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.

June Bloom Day

It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day once again--where has the time gone??  June is my favorite month, and here we are already halfway through it.  One of the reasons I always enjoy participating in this meme is that it gives me a monthly record of what is blooming throughout the year, and I can compare what is growing in my garden from year to year.  Looking back at last year's June post, I wasn't surprised to find that almost everything is later this year. Spring arrived late after the winter that wouldn't end, and then some hot days in May put a quicker than normal end to spring bulbs, but jump-started everything else.  Still, that jump-start wasn't quite enough to bring everything to its normal blooming time.

Usually by this time in June, I have a plethora of blooms from all the 'Stella d'Oro' lilies, but they are just beginning to open up.  Note my little lady friend on the bud.

Knockout roses are virtually indestructible, but even they were hit hard by this winter.  They, too, got a late start, but worst of all, there was some dieback.  I apologize for the bad photo, but I was trying to get a close-up.  The whole plant is not a pretty sight--I pruned these back hard this spring, but not enough. Time to get out the pruners and cut back all the bare canes sticking above the blooms, one more spring chore to add to the list.

The 'Radsunny' roses look a little better.  I bought two of these when they were fairly new on the market, and I wish I had known then that though the buds are a lovely yellow, they quickly fade to white as they open up.

 'Zephirine Drouhin' also got a hard pruning this spring.  She hasn't climbed up very far on the arbor trellis this year, but at least she's still putting out numerous pink blooms.

While the garden may be behind "schedule," one thing you won't hear me complain about this month is the weather.  We have had frequent rain showers, enough to keep all the plants happy.  Of course, it also means the weeds are happy, too, but I'll take some weeding time over a drought any day.

This is the time of year in the garden that I remember Christopher of Outside Clyde calling "the height of the lull."  It's that time of year between all the lovely spring bloomers and the riotous colors of daylilies and other summer flowers.  A couple of early coneflowers have appeared, but not the masses that I will have in a few weeks.  And I do mean masses--they have taken over my sidewalk bed and re-seeded themselves in a couple other flowerbeds as well!

 In a week or two, the lily show will begin as well. 

Act I begins with the Stellas, of course, and this Asiatic lily.

I bought a few of these bulbs at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show a few years ago, and I could have sworn I picked out Oriental lilies, not Asiatics.  Whatever tricks my mind has played on me, I do know I purchased "Salmon" lilies, but these hot orangey-red lilies are anything but salmon-colored!

Other blooms right now are much quieter:

'Neon Flash' Spirea, another shrub overdue for a good pruning.

'Little Henry' Itea

Lamium is filling in nicely as a groundcover in front of a large evergreen.  Note the little bee on the bloom.

This columbine has been blooming for several weeks.  I don't know its name as it was a tiny freebie in a hosta pot I purchased last year--I love a bargain like this, and I hope it re-seeds.

Other plants still blooming after several weeks--Delphinium, name forgotten.

'May Night' Salvia

Native Penstemons

But new blooms are on their way, such as this first bloom of the Nigella.

And the first red Poppy!  The seedlings are so thick in my garden that the pastel hues of June are surely going to turn into a red-hot July. 

What is blooming in your garden today?  To join in and see what is blooming all over, visit Carol at May Dream Gardens, who hosts GBBD the 15th of every month . . . when she's not busy picking peas:)

GBBD: A Sonnet for Stella

Sonnet I (For Stella)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love you from the breadth of your bright green foliage,

Waving in the breeze every summer day,

To the depth of your trumpet-shaped flowers that reach for the sun

And beckon the nearby bee to search for nourishment within.

I love you for your constancy:

While others show a flash of beauty and then fade away,

You are there from June to September.

I love you for your understanding: whether rain pounds you

Or the gardener neglects you, you forgive and never fail.

While others may call you ubiquitous or a cliche,
You are always welcome here.

And when your time is done, the green remains,

Growing ever stronger, doubling my joys in years to come.

(With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning and to any poetry purists who notice this sonnet neither rhymes nor has iambic pentameter.)

On this June Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day Stella d'Oro is the rising star in my garden. Her blooms just began to appear this past week, and, as you can see in the photos, her real show is still a few days away. While Stella is the most popular of all the hemerocallis, there are so many new hybrids in many different hues. I would love to have some of these, particularly the pink, but Stella has grown so large this year I will have to divide her up this fall or next spring. Planting other varieties would require more garden space, which means . . .more digging. I'll have to think about that.

Stella has been in my garden from the beginning, but a new star on the scene is the "Oranges and Lemons" gaillardia in the expanded roadside bed. This is a fairly new variety, I believe, that promises to "bloom profusely throughout the season." We'll see if it fulfills that promise. I'm just thankful it is blooming at all and didn't get pneumonia from the wet feet it had for a week.

An old standby is my yarrow, Achillea "Appleblossom" (I think). This will bloom all season long. In fact, I usually shear it off a couple times during the summer, and it just comes back and back. I'm glad I knew its nature before planting it and planted it next to some large landscape rocks with boundaries to contain it.

Another new plant that has been blooming since I bought it this spring is this Rozanne geranium. I finally planted it in its permanent home, and it seems to be adjusting rather well.

The Knockout roses looked much better last week when I captured a photo of "the perfect rose" for a post. Even though they look a little blowsy right now, they will rebloom all summer long right into fall.

I wish I had taken some photos last week of some of my other flowers. Though they are still blooming right now, the first blooms are withering and not as colorful as they were earlier. These include a "Walker's Low" nepeta...

and a "May Night" salvia as well as "East Friesland" salvias (not pictured)....

The clematis, which I believe is a Nelly Moser, still has some tenacious blooms hanging on.

This is a great time for gardening. While some flowers have lost that first blush, they will be back soon. And other plants are budding, ready to take center stage for awhile. These include my original "Endless Summer" hydrangeas...

...and my first love, the purple coneflower.

Wishing you all lots of blooms to enjoy.

And a Happy Father's Day to any dads out there reading this (and those that aren't).

A special wish to my own dad who is a young 82!

And a happy birthday to a little princess, my granddaughter who turns 5 today.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day is sponsored by Carol at May Dreams Gardens; visit her to see more of what is blooming in everyone's garden this June.