Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, June 2014

It's hard to believe we're already half-way through June. I don't know where the days are going, but they are whipping by faster than I want them to. Anyway, it's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, and I have plenty to show off.

Orange Abutilon, in a pot on the front porch

Two Begonia boliviensis that survived being overwintered inside the house

Kniphofia with just the tiniest hint of orange at the top

'Moonshine' Achillea

Blue Baptisia australis, the first bloom from plants that were put in 5 years ago

Kniphofia and Phlomis

Magenta rose campion, with a backdrop of bigroot Geranium

Penstemon digitalis, grown from seed a couple of years ago

I tossed seed for California poppies into this bed between me and my neighbor Mary last year, and this year they have made a lovely swath of self-sown babies

The bees love them!

I do too!

A dark lavender, with some golden conifer foliage (Don't make me look it up)

This lily, called 'Matrix,' is similar in color to 'Royal Sunset,' featured a few days ago in this post, but it's much shorter

Centaurea dealbata has been flowering for a while now

Delicate blue flax/Linum lewisii, started from seed a couple of years ago, languished in 4-inch pots all of last summer, and finally found a home in the new front garden

Chocolate-colored Nicotiana

Salvia greggii, the only one to survive the winter

Dianthus

The Alyssum that I sowed last year on the other side of the garden, has managed to self-sow into the gravel in the gravel garden

I don't remember the name of this Clematis (Etoile Violette maybe?) but it's the third try for a Clematis on this trellis. This one finally took.

Astrantia

 I sowed this Geranium 'Vision Light Pink' several years ago, and now its sweet, delicate flowers are a mainstay throughout the front garden

Dactylhorizae/Ground Orchid

Only one of three Salvia 'Hot Lips' survived our harsh winter, and came back from the roots

This purple Penstemon looks good next to golden Oregano

That's just the front garden, which is much more floriferous than the back. I would have had a single pink peony to show you, but it looks like someone cut and stole it. I moved my three peonies into the front garden bed earlier this spring, but the plants were just a little too far out of the ground and most of the buds they had already produced withered. Except for one, which opened a few days ago, and has since disappeared, cut clean off. Maddening. I hope it isn't the beginning of a trend.

Sorry to end on a downer. Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is usually joyous, and this one is mostly. GBBD is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens, check out her post here, and don't forget to check out the posts by other bloggers who are also celebrating their flowers this month.

How to Upstage a Blooming Cardiocrinum Giganteum

I used to dabble in community theater when we lived in Massachusetts, and learned during those years about the details that went into stage movement (called blocking), the dangers of being upstaged, how you should never turn your back on the audience, or do anything, however small, to pull the audience's focus at the wrong moment. I sometimes think of the garden as a stage, in which plant placement in the beds is just as important as actor placement on the stage.

I spent an hour or so yesterday at Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend, in the shade pavilion there, where another plant actually managed to draw my focus away from the swath of blooming Cardiocrinum giganteum. They're pretty fabulous plants, these giant Himalayan lilies.

Blooming Himalayan lily, about ten feet above my head, with last year's dried seedpods

They're impossible to ignore, these lilies with their soaring, wonderfully scented flowers, and their large shiny leaves. They're one of the first things you see at this time of year when you walk in to the shade pavilion at Far Reaches.

But, hard as it is believe, another plant drew my attention.

So, which one of the many great plants at Far Reaches was it?

Meconopsis (Hensol's Violet, probably)?

Nomocharis pardanthina?

Primula bulleyana?

These cool peony seedpods?

No, none of those. I do love how many of the plants at Far Reaches have more than one season of interest, though, like those peonies with their cool seedpods.

This feathery scarlet lily?

Dactylhoriza fuchsii?

This delicate apricot Primula, blooming amidst a swath of skunk cabbage?

No.

It was this. Maianthemum oleraceum. With its in-your-face panicles of lavender flowers, hanging over the path right at eye level. Such a fantastic plant.

The Maianthemum's dark legs remind me of black bamboo

Even my camera didn't want to focus on the Cardiocrinum. That's the Maianthemum in the background.

Yup, totally upstaging every one of those blooming Himalayan lilies.

Wordy Wednesday

I can't be wordless.

