Garden Blogger Bloom Day - June 2014

Looking back at my posts I realized that summer was a very busy time here at Gardeners with Kids and I never got to share with you our garden in mid June and mid July. From beginning of June to end of July I was very busy with guests, vacations and kids' activities and didn't get to post some of the most beautiful blooms in our garden.  Well it is January and I do not have much to share with you from Ohio zone 5b so how about last June in the January post?

Today I will share with you the June blooms from the middle of the month.  Luckily I have the pictures all saved ready to be shared. Here is a wide view of a part of the gardens in mid June.

In spite of the mostly part shaded garden we do have lots of blooms in June.
The Straw Foxglove below will start the show because it is my 2014 pride and joy. Bought the seed from a catalog in January of 2013. Started the seeds indoor in March, ended-up with 4 seedlings and planted the survival one in the garden in May of 2013..an itsy bitsy green plant with four leaves.  It looked nothing like the perennial foxgloves I already grew but I was patient. A year later,  June of 2014 it rewarded me with these blooms!  I scattered the dried seeds all over this area in the fall and I am hoping for a colony to develop next spring all by itself.

Digitalis lutea or Straw Foxglove

Leucanthemum x superbum of Shasta Daisy

Below another new favorite that a gardener friend gave to me three years ago in a 2" pot almost dead is  Stachys macrantha synonym with  S. grandiflora or commonly named Big Bethony.  My friend had this plant suffering on a full sun property and this plant doesn't do well in all full sun. This is a less known green leaf cousin of the Lamb's ears or Stachys byzantina.  Two years ago when my garden was on tour, this plant surprised me with very large blooms in a clump twice the size of what you see here.  People noticed this plant from many yards away and went closer to see what it is.  Not many people knew what it was so we eventually placed a label next to it for information.  Very bold looking in large clumps, long lasting blooms and medium-fast growing in the right conditions (rich soil, moist, good drainage and part shade).  I liked its impact so much but I want more of it so I divided this and placed the divisions couple feet away.

Stachys macrantha or Big Betony

Here is a closer look at this purple beauty:

I  will also attached a picture from June of 2013 when the clump was larger.  See if you can identify it in the larger view.  It surely pops!

The Clematis below while smaller in the size of the blooms,  it covers well the gardening mid season of June thru September overlapping at the beginning and end of the summer  with other clematis varieties I grow.

Clematis viticella "Polish Spirit"

Campanula glomerata "Joan Elliot" or Clustered Bellflower

Campanula glomerata "Joan Elliot" with Red flowering Coral Bells and chartreuse leaf Bleeding heart

Spirea japonica "Magic Carpet", a Primula Japonica and  a hosta that was sold to me as "Francis Williams" - there is no way that is what I have here!

Lysmachia punctata "Golden Alexander"

Lysmachia punctata or Loosetrife

Digitalis purpurea or Foxglove "Camelot mix"

Campanula punctata "Cherry Bells" or Cherry Bellflowers

Achillea or Yarrow "Paprika"

Geranium sanguineum "Max Frei" or Hardy Cranesbill

Here is an all time perennial favorite of mine due to its unique shape and form that works well with any other plant in any garden setting. 

Astrantia major or Masterwort

This perennial performed so well for me since 2006 that I got to divide it every two years and its blooms last for about 6 weeks.

Astrantia major or Masterwort

Here is Astrantia major mixed with another soft pink favorite:

Astilbe "Peach Blossom" with Astrantia major or Masterwort

Astilbe "Peach Blossom"

Astilbe  "Straussenfeder" or Ostrich Plume with Astrantia major

Foreground: Astilbe chinensis "Visions in Red" 

But lets switch to the sunny patch of my backyard and see the roses:

Rose Polyantha "Little Pet"

Clematis "Marie Louise Jensen"

Below is a nice plant combination of the two above plus yellow Corydalis.

The yellow flower is Corydalis lutea

And now lets make a more complicated plant cocktail called: my Roses bed. To the combination above, add Rosa Sunny Knock Out®...

then, lets add a cherry pink rose like Rosa Knock Out® "RADrazz"below

and  Lupine Russel hybrid 

and we end-up with a garden view like this: The Roses Bed

A favorite annual self-seeded las fall was the annual poppy Lauren's Grape 

Papaver somniferum "Lauren's Grape"

 Poppy with the lupine and corydalis in the background

Papaver somniferum "Lauren's Grape"

Our climbing rose " Blaze" that was much admired in my last year's garden post HERE , almost died  from the colder than normal winter that we had. It was around May that we saw the first sign of life  and its only stem rushed to bloom at the same time with its partner clematis  "Marie Louise Jensen"  as last year.  It will be a couple years until it returns to its former glory but it may happen.

To keep the pictures on the HOT color side, lets look at this reliable beauties:

Lychnis x Arkwrightii "Vesuvius"

Primula Japonica or Japanese Primroses

Trollius "Golden Monarch" or Globe flower

 To cool the colors down a bit three relatively new shade favorites in my garden:

Aruncus dioicus or Goatsbeard

Filipendula ulmaria or Meadowsweet

Aruncus aethusifolius or miniature Goatsbeard

and then we had some larger white blooms in the front garden

and these delicate but showy blooms of Campanula

Campanula persicifolia Takion Series

But foliage is so important even in June especially in our dry shade areas where not many blooms can happen

Virginia Creeper , Brunnera "Jack Frost, Sedum Acre, Hosta Frances, 

Coreopsis verticillata "Moonbeam" with Brunnera "Jack Frost"

Sedum acre, Ajuga reptans, Alchemilla or Lady's Mantle, Astilbe, Hardy geranium or cranesbill, Aster, pulmonaria and more

"Sum and Substance" Hosta with Heucheras, Ferns and "Aureo-marginata" Hosta

If you want to spice-up a foliage combination, just add a pot with a Hot colored coleus in between and voilà:

From left to right: Golden Creeping Jenny or Lysmachia nummularia "Aurea", Variegated Plectranthus forsteri "Green on Green", Red-leafed perilla, Lobelia, Coleus

My first succulents trough which I winter indoors

I hope that you enjoyed this January post about our June 2014 garden. Check out other January gardens from around the world at Carol’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.