I start my June End of Month view with a sad tale.
About 10 years ago I was given a Hibiscus shrub as a leaving present, which has grown happily at the bottom of my garden until this year. I noticed a while ago that only half of the shrub, now a small tree, had leaf buds. The other half of the tree looked very dead, although there was still green on the bark when I scratched it. I posted a photo on Twitter for some advice but despite the myriad of gardeners, no one came up with an answer. I’m not sure if I then took the correct action, but I pruned the bare branches. To my dismay I saw this morning that the leaves on what I thought was the healthy part have withered and died. I will leave it well alone now and it may recover next year but if anyone has an idea as to what happened please let me know.
Other parts of the garden are doing well, although there is still a lot of greenery and not many flowers. It is a little disappointing because I see blogs of other gardens with an abundance of flowers. Even the alliums are now green.
The Gazinias are just about to flower which will bring some bright colour, and the Antirrhinums should join them shortly. I am delighted to announce that at long last I have ONE peony!!!
The cosmos are white, which is not going to add to a kaleidoscope of colour, but the Agapanthus (blue) is in bud and together with the Vibernum Bodnantense will create height and add shades of blue.
At the rear of this flower bed is a very pretty Ballerina Rose.
In a desperate attempt to bring a sense of brightness into the garden I had a little on-line shopping trip at the Crocus website. I purchased :
Penstemon ‘Pensham Laura’ (beard tongue)
Monarda ‘Squaw’ (bergamot)
Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii (Black-eyed Susan)
Echinacea ‘Summer Cocktail’ (PBR) (coneflower)
Hemerocallis ‘Pink Damask’ (daylily)
I did have one more plant failure this month, but I hope it has been rescued. The Geum Bell Bank collapsed – that is the only way to describe it, so I cut it back hard and covered it with a cloche to protect it from the local cats that seem to like to maraud in the borders. When I looked this morning there are lots of new shoots so all may be well.
At the end of last year by boss gave me a box of dahlia tubers. I read that straw around the base helps mulch them, but I am not sure how aesthetic it looks but if it helps its worth a try. I have a feeling that the straw can also deter snails, which are the bane of my life. Those eagle-eyed of you will notice the hardy geranmium at the front that I have chopped back to the ground. It was getting very straggly and this will bulk it up and it will have a second flush of flowers in a month or two.
I fear I may be a little negative about the flower borders, because the roses are marvelous this year as you will have seen from my earlier post Roses, Roses, Roses. The new border I made last year with Penstemons and Salvia Hot Lips is a profusion of colour, especially now the lavender is out.
The Compasion Rose is splendid, and the perfume never ceases to delight. It is really a climber, I prune it right down every spring, but it still grows to quite a height. Fortunately the stems are really strong so it doesn’t require any support.
I had decided not to grow any vegetables in the raised bed this year, so instead mixed together half used packets of seeds left over from 2012 and scattered them over the bed to make a cutting garden. I don’t remember a cornflower mix but there are an awful lot of cornflowers which are going to be pink. On close inspection there are some poppies and marigolds.
I do have some fruit and vegetables. The Raspberries (at the back of the photo) are looking promising and the runner bean and tomato plant Totem have perked up so hopefully they will bear results. I already have some tomatoes on the Tumbling Toms in the hanging basket.
When I wrote my post about my patio just 10 days ago, it was looking full of promise and on the brink of bursting into floral magnificence. Well we are getting there and the Philedelphus together with my other Compassion Rose and the Jasmine all add to a wonderful floral fragrence, especially on a warm day.
Imagine my delight to see that the large white flowered agapanthus in a pot has three buds. It is a glorious plant and did nothing last year. Also, the gerbera has flowered again for the 5th year in a row, albeit only one flower at the moment so fingers crossed there will be some more.
I will end this End of Month View for June with another question. A friend bought me a Silver Jubilee rose last year which according to the label is a fragrant lovely pink color shaded with apricot, peach and cream. What has bloomed is an equally lovely rose, but with a very delicate fragrance and I would describe it as yellow with pinky/apricot edging. Does anyone recognize it as being something other than Silver Jubiliee? I suspect it had the wrong label. I love the shading and am more than happy with it, but puzzled all the same.
Thank you Helen at Patient Gardener who hosts this meme. She is away at the moment at a Garden Bloggers get together in San Fransisco, but very cleverly wrote her post and scheduled it to be published today in her absence. Hop over to her blog and take a look at the links to other End of Month Views left in her comments box.
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