Early June, Rain and Sunshine

June 5, 2015

Crab apple blossoms

June already; where did May go?!
It has been a really pleasant early summer, weather-wise this year, I'm happy to say.  In previous years it has often jumped from cool single digit temperatures in early May right to hot and dry weather (+ 26-28C) without the warm 20C days in between.  It is brutal to try and do any work in the garden past 10 am if the weather is that hot that early.


We did have about a week like that, where the lawn was turning dry and yellow, and I had to constantly water everything, particularly any new plants.  Surprisingly we did finally get some much needed rain, several times in fact. And there was another thundershower today.

Beautiful aromatic lilacs!

It is so amazing how much everything shoots up to quickly once there's been a good rain. Watering from the well doesn't have the same growth effect as Mother Natures own showers.

Almost all the peonies have buds on them and promise to have beautiful blossoms before too long. My new addition, the Julia Rose peony had its one fat bud EATEN by some passing wildlife before I got a chance to spray it with Bobbex! So frustrating!

The white daisies are starting to open their buds now. I'm always surprised by how many clumps I have even though I dig some out each spring and fall. They look really fresh and pretty at first, but one has to be ruthless about chopping them all off in a week or 10 days before they all start to seed or they take over the garden.

hollyhocks, bearded iris and poeny

The bearded irises are looking good and many are blooming now, except for those I dug out and divided this spring.  I love the purple and white ones, but my favourites were the solid dark purple which were only growing in the wild bed by the road for some reason.  Im not even sure if there are even any still growing there now.
The tall thin Siberian irises are blooming now, too.

Siberian irises, dahlia leaves, daisies about to bloom

The oriental poppies that I planted in my long perennial bed last year are growing and one has a huge fat bud on its stem.

I Bobbexed everything yesterday, including the tiger lilies that are about 8 inches tall now and all the other lilies coming up. I even sprayed Bobbex on the delphiniums, all 5 of which managed to over- winter successfully; unlike last spring where I only had one left!  Thank goodness for Bobbex!

My Forget-Me-Nots are looking really cute, as are the pretty deep blue Persian Cornflowers in the Stackstone bed next to them.

Forget-me-nots & Persian cornflowers

Most of the tulips are done now and I'm letting the leaves die back naturally to add nutrients to the bulbs for next years' blooming.  I do still have half a dozen late blooming pink ones that add a nice shot of colour.

Clematises growing well: Nellie Moser on left, Integrifolia Durandii on right

Looking forward to seeing my clematises grow and bloom. The Nellie Moser was planted last year and is growing well so far. It should get pink and white flowers eventually. The Integrifolia was already blooming big purple 4 lobed flowers when I planted it a few weeks ago. Potentially it should only grow about 6 - 7 feet tall and not overshoot my trellis.

     Morden blush rose

The rose bushes are growing beautifully, lots of foliage on the Morden roses. The Winnipeg Parks rose which is at the end of the long bed is just starting to sprout leaves. I think it needs some blood and bone meal.   The John Davis climbing rose is doing okay as well. Looking forward to the first blossoms.

Swallowtail butterfly in my lilacs

The apple blossoms are all done now. We had a summer storm and it blew off a lot of the petals that were left. The Hyer apple tree is looking really nice. Last year we had almost no apples, but I think we'll have a lot this fall.

The lilacs are looking so gorgeous now! I wish they would bloom for longer. I love their heavenly smell!

American Goldfinches are back!

I love to wake up to the birds singing in the morning, the cheerful sound of the robins and the twitter of all the little house wrens.  :)

Roses and lilies

Winnipeg Parks Rose

Roses and lilies, two of my very favourite flowers are blooming now! And of course we can't forget the peonies! My beautiful pink and white peony continues to bloom although it looks very heavy and droopy in the rain. Their smell is so heavenly, I wish I could catch it and bottle it to smell when the dreary days of winter are here! :)

The first rose bush to bloom was the Morden Sunrise but that's because the greenhouse gave it its perfect conditions to develop blossoms.  My first over-wintering rose to bloom was actually my little Winnipeg Parks rose bush which I had dug up and moved about 2 feet forward in the bed this spring! It got more sun and seemed to appreciate that in spite of the stress of the move.

Morden Sunrise Rose bush

The next was my Morden Centennial rose, but my Morden Blush had a number of pale pink rosebuds on it at about the same time. My Morden ruby is ready to pop any time now. I can see the red petals peeping through the green buds! I must remember to trim back my white potentilla shrub. It is crowding my Blush rose bush.

Morden Centennial rose, shasta daisies, pink gauras/ butterfly flowers

My little tiger lily 'freeby' was the first lily to bloom although it only developed 2 flowers and a few more stems that were duds... The perennials close by it got so huge and lush this year because of all our rain , it shaded the tiger lilies too much. Next spring I will have to dig some of them back.

Red lilies, the first to bloom along with 2 tiger lilies

I missed my first 2 Morning Glory blossoms what with all the weekend company and weekend rain... The 2 flowers were pink but the next 2 are dark purple and quite beautiful. I had bought a 6 pack of morning glory annuals but their vines were so tangled together, I just planted them all in one spot. I had no idea that they are different colors, so it will be interesting to what it bloom up the trellis. I also bought a ruby Loftus this year. It is a climber and gets red trumpet flowers. It was blooming when I first planted it, but then it stopped after a white... I saw today, during my wet garden tour, that it has more red blossoms ready to open. :)

The "Bobbex" seems to be doing the trick to keep the deer from lunching on my flowers. It works better that the bars of "Irsh Spring" soap I used to hang by nylon on the delphinium and lily hoops.

