Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day & Foliage Follow Up June 2019: Blooms, Blooms, Blooms!

Welcome to my June Garden!

Welcome to the month of June in my Long Island garden. It's a busy time of year, but I try to embrace as much time as possible in the garden. As daily temperatures rise up into the 70's, with frequent night time precipitation, there is something new to enjoy every day and as you know, the garden is what brings me joy. I am so glad you could stop by and visit. Come along and take a look!

Perennial Border June

The perennial border really comes to life in June with Peony 'Bartzella', Salvia 'May Night' and Lamb's Ear, followed in procession by Astilbe, Daylily and Coneflower. The Astilbe will start flowering any day now, as you can see a pink glow to the flower stalks which rise above the foliage.

Itoh Peony 'Bartzella'

A few years back I purchased Itoh Peony 'Bartzella', which is a cross between a herbaceous and tree form of Peony. It displays long-lasting large yellow blooms with a golden-orange center on sturdy stalks. It is by far one of the most enjoyable plants I have in my garden. While I love all my plants equally, this addition provides so much joy from the end of May into mid-June.

Itoh Peony 'Bartzella' Blooms

Here are the blooms closer up.

Japanese Kousa Dogwood 'Greensleeves'

Next is Japanese Kousa Dogwood 'Greensleeves'. This is a newer hybrid of Japanese Dogwood that I became familiar with just a few years back, and of course, I had to have one! It produces a profusion of lime-green blooms during the month of June.

Kousa Dogwood 'Greensleeves' Blooms

The dainty blooms resemble stars and remain on the tree for several weeks, so there is much to enjoy here.

Hosta 'Frances Williams'

This 'Frances Williams' Hosta is located just behind the Dogwood tree. I just realized that it has doubled in size over the past couple of years, probably due to all the rain we have been getting. It now measures two and a half feet in diameter!

Iris Garden

I have made mention of my mother's iris garden in the past and even wrote about it in my latest book, Dream, Garden, Grow! The iris garden exists on the eastern side of the property where my mom had planted it while I was a child. Over the years, some ferns have sneaked their way in, but the original iris still remain. I wouldn't part with it for the world and it is a constant reminder of my mom.

Spirea 'Magic Carpet'

Here is Spirea 'Magic Carpet'. It fits its name perfectly with its array of changing colors of foliage from spring to fall, accompanied by large shocking pink blooms. It puts on quite the show!

Knock Out Rose 'Radrazz'

June is a wonderful time for Knock Out Rose 'Radrazz' with its first fragrant blooms, which can be enjoyed from the moment I walk out onto the patio. I have always believed in the saying that one should always "take time to smell the roses", so I make it a regular routine to do just that. These blooms will repeat themselves all the way through fall.

Pool Surround Garden

The pool was opened just a couple of weeks ago and is ready for summer. I have been tending to the garden doing the routine pruning and weeding. Every year the Weeping Japanese Maple cascades its branches over the juniper below, so some minor trimming is on the to-do list! 

Rhododendron and Azalea

The Rhododendron and Azalea in the backdrop of the pool garden just got finished blooming, but I had to include a view of how they looked. 

Ilex 'Sky Pencil'

Newly added are the Sky Pencil Holly in the pool surround garden. The spirea took a hit with the extreme cold we experienced over the past winter, so it was time for something new. I am enjoying their narrow form, as they are perfect for viewing the foliage of Heuchera 'Caramel' behind them. Next, we need a little mulch refreshing!

Ilex 'Sky Pencil' June Blooms

I never realized that these narrow holly formed pretty little buttercup-like blooms that are inconspicuous until you approach the plant.

Allium 'Globemaster' June

Coming around to the front of the pool garden, Allium 'Globemaster' is making its statement with its large purple balls of star-like blooms, which last from May to July.

Viburnum 'Summer Snowflake'

Viburnum 'Summer Snowflake' is showing off its delicate flowers that resemble snowflakes. This shrub will produce on and off blooms throughout the summer.

Skylands Golden Oriental Spruce

Here is Skyland's Golden Oriental Spruce on the other side of the garden, joined by Azalea and Shadowland Hosta.

Double Red Knock Out Rose

The roses are blooming...the roses are blooming. Here are the Double Red Knock Outs on the northern fence (with southwestern exposure!)

Succulent Planter 2019

Before we end the tour, come check out my use of strawberry planters. Every year I enjoy making up succulent displays for the patio by combining the foliage of Sempervivum along with various species of Sedum. It's fun to just go to the nursery. select a bunch of plants and just play!  I usually produce two planters, one for each side of the patio.

Succulent Planter 2019

Here is the second planter with some other foliage combinations. Each species of Sedum will also produce blooms throughout the season. Each of these low maintenance planters require minimal watering and will provide interest all summer and into fall.

Thank you for Visiting!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my June garden! Thank you for visiting! Special thanks go out to our hostess Carol at May Dreams Gardens, who makes it possible to see blooms on the 15th of every month with her meme Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Also, special thanks to Pam Penick at Digging who has hosted Foliage Follow-Up for all these years, a meme I will still continue to honor. I am also linking with some other wonderful hosts and hostesses at Floral Friday Fotos, Macro Monday 2, Mosaic Monday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf, Nature Notes at Rambling Woods, Dishing It & Digging It on Sunday with Angie the Freckled Rose, Image-in-ing weekly photo share every Tuesday with NC Sue and Gardens Galore Link Up Party every other Monday with Everyday Living. I am also happy to join the Homestead Blog Hop  and Weekly Photo Link-Up at My Corner of the World on Wednesdays.

