Cavan Reflections

By: Anne Corke

Jun 22 2011

Tags: gardening, roses

Category: Gardening

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This is the first in a series of updates which will chronicle what’s in bloom in the garden throughout the summer and help me identify any gaps in the bloom cycle, so I can justify buying more plants! If you have read my post about roses, you will remember Rosa Mundi. Well, it’s back! And as you can see, it’s blooming away, pushing it’s way through the other plants to claim it’s place in the sun. I guess I should admit defeat and move the neighbours away from this beautiful bully. The peonies are still in bloom and standing up remarkably well to the wind and rain this year. The deep pink ones look stunning beside the subtle blue of the false indigo. The very earliest daylilies, the lemon lily and the dwarf Pennysworth, are also in bloom. The scarlet poppy, another plant which I have tried to remove unsuccessfully, has come and gone, and it’s time for me to dig it out again as it’s mugging some daylilies. In the rock garden, the wild geranium is spreading like mad, as is geranium Biokovo (what started as a single plant is now covering an area 5 x 5 feet even though the garden catalogues say space 12″ apart! Ha!). Nonetheless I quite like it’s delicate white flowers which attract the bees and the butterflies. The wild one, on the other hand, is a mass of gangly foliage with relatively few flowers and gets yanked out regularly. The garlic is still blooming though the large ornamental allium Purple Sensation’s blooms have faded. I will leave the seedheads though for their architectural value. The dwarf goatsbeard’s blooms are also fading but it’s lacy foliage will continue to anchor the west end of the garden. Lamium pops up everywhere but I don’t mind – it’s a great groundcover. In spite of it’s lovely simple blue flowers, periwinkle is one of those plants that gardeners often wish they had never planted. It would be fine in a wild corner where it can spread to it’s heart’s content, but in a flower bed, it creeps and crawls everywhere. Every spring I pull out handful after handful as the battle goes on. Sometime soon, I’ll do a post about garden regrets and periwinkle will be featured! In the north shade bed, the ostrich ferns, turtleheads and bleeding hearts have taken over, which is fine with me. I leave them to fight it out amongst themselves! This garden is shady almost all day and full of mosquitoes so we don’t spend much time there! The lilacs of course have come and gone, but their fragrant memory lingers on! The various salvias, wonderful drought tolerant perennials, are in bloom, mauve “May Night” in the island bed, white “Cirrus” in the front bed and my favourite deep purple “Caradonna”, with lovely purple-black stems, in the railway garden. Evening primroses and beardstongue are also in bloom. The two varieties of beardstongue, Elfin Pink and Husker Red, are great favourites of the hummingbirds. The scapes are starting to appear on the early daylilies and the buds are forming on the coneflowers! July will be brilliant with bloom! Stay tuned for more updates and don’t forget to take time to enjoy your garden.

Copyright 2011 Anne Corke