I'm cheating a bit --these photos include things that have bloomed throughout the first part of June, and some of them have now finished blooming. Still, I wanted to share the photos.
Last month was all about iris, but one of my favorites didn't bloom until after May 15th. I just love the color of this orange iris, and it makes a wonderful spot of bright color in the garden.
A flower that took me completely by surprise is this climbing rose.
I planted this rose at least 10 years ago, and this is the FIRST time it has ever bloomed. I'm not sure if this is a result of our warm winter and early spring, and I won't be surprised if it never blooms again, but I'll miss it. The individual blooms had a heavenly scent.
A few of my lilies have started blooming. Kiss-Me-Kate always does very well and brightens up the eastern side of the house for a week or so.
My red asian lilies, which are usually the first to bloom and very hearty, didn't do so well. I believe it was probably the several below-freezing nights we had in April, when the buds were forming. It's disappointing, but I'm sure they'll be fine next summer.
Another lily I'm enjoying this June is a pink and white lily, but I don't remember it's name. It was new last year, and has come back well. The starry allium is in the foreground.
Along with that allium, I have three others blooming now, a yellow, pink, and blue. I love the blue, which is another heirloom bulb I planted last fall, and I'm going to order more of them. This is not a great picture (they started out white and became more blue with time), but it does show the blue color. They are called Caeruleum.
Another plant that I bought at the same time as the blue allium is a white martagon lily. This one is disappointing only because it is the tiniest lily I've ever seen. It is only about 8 inches tall, which means it is completely hidden by columbine while blooming. I just never expected it to be so tiny. Perhaps if it multiplies, it will have more of an impact.
I have two peonies that have done really well.
However, I also had a light pink peony with with a single layer of petals and lots of beautiful yellow stamens, and that one barely came back this year and had no buds. The red is right next to it, so I don't know why one would come back strong and the other not. Should I just get rid of the sickly one? Any advice from people with more peony experience would be appreciated.
A pretty tickseed that I don't know the name of, but it's a bright spot of yellow in the back garden.
Another bright spot is the butterfly milkweed.
One of my favorite flowers is spiderwort. I purchased a pink one, and this year it has finally gotten so crowded that it's not doing well. I'll have to dig it up and split it this fall. However, because I haven't been terribly good about clearing the seedheads, I've now got several blue and purple spiderwort coming up around it. It's a very pretty sight in the mornings.
That's a good round-up of early June in my garden. Thanks to Carol for hosting the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, and I'm looking forward to checking in on other June gardens!
