.  This summer I often was bewildered about what was happening in my garden.  Some of those mysteries were eventually solved, like the tidy conclusions with no loose ends I prefer in novels, but other situations still have me puzzled.

Salvia Azurea, also known as Pitcher Sage

Every year I have some mystery plants, plants that I can't identify and wonder if they're a weed or something I will welcome in my garden .This year was no exception.  I've already mentioned the sneezeweed that I initially had no memory of planting and the Salvia azurea that I almost pulled, thinking it was a weed.

One mystery daylily identified as a passalong

Then there were the daylily mysteries.  I always try to record any new daylily purchases I make and  place a marker next to each one when I plant them.  But two of my tags disappeared over the winter or were buried deeply under the compost, and when lily season began, I found I had not the five new daylilies I remembered buying, but six!  And then, to make me feel even more like I'd lost my mind, there was another new daylily that appeared in the butterfly garden!  The latter was solved when a fellow gardening volunteer reminded me that she had given me a division of one of her daylilies last year.  I probably planted it in the butterfly garden because I had simply run out of room everywhere else.

The six-not-five new hybrids were still a mystery until a week ago when I discovered my receipt from last summer while doing some cleaning.  (Amazing what things you can find when you do a little cleaning.)  It turns out I did buy six lilies--besides the five names I remembered, I also bought an unnamed hybrid--an experimental plant that the growers have decided not to continue growing.  But there is still a little mystery--is the daylily above 'Susan Weber' or L09-021?

Or is this one L09-021 or 'Susan Weber'??

Another thing that has had me scratching my head this year is what happened to my clematis?  I had only one clematis until last year, 'Nelly Moser,' which bloomed faithfully and profusely every May/June.  But this year not a single bloom!  Last year I planted a new clematis, 'Roguchi,' which I was very excited about because I love these bell-shaped purple blooms and it did very well in its first year.  But again, not a sign of it this year!

Clematis 'Roguchi' growing in the nursing home garden

I haven't quite come up with a satisfactory resolution to either of these mysteries, but my hunch is that my poor little 'Roguchi' may have fallen victim to some over-zealous weeding on my part this spring. Or perhaps it was strangled by the Cardinal vine that grew up the same side of the trellis and into the coneflowers and the lilies and just about any place it could sneak in.  And my 'Nelly Moser'--well, I'm not sure, but I may have pruned it too early and too vigorously in the spring.  It's growing up its trellis (minus blooms), so I'm hoping it will recover and bloom again next year.  As for poor 'Roguchi,' I'll be on the lookout for a replacement next spring.

A few blooms earlier on the yellow Knockouts; the red ones are too puny to even photograph.

I'm not taking any blame for two other puzzles, though.  My 'Knockout' roses were an absolute failure this year, producing only a few measly blooms.  I gave them a moderate pruning in the spring, but nothing different from previous years.  Last year everyone's 'Knockouts' in the area looked terrible, which everyone attributed to the bad winter.  But this past winter wasn't quite so bad--although we didn't have much snow cover--so I don't know why mine especially look so awful this year.  I didn't think you could kill 'Knockouts,' but I'm beginning to think I'm a homicidal rose killer.

Another no-show this year were the Macrophylla Hydrangeas.  Oh, they grew and grew with very healthy green foliage, but only one blossom appeared on three plants--only one all summer!  After a couple of people told me their Macrophyllas were doing the same thing and asked for my advice, I did a little sleuthing.  Improper pruning or lack of water or fertilizer could cause problems with blooming, but none of those were the problems here.  A late winter cold snap that occurred just as the hydrangeas were setting blooms seems the most likely cause.  If that is the case, then I don't have to feel guilty about doing something wrong, and I can only hope that blooms will return again next year.

If the weather was the culprit in my flower-less Macrophyllas, it had no effect on the Hydrangea Paniculatas, fortunately.  'Vanilla Strawberry' bloomed up a storm, and the 'Limelight' is becoming a flowering autumn tree.

Ascelpias curassavica, Tropical milkweed, is still blooming in the garden.  But it's not the best choice of milkweeds for Monarchs.

One of just a small patch of zinnias that grew this year.

Do you remember the old folk song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"  My last mystery concerns all the plants that never appeared this year.  From the Turkish lilies to all the milkweed seed I planted last fall or late winter, I am confused and disappointed at many no-shows. Besides the milkweed seeds, which really disappointed me because I was hoping to attract more Monarchs to my garden, there were other seeds that didn't germinate.  I always have good luck with zinnia and cosmos seeds, which are so easy to grow.  But very few of them appeared this year.  I suspect some of the seeds in my arbor bed were covered up with too much mulch when I had some helpers early in the season and forgot to mention where the seeds were planted.

But that doesn't explain the lack of flowers in my roadside garden, where I also planted some zinnias and cosmos.  Only one little cosmos plant survived to bloom. Correct that--I notice yesterday I have a second plant blooming!  I could blame Mr. P and his lawnmower, but I don't think he's a suspect.  In fact, there were several mysterious goings-on in this roadside garden all season, starting with some of the new tulips that never appeared.

Pot with hot pink annuals peeking out to the left of photo.

 Probably the most puzzling incident was the case of the empty pot.  In May I planted some petunias and 'Diamond Frost' euphorbia in a pot lying on its side at the front of the garden.  A few weeks later, the pot was empty!  Not a dried-up stem was in sight--everything had disappeared.  When summer annuals went on clearance in mid-June, I tried again and filled the pot with other petunias and bright annuals.  A week or two later, when I went to water the pot again, the same thing--not a plant in sight!

A fall mum now planted in the pot next to the sedum--I dare a thief to make off with this one!

Could it be fairies who stole my plants to decorate their fairy homes?  Or is there some marauding varmint that likes tasty annuals and is digging them out for dinner?  There are no clues and thus no suspects, so the mystery of the disappearing roadside plants will remain unsolved for now.  I could assign the investigation to Capt. Sophie, but with this garden's proximity to the busy road, it's out of her jurisdiction.


From both the mysteries that were solved and from the ones that remain open investigations, I have learned a few lessons this summer:

• I need to be more diligent about recording all new plantings in my garden journal.
• I need to find a better, more permanent type of plant label, one whose printing won't disappear over the winter and one that can't be pulled out by dogs looking for toys.
• I need to follow proper pruning instructions--when in doubt, do some research first!

But most of all, I've learned once again that gardening can be unpredictable, and that a little mystery just adds some spice to it--gardening is never boring!

I am very late, but I'm joining in with Beth's quarterly Lessons Learned in the Garden posted at the end of each season.