Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day: June 15, 2011

Hi, Everyone, and Happy June! This is our very first "Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day" post. Last month I read Bloom Day posts at Hayefield and Carolyn's Shade Garden and enjoyed them immensely. Then, Carolyn visited our blog and suggested we join Bloom Day so here we are! 

With 31 separate garden beds, we always have something in bloom. June is the month when most of the late spring, early summer flowers are peaking and for our inaugural post they are doing me proud. In fact, deciding which beds to feature and what pictures to include has been an intimidating job.

So brew a cup of tea, sit back, and join me for a virtual tour of the gardens. I only wish I could share the fragrance with you as well. It's absolutely heaven here, with Zephirine Drouhin, my favorite damask rose in full bloom here on the trellis bench, getting ready to climb over our mailbox, and climbing up a trellis gate into the flowering tree and shrub grove.

We are bursting with color - clematis, lupines, peonies, and roses, roses, roses, to name just a few!   

Peony "Sarah Bernhardt" with purple sage and penstemon "Husker Red"

You aren't seeing double. Unidentified pale pink peonies and purple spikes of catmint.

Peony "Singing in the Rain"

Peony "Karl Rosenfield" forms a dark red backdrop for the fountain. In the back are peony "Dawn Pink" and rhododendron "Nova Zembla". The pink miniature roses surrounding the base of the fountain are "Cupcake".

Peony "Edulis Superba"

Our tree peonies are blooming  for the first time ever!

Tree peony "Koukamon" with lupines in one of our full sun perennial beds.

We have numerous clematis that bloom throughout the summer. The earliest of them opened just this week. We are struggling to identify many of them after the tags for virtually every plant in the garden were inadvertently pulled and discarded during preparations for a garden tour a few years ago. These are all currently blooming.

 

 

 

Clematis Henryii and climbing grandiflora rose "Queen Elizabeth" embrace on a lamp post.

Lovely blue-purple bell-shaped clematis, probably "Betty Corning"

Our deck garden is one of the newest beds. We started it last year, and turned a very drab, unappealing deck into a garden oasis filled with tubs and raised beds of trees, shrubs, vegetables, flowers, and herbs.

Our Meyer lemon tree loves the location as does a tree hydrangea, fig tree, and some late blooming lilacs. These are not as fragrant as our other lilacs but we do enjoy having blooms well into June. Annuals, perennials, vegetables and herbs make this a true kitchen garden just steps away from the stove.

Stocks and pansies provide color until the cosmos and hollyhocks mature and bloom.

Lettuce, cilantro and sweet yellow peppers share space with dahlias and summer squash.

Late blooming lilacs are not as fragrant but just as pretty.

The snap peas are off to a great start, as are the yellow peppers and some cucumbers.

We added pansies, violas, and calibrachoa to the pots that hold the trees and shrubs.

Pansies and zinnias provide color while the cosmos and hollyhocks are bringing up the rear.

With more than 185 roses comprised of at least 75 different varieties, all of our beds are awash with color. The  shrub, hybrid tea, antique, and climbing roses are scattered through four rose beds, two perennial beds, several cottage beds, and the herb garden.

One of our dedicated rose beds, edged with Munstead lavender.

Peony "Karl Rosenfield", rose, "Abraham Darby", and "Fragrant Cloud".

Rosa rugosa, the Beach Rose

"Bonica"

"Blushing Knock-Our Rose"; an occasional petal is streaked with red.

Bella Roma

"Iceberg"

Double Pink Knock-out with Nova Zembla Rhododendron, growing up behind the waterfall and koi pond.

"Sea Foam"

"Social Climber"

"Passionate Kisses"

"Queen Elizabeth" grandiflora

In the herb garden, chives are in bloom and the herbs are thriving. We love to cook with fresh herbs and we're experimenting with some different varieties of thyme, sage, and basil this year. Besides sharing with friends, we make herbal teas to spray the yard and I also dry a fair amount for winter use. Next to the herb garden we have a smaller bed where strawberries share space with Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina). We have to ride herd on the spearmint, peppermint, and lemon balm on a daily basis.

