What's blooming in late June

I planted 2 lupins last month and both have blossoms forming. 

And the painted daisies have put out their colourful blooms.

I planted 2 irises in this bed two years ago, only one survived. And it has 5 blossoms on it. What a lovely iris.

A whole lot of columbines are now in bloom. I love these blossoms, I find them captivating with their beautiful upturned bell-like faces and the long spurs in back. The intricacy of nature is so beautiful.

pale blue

and soft lemon yellow

to bright crimson, they are like a flower within a flower

Lady's Mantle have set their yellow blooms. These ones are in full morning sun and they are about 8-10" tall.  I have two others in a more shaded location and they have grown much taller, as if they are stretching towards the light.

the real reason we grow Lady's Mantle, for the way it holds water drops

                                 

A favourite plant of mine, fringed bleeding heart. This one will bloom all summer long. This is in a shaded bed and the colour is bright. I have another one that gets much more direct sun and the flowers are a faded pink instead of this bright pink above. (that bleeding heart is in the first two photos with the columbines)  But the plant is looking very healthy even with all that sunshine.

This is a brunnera, I don't remember which species. The leaves are plain green and the plant holds the daintiest blue flowers above its leaves. The flowers really do look like forget-me-nots.

I had forgotten how Ontario has dry summers.  After 30 years on the wet east coast, one takes rain for granted. Not here. It hasn't rained in 8 days.  I got a rain measure so now I really know how much and how often it rains. Even when people think it has rained a lot, as in two weeks ago, it was still only half an inch per week which is only half of what gardens require to grow well. My neighbour wonders why I water so much and I wonder why she doesn't water more!

Front Bed Done

I have finished planting the front bed. Now it is a case of waiting for the perennials to grow.

View of the bed from the driveway. There are 2 hostas that were here, but were always eaten by the deer. Two panicle hydrangeas and one climbing hydrangea, a cinnamon fern, two fringed bleeding hearts, two lamium, a sedum, an aster, several Lady's Mantle, and some New Guinea impatiens added to give some colour.

At the far end near the driveway, I have 4 columbine in different colours. Right now, the yellow one is blooming and it is lovely.

A closer shot of the new hydrangea, this one is Little Quick Fire. It has blooms forming on it now, they emerge white and then fade in the fall to pink and then to a bright rosy red. It will only get 5 to 7 feet tall and 5 feet wide, so it can have this corner of the bed to itself. I have only put annuals close to it for now. This pampered shrub will get about 3 hours of morning light, the rest of the day it sits in bright light, but it doesn't get shaded until late in the day. 

June 4 - the front bed

The front bed as seen from the new porch. Mulch not only helps to keep down weeds and conserve moisture, it makes everything look nicer too.
At least, what weeds are there are hidden and I can just see what I wish to grow here.

This photo is taken from the other end of the bed. The perennials are all small at this point, so I added some New Guinea impatiens near the steps, and two pots of wave petunia and yellow calibrachoa to fill in some colour. It will be a while before the perennials fill out and provide some blooms.

In this semi-shaded bed, I have planted a hydrangea, columbine, three lady's mantle, bleeding heart, fringed bleeding heart, climbing hydrangea, an aster, sedum, Japanese painted fern, cinnamon fern, and vinca as well as two hostas that came up from the previous owner's planting. It will be quite full once they all get going. And in the corner right near the porch, I am going to plant a panicle hydrangea. I think they give you the longest bloom time of any perennial.

One of my favourite flowers - columbine. This one is called Big Blue, it looks a little washed out in this photo, but it is gorgeous.  Such an intricate flower. There are four columbines in this bed all down this end around the plant pole.

May 30 and hot

30 degrees Celsius and no rain.  It takes a full hour to water one half of the new plants. I hope it rains soon.

These two peonies have come up in a very shady bed beside the garage. They have buds on them, so we shall see what colour they are.  Between them I planted two columbines, but the dog keeps trekking through this spot, so they may not survive.

This is a very healthy pink day lily. It has the prettiest shade of pink flowers. Right beside it is a spot to put another rain barrel.

And since it is now warm enough, the tomato plants have been put into a raised bed. Each has a tin can around it to prevent the dreaded cutworm sawing them off. The tripod structure is 6 bamboo canes tied together; at the base of each is planted a runner bean seed. Hopefully they will soon emerge and begin to clamber up the bamboo.

And while weeding, I pulled out what I thought was another maple tree trying to sprout. To my surprise, out came an acorn. I had tried to get acorns to sprout with no luck this past year, so this was greeted with delight and put into a safe spot at the corner of a flower bed between our yard and the neighbours. She has no trees in her yard, I am hoping she will appreciate an oak tree giving her a bit of much-needed shade.

Shade Perennials Planted

Yesterday it turned very warm and we had a high of 26 degrees.  The sun was extremely bright and I could only work in the garden for a short period, it was just too hot for my east coast unacclimated self.
So I only added some top soil to this front bed and placed pots where I wanted the plants to be.

This hydrangea survived the winter and a few crocuses have popped up beside it. Behind next to that small upright bamboo stick is the climbing hydrangea which is putting out new growth. The one planted in the bed by the side of the house hasn't made it through the winter, that bed is shallow and I think there isn't enough soil there to give good growth. It may only support annuals in that bed.

But I was thrilled to see the climbing hydrangea survive; this is one of a few plants that I loved in Halifax and I was doubtful that it could grow in Ontario's colder zone, but it has!

So in this bed, I have planted 3 Lady's Mantle, two reblooming dicentra (one pink, one ivory), a blue bird columbine, one cinnamon fern, and two astilbes. These are bare root perennials bought from nurseries, so they will take a while to put on some growth.
This bed gets morning sun, and then it is shaded for the rest of the day. The part of it closest to the front steps gets little if any sun.

And I was thrilled to see that I have a forsythia in the front garden. I thought it might be, but this morning the yellow flowers came out and it looks great for having had no attention paid to it for years I would guess.

And in this bed, called the shade garden - it gets morning sun and then a little afternoon sun that filters through the birch trees all around it - I have planted two hellebores, one pink and one plum, one Lady's Mantle, two brunnera Sea Heart (they are already putting out their tiny blue flowers) and one old-fashioned bleeding heart.

I have plans to continue digging this bed all along the side of the yard, but that is a lot of work so I will just dig out what I need to plant the waiting perennials. I read on one blog that you should get your potted plants into the soil as quickly as possible because they dry out in the pots and they need to get their roots established as soon as they can. So I will hurry along and get the rest of the perennials planted in the next few days.

The back yard is being fenced today and tomorrow. The sun-loving perennials are waiting in pots for that to be done, then I will get them into the ground. 

I have planted two rows of leeks and three rows of carrots in one of the raised beds. And my tomato plants begun indoors are going great guns and they will soon be ready to go out into the real world.
All very exciting after years of frustrated gardening in the rocky ground of Nova Scotia.