Defiant flowers

June has been such a rainy, grey month this year that everyone is calling it Juneuary. Nevertheless, flowers continue to open on their own internal calendar, probably hoping for  change just like the rest of us.
The red peonies I mentioned in an earlier post, were bravely upright mid-month before their heads filled with so much rainwater that they all flopped.

I'm quite pleased with the way they are blending with their companions...

...a Nectaroscordum siculum and the purple-flushed leaves of Ligularia. In the background is Sanguisorba with matching red bottlebrushes.

On the wall behind this explosion of colour, the seedheads of pretty Clematis 'Willy' whose flowers I mentioned in spring are hardly noticeable, which is a pity. In future years, as the clematis bulks up, I hope there will be enough of them to have more impact.

The peony flowers are a mixture of double and semi-double with a few almost single. Although with many plants I prefer the single forms, in this case I feel there's nothing quite as sumptuous as a double peony.

My photograph doesn't do it justice as it's a darker, richer red than this. I've done some tinkering like adjusting the black level but just can't get it more true to life.

Geranium x magnificum, however, is living up to its name and all that saturated blue-purple is legitimate, untouched by photoshop.

My shady corner is beginning to fill in now.

Left to right are Hydrangea nigra with the black stems, Hosta 'Krossa Regal', my favourite hosta, the airy cream flowers and purple foliage of Heuchera 'Stormy Seas', and Schizophragma hydrangeoides climbing up the fence behind. The little foreground plant is shrubby Clematis ochroleuca. I'm not sure why the Schizophragma leaves are so red unless they are responding to the rusty hues of my metal rooster. They are supposed to be silvery green, but as long as the plant seems healthy, I'm perfectly happy with the current colour.

I've since added a lovely long-spurred Aquilegia to this composition.

The blurry foliage behind it is Japanese painted fern, but the Aquilegia's own foliage is a similar blend of sea-green and purple.

Another shade plant a little further long in the same bed is Astrantia 'Shaggy', a really nice plant for brightening up a dark area.

By mid-month the roses were beginning to open. 'Ghislaine de Féligonde' was full of buds,

and I eagerly awaited the first flower.

Also in the front garden is delicate Rosa 'Dupontii'.

Blue-grey foliage, pink buds and pristine white flowers, fragrant and still faintly tipped with pink, make this plant special. Later, I'll get red rosehips for an autumn display.

In the back garden 'Rosa Mundi' is much less subtle.

It smells as a rose should smell, and is highly popular with the bees. If I'm not mistaken, I unexpectedly caught a blue orchard bee approaching another of the flowers late on a rare sunny afternoon.

Transformation

A week of fine weather saw us industriously developing our former parking space into what will largely be a vegetable garden with a few ornamentals around the edges to screen it from the lane. It's hard work digging up the compacted road base and amending it with good soil, but we are making progress.

The raised beds, made with lumber left over from repairs to the house exterior, may not be elegant,

but the veggies don't seem to mind.

We've already had one small meal of rapini and spinach sauteed in a little oil and garlic. it was delicious.

In the long bed behind the car. I've planted a Mahonia 'Winter Sun', which I chose because it is reputed to be smaller than the other popular cultivars. It looks a bit lonely now, but will eventually fill out that end of the bed, and its yellow winter flowers will, I hope, attract any hummingbirds in our vicinity.

 Even without flowers, the foliage is pretty.

More blooms

Some plants are ignoring the grey skies we've had lately and opening in spite of them.

I'm delighted that my favourite peony 'Festiva Maxima', which I bought a year ago as a shrivelled little tuber, has already found the strength to put out one gorgeous, scented, goosefeather flower.

Across the path from it, a red Sanguisorba, whose name I have forgotten, echoes the flecks of crimson on the peony petals.

Several Nectaroscordum siculum (formerly Allium siculum) are scattered among the foliage of a red peony that is thick with buds but yet to open. These onion-family bulbs need a bit of support from neighbours to keep them upright and the peony seems to be doing a good job there.

As everyone who grows it knows, lady's mantle looks best in the rain, when the tiny hairs on the leaves hold gleaming globules of water.

Rain also complements the dark leaves of Ligularia dentata 'Desdemona'

All the same, I'd rather have some sunshine.