I've had quite a few of these spotted towhees here lately, hunting in the garden and at the feeder. I don't remember seeing them before, but maybe I wasn't paying attention. I might have thought they were robins, because they're about the same size. I'm pretty sure they're spotted towhees. The link at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology says they're large sparrows, but these are quite a bit bigger than sparrows. I should hang the motion-activated camera up at the feeder again.

First Lily

My first lily has opened its buds and wow! It's really knocking my socks off.

Lilium 'Royal Sunset' and an orange Geum

Love those freckles!

A two-fer!

It's called 'Royal Sunset' and I bought the bulbs earlier this year from B&D Lilies. I have them planted in the new front garden, with one clump near the Digiplexis Illumination Flame. I think they make a fabulous combo. I'm just in love with the colors.

Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame' and Lilium 'Royal Sunset'

Do you grow lilies? I have several others planted in this bed too, in hopefully similar hot colors. Can't wait to see them all open.

Making a Sacrifice to the Garden Gods

Every year I tell myself I am not going to have floppy poppies. But then time gets away from me, and before you know it, they are flowering like mad, but also falling all over everything around them, like a Victorian lady with a bad case of the vapors.

From this side of the bed they don't look bad

They're such pretty flowers

The flower color even looks good with the blue of Centaurea montana and the acid yellow of Alchemilla mollis

And the seedpods are sure fun to look at

I should have painted a face on this one

But the flower color clashes horribly with the lavender of Clematis 'Josephine' at the other end of the bed

When the flowers shatter they leave a mess

It's hard to believe it's already time to cut something back. But I think it's time to cut the Oriental poppies to the ground and allow fresh, new foliage to come up. It will mean sacrificing any still unopened buds, but it has to be done.

Good-bye bud!

For a time, maybe a couple of weeks, they'll leave a big open spot in the bed. But soon new foliage starts to come up.

New foliage already coming up

Neighboring plants always look a fright for a while too!

Do you have any messes to clean up in your garden already?

My Favorite Plant in the Garden This Week Is...

...Dyckia 'Precious Metal.'

It's been a while since I wrote a Favorite Plant in the Garden post. Not because nothing looks good, but because everything looks good. Well, pretty good. Maybe it's the mood I've been in, but nothing in the garden is really knocking my socks off lately. Everything seems just a little bit off. I could have posted about my Rheum palmatum a few weeks ago, it had a spectacular flower. But I found myself wishing the leaves were redder, and that the flower was red, not white, and, and, and...

See what I mean?

I've been waiting for something to really wow me.

Dyckia 'Precious Metal' -- It's alive!

It's flowering!

And the flower is orange!

When I first got this Dyckia last year at WeHop, its foliage was much more purple. I can't decide if I like it better with this more dark gray color, or if I want it to be purple again (although purple foliage with that orange flower would sure be cool). I don't know enough about Dyckias to know if the purple is caused by light exposure or fertilizer or what. Most of the photos I've seen of this variety online show it as steel gray. I'm thrilled that I managed to overwinter it and keep it alive, and now it's flowering! You can read about my experience repotting it after purchase here.

San Marcos has this to say about it:


"A terrestrial bromeliad with 18 inch wide rosettes of narrow leaves that are pale purple with a dusting of silvery scales on the upper surface and a silver coloring underneath. In mid to late spring appear stout unbranched 2 to 3 foot tall wands of bright orange flowers. Plant in full sun with little to occasional irrigation. Hardy to 15-20 F. We received this plant with a group of unnamed Dyckia forsteriana hybrids that were growing in the Santa Barbara garden of the late Jim Prine. We have given this plant the name 'Precious Metal' to distinguish it from others that we grow. Dyckia 'Precious Metal' is similar to another that we named Dyckia 'Purple and Silver' which has darker purple leaves with a silver sheen and branched flower spikes that appear earlier in spring."

Here are some stats:

Height: 12-18 inches
Width: 3-4 feet
Hardiness: Zone 9a - 11
Light Needs: Full Sun
Water Needs: Drought tolerant

Those barbed clusters remind me of the days when I was younger and did a lot of wood-working with power tools.  This is one of those plants that can easily draw blood.

It looks fabulous with all the other gravel garden potted plants

Loree at Danger Garden hosts the Favorite Plant in the Garden meme. You can read her current post here. Be sure to check out the comments, where other bloggers leave links to posts about their favorite plants.