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.

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.