Six on Saturday 24JUN2023 – Summertime!

Chris Mousseau

It’s the first weekend of summer and we’re seeing it all – some sunshine, a few thunderstorms, heavy humid air and flowers, flowers and more flowers! Here are six of them in my garden right now – to see other sixes around the world head on over to Jim’s blog – Garden Ruminations.

First up is this annual poppy – Lauren’s Grape. I scattered seed two springs ago and nothing showed up. Last spring, however, they popped up where I least expected them (in the gravel at the edge of the path leading to the back door). I collected seed in October to scatter here and there in the garden, and also left a few seedheads standing hoping they would drop seed and come back this year – and they have. Lesson: annual poppies in my garden are best planted/scratched into gravelly soil in the fall for blooms the following year.

Peonies have been blooming all June and likely will continue for a few more weeks. I tend to not snip off those small side buds on some varieties, which prolongs their bloom period, and some are just late bloomers. Here are two, the white Duchesse de Nemours and an unknown lovely red:

I planted, for the first time, a pair of foxtail lily (Eremurus robustus) bulbs and I’m thrilled that they’ve come up so gorgeous looking, tall and pink. I’m pairing them with the equally gorgeous wine red Clematis texensis ‘Gravetye Beauty.’ I don’t have them growing side by side the the garden, but perhaps they should be…

Blanket flower (Gaillardia) has just started to open:

I planted new snapdragons (Antirrhinum) this spring, but they aren’t blooming yet. What IS blooming are last year’s snapdragons that didn’t die over the winter – a first for me. I love these pastel colours… Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and Happy Pride!

34 Comments

  1. I also presented the eremurus this weekend and mine are almost over. Do you know whether to cut down the flower stalks after flowering? Your clematis ‘Gravetye Beauty’ is ….a beauty !

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  2. At first, I thought your clematis was our so-called Texas star hibiscus. Then I realized it had been created from our native C. texensis.

    It’s always interesting to compare what’s happening there with what’s going on here. Our snapdragons, a winter flower here, were pulled out at least a month ago, and the Gaillardia are beginning to fade. What are those seed pods behind the Gaillardia?

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    1. The seed pods are from the lupin hybrids that grow – self seeded – in abundance in my garden. I planted a dozen or so many years ago and when they find a spot they like, they’re there forever!

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  4. ‘Lauren’s Grape’ is gorgeous. I have mauve pink and red, and while I try to keep them in separate beds, sometimes the bees cross them and I get a raspberry color. They are a lovely annual that one must watch for early on when they first sprout. Amazing that such a tiny seed grows to such a large plant in 2 months time!

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  5. Beautiful summer show. I have never had success with Lauren’s Grape (or any poppy). Maybe I’ll try your gravel tip. Just looked at seeds at the garden center this week and decided it would be a waste to buy more, but maybe…

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  6. Gorgeous snapdragons! I id not have good luck with them, and my husband loves them. I should give them another go t some point. Love the poppies also. I used to do my best to prevent too much reseeding in the allotment I had in Seattle and agree, they like dry gravelly soil. Mine were bright red and always made me smile to see them.

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    1. It’s so interesting…if I scattered them last year in a spot with ‘real’ soil they are up, but a fraction of the size of those that have come thru the hard packed gravel…

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  8. Annual poppies have done well in my garden this year although I didn’t plan any of them, they just arrived! I might just have to plan Lauren’s Grape though, that’s a real stunner.

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  10. I’ve had a packet of ‘Lauren’s Grape’ for at least two years without getting around to sowing them. They’d have a better chance in any sort of soil than in the packet!

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  11. oh my! The Lauren’s Grape poppy is a stunning color! Your peonies are lovely, too. Mine didn’t fare well this year in the heat and dry spell we had (and I wasn’t able to give them extra attention). And your snapdragons are very pretty, too, with their different colors blending into one another.

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    1. Thank you! It’s been dry here as well, lately, but my rain barrels aren’t empty and we’ve been fortunate to get some rain when desperate. I think it’s been an exceptional year for peonies – maybe because May and June were, mainly, cooler than normal.

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  13. Clematis texensis is cool. I have not tried it yet because so few clematis perform well here. There is a white cultivar! If I ever get around to trying it though, I may grow an unimproved wild specimen.

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  14. The poppy is a beauty! I have scattered some poppy seed this year, yet to see any progress so I will take hope from your post and expect to see some next year, somewhere in the garden! And Clematis texensis ‘Gravetye Beauty’ is definitely well named.

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  15. I grew Lauren’s Grape last year and it was spectacular but the flowers are just too shortlived and the plants don’t flower for long and are so ugly. But the bees adored them. Strangely there were no seedlings in the bed where they grew but some came up in the gravel path where they were carried to the compost heap

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