June Bouquet

An unusually sunny spring pushed many plants into flowering ahead of their usual schedule. I had agreed to open my garden this month for the Hardy Plant Group, thinking my roses would be at their best, but most of them had shed their petals and were busy forming hips. What my visitors missed was most of this:

The roses were definitely at their best before the end of May, including 'Lykkefund' in full, scented glory along the west fence,

... 'Ghislaine de Féligonde', on the back fence,

... and 'Rosa Mundi' anchoring a corner of the back garden.

Thalictrum 'Silk Stockings' had also wrapped up its cloudy mauve display, although the dark stems that its name refers to were still in evidence for those who noticed.

I had moved Verbascum 'Jackie' from the front garden to partner it, hoping that Jackie's purple eye would be a good echo, but the combination wasn't as good as I'd hoped, partly because 'Jackie' seems to have changed colour. I'm fairly sure I remember it having apricot petals.

Most of the peonies were also over, unfortunately, including the dark pink unknown (one of a few plants here when we bought the property), as well as its neighbour, Sanguisorba menziesii.

 'Festiva Maxima' had shed all its petals. It was beautiful in late May, although the hot weather seemed to have robbed it of its usual sweet scent.

At least there were some other perennials to create some interest, like my single bloom of Primula viallii, with Hosta 'American Halo' conveniently providing a backdrop.

Hydrangea nigra, another anchor plant, wasn't yet in bloom, but its stems against emerald-green leaves are its main attraction anyway.

A couple of other hydrangeas were flowering, among them little 'Beni', which opens pure white and gradually changes to a surprisingly vivid lipstick pink.

I've tried to dot bulbs of Allium christophii here and there as accents, but not all of them came up. Those that did were spectacular.

Just as a curiosity I had let another bulb, a small tulip called 'Peppermint Stick', develop its seed pods.

I'm hoping that it will spread itself around as I really liked its cheerful display  There's a photo of it in bloom in my May entry.

One of this year's successes, fortunately at its best this past week, has been the combinations in a long thin bed beside our back path. This relatively new section is currently dominated by a creamy-white clover, Trifolium ochroleucum, which attracted quite a lot of attention.

It shares space with (l. to r.) blue Veronica 'Royal Candles', pink Astrantia 'Roma' and one of my favourite foxgloves,  cinnamon-coloured Digitalis parviflora.

Some poppy seeds I'd scattered under a young smokebush, Cotinus 'Grace', created another good combination. (I'm not sure I'll keep the smokebush though: it has an awkward, leggy growth habit, and I made a vow that I would have no ungainly plants in this garden.)

 One of the poppies had also somehow got over the back fence and fought its way up through the foliage of 'Ghislaine de Féligonde'. Talk about a tall poppy!

Other little sparkles of colour were provided by Rodgersia 'Maurice Mason' in my darkest dampest corner,

... where it contrasts with the foliage of Ligularia 'Othello',

... and, down at ground level, the curious flowers of Oregano 'Kent Beauty'. My photographs of it do not do it the justice of this one by my lovely daughter.

A Spirit of Youth

"April hath put a spirit of youth in every thing," as Shakespeare once said. After rainy March, we certainly got an early spring, and with the weather increasingly warm and dry, many of my plants woke early.

In early April the backyard looked like this:

And by May, with many of the bare spots filled in, it was like this:

Several clematis were among the first to produce flowers.

 'Miss Bateman' bloomed earlier than usual.

These are the young flowers with their green stripes; as they mature, the petals become pure white and the centre becomes a darker purple. It's lovely in both phases.

Clematis 'Willy' on the back fence timed its bloom to coincide with the blue flowers of its rosemary host this year.

                       

 A new acquisition to adorn the western fence is the very showy 'Haku Ookan'.
 I prefer flowers with more subtlety than this, so I'm not sure whether I'll keep it. It is sharing wall space with later-blooming clematis varieties, and much will depend on how they all perform together.

My favourite tulips demonstrated yet again why they are my favourites. 'Spring Green' is actually whiter than it looks in this photo: 

In the front garden 'Ballerina' has such a tall, graceful presence that it wins me over every year.  I have some mixed feelings about orange flowers in general, but not about this elegant beauty. I like it best alone in a green setting without competing colours muscling in on its solo performance.

Here, it comes up just as the creeping willow, Salix nakamura var. yezoalpina, leafs out behind it with furry, pale-yellow candles that echo the tulip's upright stance.

On the opposite side of the front path, a few petals of 'Queen of the Night' catch the rays of a late sun as the stems rise through the spreading foliage of Cornus alternifolia 'Argentea', a gift from my friend and gardener extraordinaire, Brenda Peterson.

In the the shadiest bed close to the house, Dicentra 'Valentine Heart' dangles over the old-gold foliage of Heuchera 'Marmalade'.

Meanwhile, as always, more action was going on around the back of the house. Rosa pimpinellifolia, which usually blooms in mid- May, opened three weeks earlier in late April.

Its scent fills the air; so does the buzz of bees drawn to flowers so rich in pollen that it often drips down the petals, as if the flowers are moved to tears by their own beauty.