Chives, oregano and germander are ready for harvesting.

Several varieties of thyme and sage are clustered next to the mint.

German thyme

Silver leaf thyme

Lemon balm (rear) and spearmint and peppermint take up one corner of the herb garden. An old mailbox is a handy place to stash garden tools and gloves so they're handy for those quick garden chores.

Stachys and strawberries... sweet and soft.

The formal garden has four rose beds and two large perennial beds. In the perennial beds, the peonies are in full bloom along with the lupines, daisies, clematis, and cranesbill.

Lupines and sage take center stage, with clematis on a pillar (left), ligularia wondering whatever it's doing in a sunny bed (it loves it there), and astilbe getting ready to bloom.

Yarrow and cranesbill make wonderfull "ground covers" in a perennial bed. The expand to fill holes quite effectively.

Japanese windflowers, cranesbill, lupines, and peonies frame the Italian fountain that is the hub of the garden.

Cranesbill and Veronica

Shasta daisies, spikes of lupines, Japanese windflowers (Alba anemone), and peonies (Sarah Bernhardt) in one of the sun perennial beds.

Roses bloom along the back of one of the perennial beds. On the other side of the stepping stones are yellow straw flowers. Yellow peonies, "Singing in the Rain" is farther along the path.

The yellow centers of the shasta daisies pop next to a yellow lupine.

The Munstead lavender (Lavendula augustifolia) has started to bloom and within a week, the hedges surrounding the rose and perennial beds will be a mass of fragrant purple blossoms.

The woodland and shade gardens feature mountain laurel, variegated foliage, and shaded walking paths and a quiet place to read.

Aquilegia is still blooming and this light blue double bloom is particularly lovely.

Spiderwort (Tradescantia) and penstemon "Husker Red"

The flowers of the mountain laurel in the woodland garden are exquisite.

Mountain laurel flanks the walking path into the back side of the woodland garden.

The last of the azaleas are blooming in the pathway along our dry river bed.

The Kouza dogwood next to the water garden has pink tinted bracts.

This tuliptree sprouted in the midst of our perennial bed two years ago. These trees are not native to this area and there are none in our immediate vicinity. We are working with tree experts to determine how it came to be growing here.

A second tuliptree sprouted this spring, also in a perennial bed. You can clearly see the unusual leaf. We believe they sprouted from dormant seeds contained in the soil that perennials were grown in.

A spring flowering trifecta - white kouza dogwood (rear), Bridal Veil (center), and pink wiegela (right). I love the interplay with the variegated caryoptis "Blue Mist" and hostas. The burgundy contrast on the left is courtesy of barberry and Betty Prior roses (in front of the barberry)

Honeysuckle climbs the fence next to the gate into the main garden

The blossom of the honeysuckle.

The American wisteria is in full bloom.

The Chinese wisteria finished blooming last week and we were fascinated to see seed pods on a spent blossom from one of the mauve and rose colored flower spikes. I'm hoping to dry and save them so I can try sprouting them (just for fun!)

Rhododendron "Nova Zembla" and mock orange bloom across the front of the house.

Blooms in our water garden are a little behind schedule. A cold wet spring has delayed things considerably. The yellow Siberian iris are finally blooming but the water lilies haven't even budded yet. The koi are a bright splash of color, literally and figuratively!

A kouza dogwood and cat tail reeds provide a backdrop for yellow iris and water mint growing at the edge of the pond on a shelf that is 2 feet below the surface of the water. Yellow flowering sedum trails over the rocks on the berm.

Our main garden area is a starburst comprised of two huge perennial beds and four rose beds. Perrenials were chosen for height and bloom time so that we would have a succession of blooms throughout the gardening season. We'll see you next month!

The Garden Bloggers; Bloom Day roll is hosted by fellow Blotanist Carol of Indiana. You can find links to visit all of the gardens that participate in this monthly bloomfest on her blog at May Dreams Gardens.