Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2014

I'm joining in this month for the late edition of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, normally posted on the 15th of every month to show what's blooming in the garden. To see what is blooming this month in gardens around the world, head over to May Dreams Gardens, our hostess for GBBD.

Penstemon serrulatus. Normally there is much more blue as the flowers age, but this year, perhaps due to the warmer weather, the flowers have been fading before they can achieve the mostly blue coloration. A native yarrow hitched a ride into my garden with the penstemon and will bloom soon.

Tiny flowers dot Satureja douglasii, commonly known as yerba buena. This plant seeded in naturally onto an area with only a thin covering of fine mulch over landscape fabric. I plan to start adding more soil in thin layers to give this native more purchase so that it can grow more thickly.

An unknown Dutch iris gifted by a friend is one of my last irises to bloom.

Hoya carnosa is a family heirloom plant, and emits a strong scent at night. Opinions differ as to whether this is a good thing or not. Personally I love the sweet scent.

Numerous umbels hang from the plant, which will provide flowers for most of the summer.

Tillandsia ionantha erupts with long, tubular flowers.

Iris ensata 'Variegata' is another late-blooming iris in my garden.

Bright yellow on the falls contrasts sharply with the dark purple of the rest of the flowers.

The lavenders are loaded with fragrant spikes. Here you can see the individual flowers, which I at least don't usually pay attention to in the face of the overall mass of color.

Lavenders pair well with Yucca filamentosa for textural contrast.

Allium christophii is nearly finished, while Salvia nemorosa East Friesland has just reached full bloom. The seed heads of the allium will remain ornamental all summer.

One of my few remaining Allium caeruleum. This bed may receive too much summer water, as this particular allium species is reportedly very intolerant of water during dormancy.

Geranium 'Dark Reiter' has enough blue in the flowers that it doesn't clash with the purple foliage.

Most people don't think of grasses as flowering plants, but botanically-speaking the dangling florets of this Stipa gigantea are indeed flowers.

Adorable and colorful blooms of Lonicera crassifolia have been opening for nearly 2 weeks now, changing constantly as the flowers age.

A handful of late blooms dot Magnolia stellata, smaller than the main season blooms and streaked with pink.

Kalmia 'Bullseye' bears heavy clusters of intricately-formed flowers.

A few Iris tenax continue to bloom, among them this naturally-occuring seedling with purplish-blue streaks.
Other blooms this month include Montia parvifolia, late rhododendrons, the last blooms of my yellow daylily, Allium cernuum, the first brilliant flowers of Mimulus cardinalis, Carex comans, Saxifraga stolonifera, Hutchinsia alpina, Alyssum spinosum, Astrantia, and Molinia caerulea 'Variegata'. Yucca filamentosa and several Bletilla rapidly approach blooming.

Comments

  1. I'm glad you didn't let Bloom Day pass you by, Evan - you have some wonderful selections. I find I NEED that Geranium 'Dark Reiter.' Re the Hoya, is yours bothered by aphids? I have one growing up a screen in my side garden and the flowering tips are constantly plagued by aphids. A hit of the hose knocks them off but, as they keep coming back, I think I may have to resort to insecticidal soap.

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    1. I'm not a huge fan of geraniums, but I love 'Dark Reiter'. The slugs do, too, but I imagine they aren't as bad in your garden as they are up here. If I could grow hoyas outdoors I would have so many of them! Mine are strictly indoor plants, so aphids aren't a problem. I've had some aphids on some of my outdoor plants, but so far have been able to control them with the finger method. I've used insecticidal soap in the past when the finger method has been insufficient.

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  2. I purchased yerba buena after reading one of your previous posts. They are adjusting well. Should I be worried about aggressive seeding? I love everything about lavender, except the twice a year pruning regiment to keep the plant's shape. How do you plan to manage your lavender?

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    1. I don't think you need to worry about aggressive seeding. I have lots of naturally-occurring yerba buena in the woods around my house and this is the only time I've ever had it seed into the garden. It was a pleasant and fortuitous surprise. I shear my lavender back hard once a year after it blooms. I actually prefer Spanish lavender as it stays denser naturally, thus needing less frequent maintenance, and I like the flowers more. I'm planning to remove some of my current English-style lavenders to replace them with Spanish lavender. If it wasn't so hard to find deer-resistant plants, I might not have lavender at all.

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  3. Nice selection Evan, and I like the way you've clustered some of them by colour. Hoyas have fab blooms, just wished there were hardy ones!

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    1. Ha! I didn't even notice the clustering. I just have a lot of purple flowers. I gravitate towards blues and purples and also reds and oranges, though there's precious little of the latter this month. A hardy hoya would be amazing. You can join me in my jealousy of Kris that he can grow Hoya carnosa outside.

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  4. Such a beautiful photo of the Stipa.

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  5. I'm in love with that Tillandsia bloom. Whenever one of mine decides to bloom I get all excited about and then end up thinking, "is that all there is?" Yours however is "all that."

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    1. I think it was supercharged by its time in North Carolina. I'm glad one of us enjoyed the weather there.

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  6. Great photos. My attempts at photographing the flowers on Stipa gigantea have been an epic fail. You've done a stellar job. I really like the whirls on the Penstemon. I might have to look that one up. My Japanese iris didn't bloom this year. Seeing yours is making me really miss it. I have it growing in a pot in my pond and it needed to be divided. The upside is I have two containers now. :) The flowers on your Kalmia remind me of strawberry shortcake. Delicious.

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    1. You're too kind, Grace. That Penstemon serrulatus has actually seeded around quite a bit in that bed (my parents are allergic to deadheading) so I have a few plants to share. I kind of wish I had a pond for my Japanese iris. It looks ok in my pictures, but the leaves are a bit contorted from getting too dry during those heatwaves.

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  7. Fabulous photos. You have many plants I've never seen before. That's one of the best things about GBBD. I especially like the Kalmia.

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