Not far away, several perennials were either in bud or blooming already. Among them are pale yellow Paeonia mlokosevitchii  and the buds of an unnamed pink peony,  Geum 'Leonard's Variety', and Euphorbia 'Glacier Blue'.

Another peony, the lovely P. obovata 'Alba' sets its pure white flowers off against soft, dark leaves.

Meanwhile in a shadier bed, hosta and fern foliage was waking from dormancy.

 Similar greens and purples have combined where Angelica sylvestris 'Vicar's Mead' has surrounded a young Hydrangea serrata 'Beni'.

A little colour is already sprinkled through this bed, thanks to Astrantia 'Ruby Wedding' 

and woodland treasures like Trillium grandiflorum , which opens white and darkens slowly to hot pink.

Epimedium 'Free Spirit Spring Hearts' goes the other way, pink buds giving way to white flowers. Chocolate-fringed leaves add another dimension of interest to this lovely little plant.

 

The Perils and Pleasures of March

March was such a rainy month. I stood at the window, watching the rain pummel my struggling young flowers, when I would much rather have been out in the garden enjoying their blooms and their fragrance. I suppose the consolation - if you can call it that - is finding out the down side of some new purchases. Narcissus 'Rip Van Winkle' is a case in point. What a neat little double daffodil, I thought.
But add some raindrops to those small yellow sunbursts and they become too heavy for their slender stems. Mine spent most of their time like this.

 I'll transfer them to a pot that I can keep under cover next year, but I won't buy more.
I will, however, probably invest in another batch of a small early tulip called 'Peppermint Stick'. It stood up bravely to the rain, although I had to rinse off splashes of dirt to take this pristine picture.

So many of Spring's little treasures reward a close inspection, revealing infinitesimal detail and elusive fragrance only when you get down on their level.
 Double primula 'Sue Jervis' is one of these, just starting to bloom in front of blue Anemone nemorosa 'Allenii'. Its flowers are a strange rosy pink, and if you can bend all the way down to sniff, they have a suitably spring-like scent.

All of the little wood anemones, like 'Allenii' are welcome in my garden. Another now blooming is Anemone bracteata. Its white daisy flowers are only part of its attraction; the bracts with their cobalt-blue bases are hardly visible unless you inspect them from a worm's eye level.

I also have Anemone vindobonensis, which is a yellow form, rather like a buttercup but much more refined.

All these little gems arrive early and disappear by the end of spring, which makes them ideal for planting under perennials or shrubs that don't leaf out until late in April. Hostas make great companions for them, as they like the same dappled shade and break ground just as the anemones are done. My all-time favourite hosta, 'Krossa Regal', is one that starts late but soon takes over with dramatic new shoots that rapidly engulf everything around its feet.

Heralds of Spring 2016

We were away in January and came back to a February that has so far been mild but relentlessly rainy. The slugs are loving it and the early flowers are suffering. Still, my always reliable early bulbs are soldiering on, and if you don't look too closely at the damage, there are bright splashes of colour to be seen against the dark, sodden earth. Some of the first hellebores are lovely as ever. These include the very vigorous 'Rachel',

... pale double 'Frilly Kitty',

... deep purple Helleborus atropurpureus, with its coppery young leaves

... and upward-facing 'Pink Frost, the first of its clan to bloom and one of the last to
quit.

 Narcissus 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' always brightens the back garden, especially in the rare moments of sunshine,

... and I'm pleased this year with the combination of snowdrops and black mondo grass. Both are good at spreading and I'm hoping for an increasingly broader carpet of the pair in future years.

Slugs and/or heavy raindrops have collapsed the stems of many of the snow crocus, and they've rarely had a chance to open up under the gloomy skies.  Once again 'Gipsy Girl' demonstrates why it remains my favourite with its deep brown tiger stripes that are only visible when the petals are shut tight.

The End of 2015

On December 31st we woke to a hard frost that added some sparkle to the few remaining plants. Brightest of them all were the Skimmia japonica. These are not real showstopper plants but in the darkest days of winter, when they have virtually no competition, they come into their own.

Frosty highlights on the leaves made the Christmas-coloured berries on the female plants look even cheerier than usual.

The males surprise us with winter flowers; on Skimmia 'Rubella' they are a soft rose, which looked lovely with a coating of white sifted across them.

Few other green leaves are braving the cold, but Heuchera 'Pear Crisp', new to me this year, is proving surprisingly hardy even though it has fallen open into a coronet of lime-green. Dead leaves underneath provide a warm contrasting colour.

My lanky rosemary bush is even trying to bloom.

And even though it's now lost its vivid autumn hues and quite a few leaves as well, Hydrangea quercifolia 'Sikes Dwarf' just refuses to quit.

I've left more herbaceous perennials standing this year to keep a bit more structure in the garden for a bit longer. The frost has given these, too, a silvery presence more dramatic than they manage otherwise. I didn't expect calico aster (Symphyotrichum 'Lady in Black') to look so good and tone so well with the urn behind it, not to mention how well it complements the black mondo grass and sage in the background.