Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2018

Welcome to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for June 2018.

Here in my USDA Zone 6a garden in central Indiana the garden is looking pretty lush after a good all day soaking rain last Sunday–about three inches give or take–followed by a moderate pop up shower on Wednesday afternoon–about half an inch.

Before we got that rain, I was beginning to wring my hands a bit and start working on a watering strategy because May was drier than normal.

When the rains finally came, I felt like we had dodged a drought bullet. But the summer is just beginning and they are predicting record high temperatures for Sunday, so we may still have a few rough weeks ahead, weather-wise.

All I ask is that we not repeat the drought of 2012.

Okay, enough about the weather.

On to the blooms.

First up is a betony, Stachys officianalis 'Hummelo'. I transplanted it to the edge of the flower border called Plopper's Field where I think it shows itself off nicely.  That's good because there aren't too many other blooms in Plopper's Field right now other than from a few new flowers I planted this spring.

There are two new coneflowers in bloom, both trial plants from Darwin Perennials.

The red one is Echinacea x hybrida 'Sombrero® Sangrita'.

I don't usually like a lot of red flowers but I'm going to keep this one.

The other one from Darwin Perennials is Echinacea x hybrida 'Sombrero® Granada Gold'.

I like its coloring.

In a few days, I'm going to cut off the flowers on both of these coneflowers so the plants will focus on  growing roots and not on making seeds. That will give them a better chance of returning next year and the following years. They are both blooming earlier than I expected, but the tags say "late spring through summer" so maybe they do bloom earlier than other coneflowers?

Nearby, the last of the Straw Foxglove blooms are adding just enough color to the garden for me to include them for bloom day. This is one  Digitalis lutea and it has returned reliably for several years, unlike other foxgloves which are biennials.

Nearby, I just planted another yellow flower, Agastache 'Kudos™ Yellow'.

I hope it attracts some pollinators all summer.

Another new perennial blooming in Plopper's Field is Monarda 'Grand Parade'.

It's nice and bright and I planted it where it will hide the ugly lower stems of a Clematis 'Pagoda'.

Speaking of clematis...

How about Clematis 'Comtesse de Bouchaud' with its lovely pink flowers?

And a clematis with white flowers.

If only I knew the name of this white-flowering clematis. It's using a bayberry shrub for support and it is all the bayberry can do to stay upright under the weight of the vine.

One of these days, I'll go through my basket of tags to see if I can find out which clematis this is because it's a keeper and it would be nice to know its name.

What else is blooming? Some hostas are blooming, including the big hosta 'Empress Wu'.

"The Empress", as I fondly call this plant, has some other hostas around it, including old fashioned August lilies in front, 'Praying Hands' on each side, and 'Blue Mouse Ears' all around the edges of the bed.  I plan to move out the 'Praying Hands' and the August lilies to give "the Empress" more room to grow but I'll wait for a cooler stretch of weather.

I think everyone has that trampy flower, the daylily 'Stella d'Oro' blooming now, including me. It's trampy because it is everywhere... at the malls, by the gas stations, at every office parks... everywhere.

None of the other hybrid daylilies are blooming but I see lots of buds.

Finally, we know it is summertime because the clover is blooming in the lawn. Food for the rabbits, nectar for the bees, and a pleasant reminder to me of growing up during a time when sitting on the lawn making jewelry from the flowers and looking for four-leaf clovers was a fun way to spend time on a lazy afternoon.

It's still a fun way to spend a lazy hour or two in the garden.

What's blooming in your lawn in mid-June? We would love to have you join us for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and show us around your garden.

It's easy to participate. Just post on your blog about the blooms in your garden, then come back to this post and leave a link on the Mr. Linky widget to tell us how to get to your virtual garden and add a comment to entice us to come and see.

And remember, as Elizabeth Lawrence once wrote, "We can have flowers nearly every month of the year."