Some garden delights

A few of my purchases from last year have bloomed recently, much to my delight. Although some have a way to go before they reach their full size, their progress is encouraging.

Fothergilla 'Mt Airy' may not look particularly special, but its white bottebrushes have a rich honey fragrance that the bees love. Elsewhere I've posted pictures of its spectacular fall foliage.

Nearby is another white-flowered treasure, the tiny Dodecatheon dentatum, with a beak of reddish-brown stamens and swept-back petals like the plumage of an exotic bird.

Under the red-edged leaves of Corylopsis pauciflora, the larger and more common Dodecatheon meadia leans over some Anemone blanda 'Vestal' and the blades of snowdrops.

Just opening at the end of May, blue Geranium x magnificum, my favourite of this extensive family, is in bloom alongside pale yellow Trollius 'Cheddar'.

A close-up of the geranium, taken in the rain, shows the beauty of the individual flowers with their magenta veins.

My latest acquisition is less showy, but nevertheless a charming woodlander. It is a small clematis, Clematis ochroleuca, which only grows about 12 inches tall. So far mine has produced only one of these pretty little two-tone bells, but I have great hopes of more next spring once the plant has settled in.

A Plan that Worked

One of the problems with bulbs is that, once they have flowered, you can cut down the flowering stems but you have to leave the untidy foliage to feed the bulb for next year's bloom. My plan was to have a perennial emerge and hide this foliage, but the timing had to be right so that it didn't smother the bulbs too soon or leave the dying leaves exposed for too long.
This year I've had great success with tulip 'Spring Green' and globe thistle (Echinops ritro).
Here's 'Spring Green' in full flower, the same image as a couple of posts ago.

The globe thistle is visible in the middle of the clump. 

As the flowers faded, the thistle was just rising above them.

A few days later when I removed the spent stems, the thistle had expanded enough to neatly cover what was left.

In a month or so, it will produce its own flowers, lovely steely-blue balls on long stems. I'll post a picture when it happens.

Another Spring Beauty

I knew that I wanted clematis on the wall in the back garden, but I hadn't realized how well they would show up against its dark, textured surface. Now I'm glad I resisted a brief urge to paint the concrete.This is 'Willy', a delicate Clematis alpina hybrid rescued from a friend's doomed garden.

The diagonal brown cane is part of a (very) rustic lattice to help it climb the wall. Last year, after a rough transplant at the wrong time of year, it hardly bloomed. This year it is making good headway through an adjoining hydrangea although I am encouraging it to opt for the wall instead. The alpina group are among the earliest clematis to bloom; most of my other acquisitions won't flower for another couple of months.

Spring Garden

The weather is typically springlike, alternating warm sunny days with cold rainy ones, mostly the latter unfortunately. I've had little chance to get out in the garden and plant new purchases, but at least I've been able to take a few photos of last year's acquisitions that are giving us pleasure.
The catkins on my dwarf willows are particularly pretty. Here's Salix nakamurana var. yezoalpina:

...and the grey foliage and red catkins on the Swiss willow, Salix helvetica:

Also in the front garden, my Enkianthus perulatus has grown considerably since last year...

...as has Beesia calthifolia just behind it.

In the same bed I've planted a new Heuchera called 'Venus', which has wonderful caffe latte leaves.

Also in front of the house are some of my favourite tulips, like tall, fiery 'Ballerina'...

...and tiny species tulip T. chrysantha, which I hope will naturalize in this area.

In the back garden, another tulip, 'Spring Green' is giving quite a display.

We've recently added a couple of chairs to this area, nice old worn cedar adirondacks that our neighbours were discarding. They look quite decorative under the flowering pear.

There's still a lot of bare earth, but some perennials haven't yet emerged. I planted the flowering currant on the left hoping it would attract hummingbirds, who are drawn north from Mexico as its blooms open.

So far no luck, but I will move it during its dormant period to the new area we've made closer to the back lane, where it will be more prominent.

Other little treasures flowering in the back yard include wood anemones,

double white primrose 'Dawn Ansell',

 and a Japanese painted fern just emerging from winter sleep.

Michael's bowl of sempervivums that I gave him for his birthday last year is also flourishing. I ordered named varieties from a grower in Ontario and, although he has technically stopped doing mail order, he very kindly agreed to send me a selection. Thank you, Jack!