For gardening and design inspiration along with personal musings...

Visit my Author Page/Purchase My Books

A Guide to Northeastern Gardening: Journeys of a Garden Designer Zones 3-9

Landscape Design Combinations and my latest...

Dream, Garden, Grow!-Musings of a Lifetime Gardener

As Always...Happy Gardening!

Author: Lee@A Guide to Northeastern Gardening,© Copyright 2010-2019. All rights reserved.

This Month in the Garden-Cottage Gardening: A Timeless Tradition of Past and Present

Cottage Style Gardening

Welcome to This Month in the Garden! The very familiar and popular concept known as “cottage style" gardening actually dates back to the 14^th century prior to Elizabethan times. The earliest cottage gardens had more emphasis on vegetables, herbs and fruit trees, and were thought to be created by workers for the purpose of growing food for household consumption. Unlike today, flowers were occasionally used to fill spaces simply for decoration. In later years, the Cottage style garden was more admired for its informal design, dense traditional plantings, and mixture of ornamental and edible plants. During the 1870’s, cottage gardens went through a major transformation with the development of formal estate gardens, which led to the planting of masses of greenhouse annuals and roses enclosed in “garden rooms” consisting of boxwood hedge. The Arts and Crafts movement during the late 19th century focused on a return to the informal romantic planting style of the traditional English garden and well-known 19 century authors such as William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll helped to popularize cottage garden design as we know it today.

Thatched Cottage at Old Westbury Gardens, Long Island, NY

By the early 20th century the term "cottage garden" was described to be a large and sophisticated garden in which color harmony were carefully planned and controlled. The famous 1910 Hidcote Manor in the United Kingdom is one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain, with its linked "garden rooms" of hedges, rare trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders. Vita-Sackville-West, English poet, novelist, and garden designer had implemented similar models for her 1930’s cottage garden at Sissinghurst Castle, where her idea of a cottage garden was a place where, as she put it, "the plants grow in a jumble, flowering shrubs mingled with Roses, herbaceous plants with bulbous subjects, climbers scrambling over hedges, seedlings coming up wherever they have chosen to sow themselves". The cottage garden in France was a development of the early 20th century Monet's garden, a sprawling garden full of varied plantings, rich colors, and water gardens. In modern times, the term "cottage garden" is used to describe any number of informal garden styles, using design and plants very different from their traditional English cottage garden origins.

Allium in Walled Garden Old Westbury Garden

Modern cottage gardens are associated with an assortment of roses: shrub roses, climbing roses, and old garden roses with lush foliage. The newer hybrid English roses introduced by David Austin are very popular in modern day cottage gardens because of their old-fashioned look with multi-petaled, fragrant, rosette-shaped flowers combined with hardiness and disease-resistance. Many modern cottage gardens also include the use of native plantings and those adapted to the local climate. Other plants incorporated into cottage style gardens include hedging plants such as boxwood, holly, Hawthorn, Elderberry, laurel and Privet. Flowering herbs and perennials in include lavender, catmint, thyme, sage, wormwood, feverfew, lungwort, hyssop, and sweet woodruff. Fruiting trees include the planting of crabapple, dogwood and cherry. 

Cottage/Traditional Style Perennial Border

A well-planned cottage garden can be a beautiful addition to your space and be a great haven for pollinators, such as butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. As a landscape designer, I try to incorporate a mix of "cottage style" plantings with traditional plantings to create a colorful garden which has all season interest and requires less maintenance. A favorite hybrid garden I created is this mix of perennials with evergreen and flowering shrubs. A weeping Pussy Willow is surrounded by fragrant deep pink Peony 'Karl Rosenfeld' with an understory of colorful purple 'Salvia May Night'. A natural stone path leads from the patio to lawn area and is followed by a collection of Peony 'Bartzella', Astilbe, Daylily, Allium, Salvia and Lamb's Ear, accompanied by the decorative foliage of Hosta. 

 Clockwise (Left to Right: Allium 'Globemaster', Lamb's Ear, Astilbe 'Visions in Red', Stella D' Oro Daylily, Peony 'Karl Rosenfeld', Salvia 'May Night' and Peony 'Bartzella')

Although often overlooked, plant form is another useful attribute. An extension of the garden incorporates various colorful weeping, globe and spreading evergreens, such as Weeping Norway Spruce, Juniper, Chamaecyparis, Blue Globe Spruce and Dwarf White Pine. Ornamental/Flowering shrubs include hydrangea, rhododendron, azalea, weeping Japanese Maple, Dogwood, Crape Myrtle, flowering Plum and Cherry. Masses of perennials in odd numbers of three, five and seven offer an informal cottage-garden feel throughout the garden, while the color and texture of evergreens and flowering shrubs add an update to the traditional style. Ornamental grasses can also be incorporated to create interest and flow while planters with herbs can be added and used for cooking. Cottage gardening has evolved over the centuries, but remains a timeless tradition, and the right combination of colorful perennials, evergreens and flowering shrubs can create an informal and inviting atmosphere.

Extension of Garden

I hope you enjoyed This Month in the Garden for June. Be sure to stop by on the 1st. of each month for This Month in the Garden, as I share gardening tips, information and horticultural adventures! Linking with:  Floral Fridays, Macro Monday 2, Friday Photo Journal, Image-in-ing Weekly Photo Link-Up and Dishing It & Digging It.

Visit My Author Page/Purchase My Books

~As Always...Happy Gardening! ~

Author: Lee@A Guide to Northeastern Gardening,© Copyright 2010-2019. All rights reserved.