June Blooms for GBBD

H.  'Texas Beautiful Bouquet'

Mid June brings the beginning of our daylily blooms.  We are growing close to  600 cultivars with bloom dates that range from mid June until the end of July.  The daylily pictured above is one of my favorites of the early blooming ones.

H. 'Richard William Haynes'

Blooming in a bed nearby is another early favorite. This one is classified by the American Hemerocallis Society as an unusual form.  I love the long curling petals and sepals. I first became interested in growing daylilies after seeing the round ruffled ones but I find myself drawn more and more into the unusual forms.

Echinacea 'Daydream'

There are several of the cone flowers that are beginning to bloom. E. 'Daydream' was added late last year so these are the first blooms on this plant. I am very pleased with it so far. It is planted in one of the daylily gardens.

Echinacea 'PowWow Wild Berry'

 

Last year I purchased several of the variety E. 'PowWow Wild Berry' but several of them developed the aster yellow disease. I destroyed all the plants that displayed any symptoms and so far this year have not seen any evidence of the disease. I have not purchased any new cone flowers this year. I love these colorful plants and will really miss their presence if the disease appears again this year.

 

Achillea x 'Moonshine'

 

 

Coreopsis 'Sienna Sunset'

 

The yarrow's and the coreopsis are plants that can take a lot of neglect and keep right on blooming. The coreopsis have been divided several times and moved to other areas of the garden because I can count on them to bloom.

 

Hydrangea however are not always so dependable in my garden. I keep searching for the perfect spot and I may have found a good one for the one in this first picture. It may just have been the mild winter but I am hoping that its the location. Only time will tell.

 

Hydrangea macrophylla

 

 

Hydrangea quercifolia

 

This is the first bloom ever for my oakleaf hydrangea. The deer munch on this plant every fall and winter and I was sure I would never see a bloom. I had to move the Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' in order to get a good picture. But at least I have proof that it bloomed once.

 

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Lady in Red'

 

The 'Lady in Red' hydragea does bloom most years. There are lots of buds this year so I will get to enjoy it longer.

 

 

The final picture is of a Blue Star Creeper. It is new this spring and I am please that  it is blooming and spreading. This area is a small slope at the end of our rock wall garden. I am hoping that it will be vigorous enough to cover much of the slope and grow between the stones that are on the slope.

 

Isotoma fluviatillis Blue Star Creeper

 

Hope your garden is full of blooms for you to enjoy.

 

 

Sue Ellen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garden in Early June

 

Just a few glimpses of the garden in early June. We have had such wonderful weather the last couple of weeks but I have been fighting a summer cold and allergies from all the pasture grasses that are blooming all around us. I am really behind with getting some new plants in the ground and hope to make some progress this weekend.

 

 

The Kousa dogwoods are full of blooms this year. There are four blooming in our yard but this is the largest. In the foreground there are boxwood 'Wintergreen' and a couple of 'Blue Star' junipers. Behind this short hedge of boxwood are boxwood edged squares with tree form double pink knockout roses growing in containers. We just recently cut the boxwood hedges back to make them shorter to better display the roses. They still need a few weeks for the new growth to turn them back to their beautiful green.

 

The double red knockout roses are also putting on a show this week. They are blooming in front of a clematis 'General Sikorski'. In the background the Forest Pansy red bud is showing off its purple leaves. It was become one of my favorite small trees.

 



 

The Asiatic lilies have started to bloom. This is one of the very first that I bought just to try to see if they would grow in my garden so I don't have it's name. It is always one of the first to bloom. Below those blooms are the buds of one of the many daylilies that grow in my garden. 

 

 

Along the edge of a small pond we have planted elephant ears and canna. Last year we did not dig them up but instead cut them down and heavily mulched them with straw. I realize that they may not always survive our zone 6 winters but I wanted to experiment one year to see. This year with its mild winter they came through fine. Also planted here is a red twig dogwood.