June 29th and its 104 degrees!

A beautiful pink Filipendula rubra finally came back to life and bloomed this year. Its in front of white Annabelle hydrangea. A nice combo.

A big fat Cleome full of pollen. You should try to find the wild species and collect the seeds in the fall.  The hybrids are not as large, sturdy and don't bloom as prolifically.

This is group of smaller Cleome on the edge of the veggie garden.

Our bed of of Gooseneck Loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides) is always bountiful.

Acanthus hungaricus produced a series of symmetrical blooms this year. It looks like a plant catalog photo. This variety has small spines so you have to be careful when weeding around this one.

We moved the Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata) and it finally grew strong and bloomed. I've been waiting to see this flower since 2009! It has a nice sweet fragrance and the pollinators appear to like it.

This year we decided to help the Jacob Cline Bee Balm (Monarda) by weaving a series of stakes and wire over the bed so it would grow through it. This provided much needed support. It grew about 6 feet and as you can see its very happy indeed. The little white flowers peeking out are White Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana).

This is Petite Delight Bee Balm (Monarda). It only grows about a foot and has a nice purple flower. Great for borders. Surprisingly, these are doing quite well in a rather shady area.

Golden Stargazer Lilies living up to the hype. The fragrance is quite bold and wafts all over the garden. We have them in many places throughout the garden so you always catch a whiff.

We decided to try the new double lilies but they haven't lived up to the hype. This is the second season, the fragrance is weak, the blooms are short lived and always a little deformed. I guess the breeders need to work on it a little longer. This is called Double Oriental Lily Soft Music but doesn't look anything like the marketing photos.

This is the other double lily we tried called Double Oriental Lily Lodewijk. It looks much better this year but the fragrance is weak and the other flowers are small and deformed.

Tiger Lily (Lilium tigrinum) recovered from being munch on by voles last year.

The always abundant Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) after being ravaged by bees.

Our veggie garden is staring to take off. We planted purple hull peas, peppers, squash, celery, cabbage, broccoli, collards, tomato, sage, mint, basil, and thyme. Yum!

Its June and the beginning of summer blooms ...

Alcea rosea 'Chater's Red' Double hollyhock is blooming beautifully.

Same plant above but this shot was taken while the sun was hitting the plant. The color is quite vivid.

The white cousin of the red hollyhock above. They are very showy together.

Alcea rosea 'Fiesta Time' Hollyhock is a smaller version of the giant double shown above.

Monarda (Bee Balm)  'Marshal's Delight' is a nice bright pink variety.

Ligularia 'Little Rocket' Lanternchen planted in front of liberty hostas. Snails, slugs and caterpillars love to munch this plant so it hard to maintain in our garden.

We planted a few white Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana) this spring and they are starting to bloom. They spread quickly so this group should make a nice clump for next season.

Buddleia Butterfly bush with an odd poodle cut bloom.

Phlox 'Laura' is a new addition to the garden this year.

The Bee Balm 'Jacob Cline' is starting to bloom. This year I decided to run a weave of stakes and twine to keep it from flopping over in the heavy summer rain. Its now 6 feet tall!

Memorial Day weekend ....

Sundrop Oenothera fruticosa (primrose) is always a welcome sight in May. Its vivid yellow flowers really stand out. You couldn't ask for a more care free plant.

This is white Astilbe planted next to Oakleaf hydrangea.

Hypericum Perforatum (St. John's Wort). One of it's active compounds, hypericin, functions as an antidepressant for mild to moderate depression. It has shown anti-cancer properties, when stimulated by certain wavelengths of light, in its capacity to cause cancer cell apoptosis, or cell suicide. 

This is what happens when you let broccoli florets go to flower. It seemed like one day it was harvest time and the next it was twice as big and blooming.

The Gold Flame Spirea has recovered from being transplanted.

An unusual Veronica x spicata "Tickled Pink" plume made for an interesting architectural photo.

Leucanthemum superbum Aglaya popping open after one season in the garden.

Rosa Oktoberfest now fully in bloom. This is a vigorous rose that never disappoints. Huge flowers, long bloom season and it repeats in the fall.

We have no idea what the name of this ground over is but is has a nice yellow bloom in May but can quickly choke out small plants. 

A serpent in the forsythia!

A small northern brown snake checking out the view from the forsythia. And no... I didn't kill it. They are small and beneficial to the garden.

Rosa Easy Going is just that; easy going. It exploded this year with so many flowers you might think it was a new Knock Out variety. It produces large 3 to 4 inch blooms with a light fragrance.

Strike It Rich, a 2007 AARS Winner, has great color and a nice fragrance. We had one that grew quite large but the voles ate the roots out from under it.  This one is in its second season and doing fine.

We loved our Grace Smoke tree so much we had to have the Cotinus coggygria Golden Smoke bush. Its foliage stays chartreuse which stands out against darker greens. It doesn't "smoke" as heavily as the burgundy variety but its a nice accent specimen. I still say the Grace variety has the best foliage color.

Rosa Oktoberfest in all its glory. Its a very tall and robust rose with large flowers.

A closeup of Oktoberfest to show the size and form. Classic symmetry.

The dainty poofs of the Gold Flame Spirea stand out over the lime green to chartreuse foliage.

A nice shot of purple Campanula finally blooming!!!!! It has taken years to get this far because it always gets eaten by voles. For some reason these escaped detection and crawled through the solomon seal and hosta providing the effect we were going for. Click the image for a larger view.

A group of while calla lilies. We started a large bed of calla this season so we expect quite a show next May.

This is Cytisus Pomona in full bloom. They started selling these at Home Depot this year. Easy to grow and quite showy. They claim it likes neglect and dry conditions but we water it and planted it in compost. Looks happy to me!

A rose by any other name ...

The AARS Award winning Mardi Gras from Jackson Perkins never disappoints.

The fragrance of Ebb Tide is a nice strong spicy clove. The color is actually a little darker than this image might suggest.

Rosa Easy Going went nuts this season. It has so many blooms this season heavy rain has flopped it over.

Rosa Cookies and Cream is usually more red than pink but this is quite beautiful.

Pink Double Knockout is another heavy bloomer. This year we had one in another bed get munched by voles. It survived but didn't recover in time to bloom as heavy as this one.

An unknown species of pink floribunda rose.

Rosa Sterling Silver has a beautiful bloom but is very stingy with the flowers. Its not a vigorous plant but the fragrance is worth it the wait.

Rosa Livin' Easy, a 1996 AARS Award winner, is a new introduction to our rose garden this season.

This is the other Sterling Silver rose. Only a single flower but well worth it.

Our Digitalis is in its final days. This was the center of an amazing bright white Camelot.

Wisteria frutescens 'Amethyst Falls' is not the showiest species. We have this planted (and intertwined) with the classic Wisteria sinensis. We hope it blooms next season.

Japanese Fleece Flower or Fallopia japonica “Variegata’ or Polygonatum cuspidatum ‘Variegata' has the most amazing foliage.

A clump of large purple bearded Iris germanica.

An unknown pink Peony.