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| Iris pseudacorus, Yellow Flag |
My flower garden is at its height during the month of June, and this year June's blooms have started early. I can look out my kitchen window and see the golden flashes of yellow flag iris at the edge of the pond.
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| Miss Kim lilac |
The pale purple haze of the small lilac, Miss Kim, is one of the glories of June. Not only is she a beauty, but she has the most intense and heady scent of any flower in my garden. A small bouquet will fill the house with its perfume. Its form is different from other lilacs, with tiny flaring trumpets massed along a stem, each a paler color in its interior.
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| Snowball viburnum bush |
Another lovely shrub of June, though more demure, is the snowball bush. Its rounded flower heads are made up of multiple tiny floral whirls.
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| White Rosa rugosa |
The rugosa roses have begun to bloom, the white flowers a pale, delicate pink in bud.
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| Lily of the Valley |
The sweet Lily of the Valley are fading, their delicious scent overpowered by that of Miss Kim, but their white bells still shine above the darks of foliage and ground.
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| Baptisia, False Indigo |
Baptisia, one of my favorite perennials, is blooming now. It's pea-like blue flower spikes don't last too long, but they are followed later in the season by dramatic black pods. The mass of leaves is beautiful all season, and act like a small shrub in the border.
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| Bleeding Heart |
Pink hearts are dangling alongside my back door. The more mature flowers with their upturned ends remind me of the old "flip" hairdo, with a bouffant.
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| Comfrey |
Even the herb comfrey puts on a floral show on June 1st, with groups of purple flowers, like multilayered chandeliers. The only June flower yet to bloom are the peonies, my very favorites, so I have them to look forward to in coming weeks.
I can only just imagine the fragrances of your lilacs, lily of the valley and viburnum. Do the bleeding hearts have a perfume?
ReplyDeleteNo, the bleeding hearts don't have a scent; they're just lovely to see.
DeleteThe light and dark of your Lily of the Valley image is lovely. It is a shock to recall Spring flowers given our extreme record-breaking temps and damaging lack of precipitation.
ReplyDeleteWe've had very strange weather this spring too, Julie, dry heat speeding everything up. And now in the past two weeks, lots and lots of rain: 4.1 inches from Monday through Sunday. And cold enough, in the 50s, for me to light a fire in my woodstove.
DeleteAltoon, your flower shots are brilliant. Isn't the return of their beauty uplifting every spring? Didn't know Baptisia and like it very much. My peonies are ready to burst from their bud and with such rains they would be grounded with water weight; I hope they can wait.
ReplyDeletethanks, Maggie. My peonies are still in tight bud, not ready to open yet. Maybe soon the sun and warmth will return for them.
DeleteI wish the June flowers would last longer. The later flowers are fine, but the ones blossoming now are best in my eyes. Did you hear that your "yellow flag" should be destroyed... as an invasive which will compete with and push out native plants like cattails? Hard to do to such a beautiful flower.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Helen; June is definitely my favorite garden month. I heard a part of the story of yellow flag being invasive, but I had missed which plant they were talking about. I've had mine for probably 15 years and it's barely spread at all. I'm more concerned how invasive the cattails are. From the evidence in my pond, there's no chance that yellow flag will push out the cattails.
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