Just Because It’s June, June, June!!! GBBD, June 2015

In the coastal Maine town where the musical Carousel is set, the long winter drags on well into April, and by May people are beginning to doubt that summer will ever come. Then, all of a sudden, everything happens at once – a lush display of life, beauty and love that the song tells us happens “just because it’s June, June, June!”

Just as the song predicts, “June is bustin’ out all over” in my Maine garden, with new plants bursting into bloom every day.

The blue and yellow border (above) has the greatest variety of blooms, with Tradescantia ‘Zwannenburg Blue’, Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis), Linum perenne (flax), five different varieties of Siberian iris, Amsonia, two varieties of Baptisia, and two cultivars of hardy geranium. The Amsonia in this flower bed is a large, well-established plant that provides a major presence in the garden, even after its flowers fade.

Siberian irises have been blooming especially well this year. I think the unusually hot days we experienced in May reduced damage from iris budfly by causing the flies to hatch out and lay their eggs before the iris buds were formed. I have been enjoying this profusion of I. sibirica ‘White Swirl’ blooms with the blue flowers of Baptisia australis and the yellow flowers of Baptisia x ‘Carolina Moonlight.’

Other irises that are providing a beautiful display right now include the self-sown plants that are probably the species, I. sibirica ‘Tiffany Lass,’ which has bloomed all at once, and the delicately colored flowers of I. sibirica ‘Lavender Bounty.’

The self-sown species irises are looking especially lovely right now on the back slope.

In the circular bed, an unidentified violet-colored pass-along iris is blooming with Lady’s mantle, Tradescantia  ‘Danielle’ and several varieties of hardy geranium.

Tradescantia virginiana is another plant that self-sows readily in my garden and begins to bloom in June in many parts of the garden. The self-sown plants mostly grow in shades of blue-violet. But I also enjoy vigorously growing cultivars like ‘Zwannenburg Blue,’ ‘Osprey,’ and ‘Pink Chablis.’

In the fence border, big clumps of Tradescantia are the major floral display right now, combined here with lady’s mantle and two varieties of Geranium x cantabrigiense (‘Biokovo’ and ‘Karmina’).

June is also when the large band of Geranium ‘Biokovo’ along the front of the deck border blooms, providing delight for the eyes as well as for the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds that frequent its flowers.

These same flowers also grow in the raised bed that separates the serenity garden from the clothesline area. This planting, which is only in its second year, is at the height of its bloom right now, with flowers open on two different varieties of Amsonia (A. hubrichtii and A. x ‘Blue Ice’) and three varieties of hardy geraniums.

The blooms in the serenity garden are more subtle and include the first flowers of goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus), Geranium ‘Patricia’, and bowman’s root (Poteranthus trifoliata).

The amazing thing about June is that this is just the beginning and there is so much more to come.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted on the fifteenth of each month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Visit her blog to see June blooms in gardens from many climates.