Temporary Garden Mid-June Catch-Up

Because I’ve been dilatory in my picture-taking this will just be a photographic overview in rough chronological order from mid-May to mid-June.

 

The evergreen azaleas were mostly underwhelming but this pink one looked quite nice with the fern snuggling up to it.

 

There were about a half dozen of these pink aquilegias scattered here and there (yes, the leaf miners were already hard at work!).

 

This pretty dark rose pink (almost red) double aquilegia was hiding between a small conifer and the white fence.

 

One of several weigelas on the property.

I like the color changing effect from pink to white; I took this just a few days after the first photo.

 

A experimental shooting angle made this weigela look like it has acres of garden behind it; nope, those “stately spires” are not even 3 feet away… they are just on the other side of the fence that the weigela backs onto!

 

I have no idea what lilac this is, other than “not-Syringa-vulgaris”. It is slightly fragrant…nothing that would knock you over.

 

Rhododendrons encircle the ‘Kwanzan’ cherry that flowered a few weeks earlier. They aren’t all the same color; these two match, but you can see a white one around the right corner, and the two that are directly behind these are an entirely different shade of pink.

 

Here is the Leaning Tower of Rhody which I allowed one final splash of bloom before cutting it back last week. I did wait until the flowers were finished, not only for aesthetic purposes but because it had become Bee Central!

 

One of two cotinus in the front yard. I hacked both back unmercifully in early April because they’d been left to their own devices and were ridiculously leggy; in fact I got a bit carried away and worried afterward that I’d given them too drastic of a pruning. Guess not!

 

Not “flowering” but still very pretty, I’m assuming this variegated willow is Salix integra ‘Hakuro-nishiki’.

 

Dianthus in shades of pink to red accent the brick front walk. This bed was mulched with the “triple shredded” which I’ve concluded, after several weeks of living with both this and the shredded cedar bark, that I would not use again. Weeds are already coming up through it, as are new fungal growths. The beds where I put the cedar bark are still weed- and fungi-free.

 

This mountain laurel is also in that front-walkway bed. I really like this combination of vivid cardinal-red buds opening to two-tone pink flowers. No idea what cultivar this is but I’d be interested in finding one for the next garden.

 

There are only two peonies in this garden, and I’m guessing this one is Sarah Bernhardt. It’s quite fragrant and also quite prostrate after being rained on only once. The other is a double white, growing in shade and so very sparsely flowered; the same rain turned those flowers into what looked like huge wads of wet Kleenex tissues!

In one of the raised beds, coreopsis (which I like) and achillea (which I don’t) are currently in bud. The hydrangeas are getting ready as well, though no color yet.  There will probably be several photos of grasses in the next update, as well as the two vicious “thugs” that I still can’t believe that anyone would deliberately introduce into a garden……