Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2010

First, the good news. Unlike last year, I have plenty of foxgloves blooming this year. I have more foxgloves than ever, blooming in places they’ve never bloomed before. This is partly because my garden buddy Bub gave me some foxglove seedlings to plant last year, and partly because conditions were favorable to foxgloves this spring. I don’t know why some years they rot out between winter’s thaw and well-established spring, but in some years they do. Not this year! (Note: click on any photo to enlarge)

Conditions were not as favorable for the bearded iris or the mock orange. None of my bearded iris bloomed, and only one late variety bloomed for Bub. I think we got one of our infamous late hard freezes at the critical moment in iris bud development. Probably the same thing for the mock orange, which had a few sparse blossoms but not covered like it is some years. No, I didn’t prune it last year, so that’s not it. But I don’t see blasted buds on the mock orange like I do on the iris, so I’m not as confident that it was the cold. Every year, something does well and something else does poorly. It’s part of what makes gardening interesting, right?

In general, everything that managed to dodge the hard freezes bloomed earlier than usual. The first Oriental poppy and the first peony both bloomed on May 27th! How can I call them the grandes dames of June if they start blooming in May? Don’t try to answer that–it’s sort of like calling Lychnis coronaria alba white rose campion.

These three plants, the catmint, the ‘Cape Diamond’ rose, and Cephalaria gigantea, don’t always bloom together, but when they do, the effect is a bit less than what I hope for. I think the cephalaria (aka giant scabious) is just too tall. They would look better together in a vase, or perhaps if the cephalaria were behind the rose instead next to it. Or maybe I should grow Scabiosa ochroleuca again. But I think there was a problem with that, too–it was too short, and overwhelmed by the catmint. In the first image of the catmint, rose, and cephalaria, that two by four sticking up? That’s holding up the roof of our dismantled porch. Renovations are in progress, and because the porch is missing, you can see the penstemon that is around the corner and normally can’t be seen. Just like last year, this penstemon is blooming ahead of the Lauren’s Grape poppies that surround it. Those poppies are filled with buds, and I can hardly wait!

Also in Bloom

• Peach-leaved bellflower, blue and white forms
• White musk mallow
• Valerian
• ‘Tangerine Gem’ Spanish poppy
• ‘Concord Grape’ spiderwort
• Pansies and violas
• ‘Telstar Picotee’ dianthus
• Cynanchum ascyrifolium
• Alchemilla mollis
• Rosa virginiana
• ‘Sooty’ sweet William
• Stella D’Oro daylily
• ‘Lemon Cap’ daylily
• ‘Jay Bird’ Siberian iris
• ‘Blue Cloud’ larkspur
• Peonies
• Corn poppies in various colors
• Geranium sanguineum striatum
• a few ‘Dot Purple’ mountain bluets
• ‘William Shakespeare 2000′ rose
• ‘Waterperry’ veronica (just a bit)
• feverfew
• Achillea ptarmica
• petunias of various sorts
• ‘Black Stockings’ thalictrum

Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month (I know, I’m late), garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens, and leave a link in Mr. Linky and the comments of May Dreams Gardens.

Tagged as: bearded iris, bloom_dates, catmint, cephalaria, digitalis, foxgloves, Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, iris, lychnis, mock orange, nepeta, penstemon, roses