June Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

My first bloom day of the year! Finally, we’ve got flowers here in west-central New Hampshire.

Temperatures have been all over the map in June so far, from highs in the 50Fs to a high around 90F for a few days last week. Today the forecast is for a high of 72F and a low of 50F, which is pretty springy, even as summer winks at us from around the bend.

As of a week ago, our part of the state was characterised as “abnormally dry,” and we’ve had an inch or more of rain since then so we’re probably holding steady, not yet in an actual drought as we were much of the last year. But it’s been noticeably dry, especially in April; I’ve been watering new plants and flower & vegetable seeds once or twice most days for a month now.

And now, on to the blooms!

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Front yard

The showstoppers right now are the rhododendrons, which were here when we moved in almost 11 years ago and which only grow larger when you prune them, as I have, multiple times. Soon the house will be engulfed in them. I believe they are R. catawbiense but that’s a guess.

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Amsonia is starting to wane but still looking starry.

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Baptisia, perfect indigo-blue.

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And lupine, yet another blue-purple, plus a few white varieties. These really spread but sometimes that’s a good thing.

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This bush clematis, ‘Blue Ribbons,’ went in a few years ago to replace a ‘Longwood Blue’ caryopteris that I really liked but which didn’t like it here. So far, so good, though a geranium volunteer tried to edge it out earlier this spring until I noticed and moved the geranium elsewhere.

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I’ve got a few irises, a purple one from a neighbour and a large yellow one that just appeared one year among some azaleas a previous owner planted.

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A gallery of a few other blooms, including Mother of Thyme (pink) and another thyme (white), a ragged robin (Silene flos-cuculi) that’s self-seeded near the road, a rampant pink geranium and an annual ‘Vermillionaire’ large firecracker (a Cuphea hybrid) clashing in a neon way, a kousa dogwood shrub blooming its heart out, and both milkweed and peony in bud, ready to burst.

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SIDE YARD

Not too much going on in the sideyard, yet, now that the lilac and tulip show is over and the crocosmia, buddleia, phlox, cardinal flowers, elderberry, and annual flowers and vegetables haven’t really begun.

But the ‘Pink Profusion’ Bowman’s Root (Gillenia trifoliata) has really filled in nicely, and it’s echoed in part by the standard white Bowman’s Root in the rock wall area, which is quite shady.

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A yellow baptisia, a gift from a neighbour, is also blooming. Maybe ‘Solar Flare’ or ‘Lemon Meringue’?

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A red rose planted by a former owner is looking the best it ever has this year.

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Finally, a few favourite “weeds”: fleabane, hawkweed, and stitchwort.

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FRUIT GUILD

Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) — from a Botanical Interest ‘Bring Home the Butterflies’ seed mix I scattered a number of years ago — proliferates in the fruit guild, keeping the peaches company. So many versions of the flowers!

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There are a couple of ‘Carolina Moonlight’ baptisia in the fruit guild, too.

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And both a white and a ‘Moonshine’ (yellow) yarrow are blooming now. Later, ‘Summer Pastels’ should flower.

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BACK YARD

The back yard tends to put on a show in August and September, but there are few plants adding some colour to the garden here.

Dianthus (D. gratianpolitanus ‘Fire Witch’ I think) and salvia (probably ‘May Night’) in the sunroom border make nice companion plants, along with a culinary sage.

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Anemone sylvestris (sometimes called snowdrop windflower), which is very spready (too spready for my yard and tastes), is on its first bloom of the year in the back and side yards.

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And here are some pinks, blues, purples attracting pollinators and beautifying the garden now: geraniums, centaurea, lavender, chives, and comfrey.

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A male goldfinch spent some time near the Sweet Cicely flowers that have become seedheads now.

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SHADE GARDEN

Rodgersia is what’s happening in the shade garden, aside from the many foliage colour, textures, and sizes. The scent of the blooms is one of my favourite ever.

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This sweet Lamium maculatum ‘Beacon Silver’ is beginning to bloom. (See the crab spider?)

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That wraps it up for the garden in early June this year. Come back in July for more blooms!

Featured image is a daisy, of which there are many in bloom all over the yard, including in patio cracks. Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.