Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2014

I realize I am a few days early - Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is on Sunday - but I have a very busy weekend coming up so I thought I'd post early rather than late.

Well, it's a typical June after all in my garden. After months of snow and horrid cold, it got warmer and warmer and all of a sudden my garden is lush and green and loaded with colour. Yay!!

My peonies are blooming and look stunning.

The pale pink shrub rose is in full bloom

The dainty deep purple Siberian Iris has appeared in numerous places around the yard

I have several lovely yellow bearded iris that have fought off borer year after year

Ladies Mantle (Alchemilla mollis) is fresh with wide serrated leaves and bright chartreuse flowers

Yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata) popped up out of nowhere!

Gleaming screaming RED POPPIES!!

The weigela bush suffered quite a bit of die back so I pruned it back harder than usual - is that why I am being treated to such a mass of fuchsia flowers???

The Himalayan cinquefoil (Potentilla atrosnaguinea) has only two scarlet blooms but at least it hasn't died out. It's been around ever since I started this garden 27 years ago…...

I am so happy that my spring garden bounced back from a harsh winter and can provide me and my gardening friends with such a lush, wonderful show now in mid-June.

Please check my food blog for a delicious tart Chocolate Apricot Torte.

Blue in the garden

There's a joke that I am sure you've heard: "A woman asks: What colour is this? Cobalt? Royal? Indigo? Azure?" A man answers: It's Blue."
It just goes to show that something that seems so simple, can actually be quite complex. There are infinite shades of blue and many of them have specific names.
It's also been said that it's hard to find True Blue in the garden, and by that, the person usually means in plants and flowers.
I had a look through my photos and discovered that I had quite a number of Blue-flowered plants.

Above is Iris reticulata, a gorgeous blue Spring bulb. It's very short - 4-6" but a brilliant cobalt blue. The yellow and white markings intensify the blue.

Another early Spring bulb, Muscari or grape hyacinth, is a periwinkle shade of blue. It blooms with early tulips and spreads over the years, creating lovely swatches of violet-blue.

Scilla proliferates rapidly by seed, forming a mat of sky blue in mid-Spring.

When I first planted these fragrant hyacinths years ago, they were a dark purple-blue but over the years, they come up more blue than purple.

Pale mauve-blue creeping phlox tumbles over a boulder. It is surrounded by many colours and sizes of hosta.

Centaurea montana (perennial Bachelor's Button) is a lacy spring flower that has a fuchsia centre but pale blue frothy blooms. It is also known as Blue Cornflower.

Siberian Iris are much more blue than these photos indicate. They stand out brilliantly against their own dark green foliage and are a perfect compliment to Allium moly, the little yellow flower above.

Is Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) blue or mauve or a combination of both?

Hydrangea are often white but now come in pink, green and blue!

Dainty little Love-in-the-Mist (Nigella damascena) self-seeds and pops up everywhere.

Hostas come in many shades of blue - mostly a silvery blue and have names like Blue Wedgewood and Blue Cadet.

There are many, many more blue flowers that I love but the last one I want to mention in this post is Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus). It's a lovely, delicate shade of pale blue but it nevertheless brightens shady corners. It also does quite well in the sun.

Need even more blue in your garden? How about adding a swimming pool or other type of water feature?

If all else fails, paint your house blue, add blue cushions to the patio furniture or paint your Muskoka Chairs a bright blue!

Please check my food blog: the latest recipe posted is for Classic Roast Chicken.

Top Perennials Part 5 (of many)

We got a blast of a snowstorm last Friday. Not as bad as New England, but a foot of snow for sure.
That's why it's so much fun to write about and look at photos of flowers while it's still cold and white outside!

Here are 3 more that I have in my garden  - I'm sure you would like to have them too.

This is Bergenia cordifolia. It is a strong, hardy plant for a wide range of Zones 2-9.
It has thick, leather-y leaves that are bright green in spring. They later turn a lovely burgundy
bronze in autumn. In the spring, any unsightly "spent" leaves should be removed.

In late spring magenta pink flowers rise above the shiny leaves on a long tall stalk. They are very effective if planted en masse. They also combine well with Ajuga reptans 'Burgundy Glow'.
Just watch the ajuga: it's a spreader.

Lungwort (Pulmonaria) is a great perennial for regions that have mild winters. In harsher climates, they survive if covered with thick mulch over the winter. They tolerate shade very well and bloom in early spring. Perennials.com suggests cutting the leaves back to 3 inches after the plant blooms. It will rejuvenate the leaves. I presume it wouldn't hurt to fertilize it at this stage either. It prefers a rich soil and does not like to compete with tree roots.

I have several types of Iris in my garden, 2 of which are Bearded Iris and Siberian Iris.

I used to have deep purple Bearded Iris and even a picotee blue striped one but they died out.
Bearded Iris are notorious for dying from iris borer, which makes the thick corms all mushy and soft.
I now have only the yellow one but it is a beauty. They are heavy feeders so fertilize in early spring and in the fall.

Siberian Iris are much easier to grow! They are dainty on tall thin stalks and are beautiful in flower arrangements.

They do well if divided every couple of years and they love fertilizer.

In one area of the garden I combined them with little allium bulbs, Allium moly. The blue-purple looked great with the bright yellow.

The nice thing with both Iris is that even when the flowers fade, the long grass-like stalks still add texture to the border.