Views From a Garden

It’s hard to believe that just a few short months ago, the garden lay beneath a foot and more of snow. How quickly, how extravagantly, we have moved into the season of green. Here are a few photos of the early June garden.

Forget-me-nots! I wouldn’t be without them. While a lot of what passes for ‘blue’ in the garden, I would have to say, is really a shade of purple or lilac, forget-me-nots are true blue. They make a lovely ground cover while later perennials are just getting started. They do look a little messy when they go to seed, but the solution is easy! Just uproot the seeding plants and shake their bounty out around the garden, wherever you’d like a patch of blue next spring.

Speaking of blue, I’ve been enjoying the first blooms of this dainty little corydalis ‘Wildside Blue’. It was new to the garden last year and survived the winter nicely. The flowers are an unusual shade, very pretty, but even without flowers this graceful plant is beautiful.

Here’s the hosta dell. Hostas bring out my impatience in the spring. They are slow to start thrusting their spears of curled leaves skyward. But once they get going, they make an impressive display. These hostas are well-established mature plants, mostly Krossa Regal to the rear and Royal Standard.

The lupins are all volunteers. I’m not always happy with where they choose to seed themselves, but they do make a beautiful display. It’s hard to stay mad at them.

The elf Galen has returned from his stay in the garden shed to snooze the summer away. I’m quite enamoured with the hosta to the left of the photo, ‘Designer Genes’. The pale leaves really stand out in the shade, and if you look more closely, you can see that the leaf stems are red.

The little squirrel has returned to napping in his leafy hammock too. I placed him there, at the left of the photo, to remind me to avoid a low branch on which I have repeatedly cracked my head while surveying the garden and not paying attention.

I’ve added a few peonies to the garden in the last year, and am enjoying their first blooms. This is ‘Lesley Peck’, set against a background of Geranium phaeum ‘Samobor’.

These peonies are ‘Krinkled White’.

Here’s a section of the shady border receiving a bit of morning sun. The giant leaves belong to Astilboides tabularis, which I wrote about here. I moved the astilboides to a better location a year ago and he has taken to his new home with vigor.

Here are columbine peeking out around the edges of astilboidies leaves.

The brilliant red poppies are stunning.

This attractive salvia is ‘May Night’, or Salvia nemorosa ‘Mainacht’.

I always enjoy the striking contrast of the purple flowers against the lime foliage featured by the spiderwort ‘Sweet Kate’, or Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’.

Finally, here’s our lone pink lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium acaule). Railguy transplanted it from the woods, where it was in the middle of a trail and in danger of being stepped on. We didn’t hold out high hopes for its survival, but it has returned for a second year. You’ll find the story of the pink lady’s-slipper here.

I hope you enjoyed this little sampling of the early summer garden.

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Garden Walk: June 16th

One of the most difficult challenges in photography is capturing the essence of a garden. No matter how lovely the pictures are, they rarely evoke the same experience as being there in person. I’m in awe of photographers who do this for a living! And of course, no photograph includes the song of the birds, the buzz of the bees, the sweet scent of roses as you brush by them, the relief of cooler air as you move out of the sun onto a shady path…

One of my favorite views of the garden can be seen from an upstairs window in the house. I like to look out at the garden when I get up in the morning and see it at its freshest, before the heat of the day sets in.

Once the horses are looked after, I take a stroll around the yard and see what changes the new day has brought.  Pictured above is Geraniium phaeum ‘Samobor‘ and catmint Nepeta x faassenii ‘Walker’s Low’.

The slanting rays of the morning sun offer softer lighting than the midday sun.  Here are some of the first blooms of Morden Sunrise.

This view shows one of the garden’s three birdbaths, set off by Salvia “May Night” (Salvia nemerosa ‘Mainacht’). To the left is the Giant Fleeceflower (Persicaria polymorpha). It’s about five feet tall this year, and putting on a beautiful display. I hope that in another year or two, it will get to be another foot taller. To the right are daylilies, still a few weeks or a month away from their bloom time.

The old-fashioned shrub roses, ‘Dart’s Dash’ scent the air with a fragrance as beautiful as their brilliant flowers. Here, the roses are set off by the blue of False Indigo (Baptisia australis).

I’ve been keeping an eye out for a gnome to live in the garden for some time, and when I found this birdbath, I thought that this fellow would be just right for a shady spot at the edge of a garden path. I’ll close this post with a view of the path that leads into the garden from the driveway. You can spot the gnome just to the right of the path.

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