I also checked my tall clematises in the bed on the east side of the house, which are full of fat buds now, too.  I look forward to seeing them bloom as they add so much deep blue/ purple color !

The Hollyhocks are getting very tall and look like they will have a lot of flowers this year as well. Most of my hollyhocks are 4 years old now and that's usually the life span of a hollyhock plant. Then it dies and you need to plant a new one the following year and start over. The new ones usually don't bloom the first year, but I started 2 'spares' in a pot on the deck.  Not sure where I will put them to over winter, though.  I wonder if I could just sink the pot into the ground and then transplant them next spring....

Purple delphiniums

My purple delphiniums are popping open by the minute! The flowers are a dark purple with white centres. The ones in my round 'angel' bed are over 6 feet tall and still growing! (One good thing to be said about all this rain we have been getting again in July...  2 inches this past few days alone...)

Delphinium flowers

The first 2 day lilies have opened their spectacular yellow blooms at the bottom of my rock garden bed.
I LOVE this time of the year! Always some new beauty to admire in the garden. :D

Pink and yellow columbines, shasta daisies, purple delphinium spikes

Ongoing Battle/ Marmot Lunch

Clematises are growing/ pink Oriental poppy is blooming

We had hail 2 evenings ago and I had to rush outside and drag/ carry all my deck pots in close to the house under our deck roof! Luckily it only lasted several minutes, then it turned to fat rain drops. Needless to say, I was soaking wet by the time I had most of the pots out of the rain!

We have had some rain here almost every day since the beginning of June! Everything is lush and green and full, but we need the sun now to help the plants to bloom.  Some of my annuals in my pots are so soggy that they are rotting off at the soil level (Had to replace a number of pansies.)

Pond is doing well. Not as much algae as last year.

I have added some birch mulch chips to my flower beds now. The beds look so much tidier with the mulch in between the plants.  We have had so much rain in the last few weeks and the mulch prevents the dirt from flying up and getting on the leaves of my perennials and flowers.
Yesterday we finally had a beautiful, sunny summer day with temperatures up to 24C and NO RAIN or showers all day! Fabulous!

More planting today...
I dug out the little lavendar perennial I had planted a few weeks ago. It was not growing in the spot I had it, (small spruce tree flower bed, next to the beautifully budding peony) as it was not getting enough sun there. Right now it's in a pot on the deck until I find a more permanent spot.  I planted a couple calendulas there which I grew from seed and which have big fat buds now.  Have to remember to go out and spray them with the animal repellent or they will become marmot and/or deer lunch.

Perennials are lush due to all the rain; Hollyhock on left, cranesbill on right, purple flowers of chives in centre, blue salvia annual in front centre

I weeded and cleaned out the tiny plot below the huge juniper bushes by the bird feeder. There's a slow growing false spirea there and a whole lot of weeds, so I replaced the weeds with  a ready to bloom dianthus (Pinks) which I thought might be safe there.

That pesky little marmot continues to help itself to my garden flowers! It's an ongoing battle!  I have replaced the gazanias in my top rock garden bed twice now and sprayed them often, but the marmot destroyed both sets.  I went to Tail Creek Greenhouse and bought some flowering burgundy verbena to put in that bed. Since they have fuzzy smelly leaves, I thought that might deter the marmot but I sprayed them, too, just in case...
If anyone has a sure-fire method of deterring marmots from lunching on their plants PLEASE let me know!

I also went around the yard and sprayed Bobbex on all my growing lilies, dahlias, rose bushes, delphiniums,  lupines, and even the buds on my peonies. These are all plants which the deer have eaten in the past. The Bobbex is rather stinky, with wintergreen oil, garlic,  but it seems to do the trick against deer nibbling. Not so again rodent lunching, though.  I may have to mix up some Plantskydd and go back to using that...

Shasta daisies blooming in a sea of white blossoms; red currant bush is loaded with fruit.

My husband removed a large dead juniper bush in the wild rock garden by the road. There was a big bare spot there, so today I planted a couple of young first year daisy plants there, and a Malva that  had seeded itself and was growing in a bad spot in my long flower bed. The Malva did not like being dug up and is quite droopy right now.
I also transplanted 3 little Hen and Chicks that were growing in the shade under a bush in that same wild rock garden bed. Two years ago I  had bought them from the greenhouse where I was working and had planted them in a relatively sunny spot. Now they are back in a sunny spot! :)

My perennials are growing like gangbusters with all this rain! (So is the lawn, much to my husband Chris's displeasure...)  They are getting tall and have set quite a few buds, the 2 monkshoods- 2 blue, one pink,  8 or is it 9 delphiniums; the cluster bellflowers have never been so big and my favorite peony near the pond has 8 fat buds! The maltese cross is doing well, (not unusual) except that much of it was beaten down in all the wicked rain storms we've had recently.  It usually stands up well on its own so they have no stakes or cages surrounding them.  I stood some of them back up immediately after and even propped a few with some garden stakes so many did recover, but I had to cut off a number of others today which were flopped over.

pink lupines are huger than ever before

And the best news of all... my new Morden sunrise rosebush has opened its blossoms !  It is beautiful!  My other 4 rose bushes all have fat buds and so are not far from blooming either. So as long as the deer stay away, I think I will have a bumper crop of roses this summer! YAY! :D

We had a wicked rain/hail storm this late afternoon, just after I finished this post.  Luckily I had time to get all my pots  up close to the house out of harm's way... The sun is back out now drying up all the rain. (And "incy wincy spider's climbing up the spout again!"  :)

Foxglove surrounded by maltese cross, monkshood and cluster bellflowers soon to bloom; thrift in front.