Images of the garden as we move into summer.

I'm sorry the image is a little blurry but it was one of those moments when the plants framed the shot for me and it looked good in the camera. Its raining now so I can't get another. To the left is Lilac (foreground) and Chinese dogwood (background), on the right is wisteria, the light green bottom center is Russian sage and in the center is a huge Annabelle hydrangea starting to bloom.

This image is overlooking a pink Nikko blue hydrangea starting to bloom. The photo has kerria, acanthus, solomon's seal, polygonum, philadelphus, goose necks, huechera, helleborus and many others.

This patio is surrounded by liberty hostas as well as annabelle, nikko blue, endless summer, penny mac, blue wave and oakleaf hydrangeas. The 2013 Hydrangea Edition blog post will be done in August so I can include our paniculata varieties. They bloom very late.

You know its summer when the Black Eyes Susan start to bloom. This is a nice large 3 inch flower.

A cluster of pink Astilbe. I love the poofy flowers and fern-like foliage.

This is a close-up of another pink Astilbe.

This is the first year for Oriental Lily Josephine. They are starting to bloom and are quite nice. They are highly fragrant so always plant several together. By the second season they produce up to 8 flowers per stem. We did a mass planting of 75 so next June should be nice.

This is Acanthus Mollis, sold as Bear's Britches. The flowers are hermaphroditic (both male and female organs) and are pollinated by bees. Acanthus contains appreciable quantities of mucilage and tannin so it was used as a treatment for dislocated joints and burns.