6 on Saturday – 01JUN2024 – Of Irises and Alliums…

Chris Mousseau

I imagine if I go through my blog posts from years gone by I’ll come across the phrase ‘…never looked better…’ quite often, but truly, this year my spring garden has never looked better! Flower stalks seem taller, colours seem more vibrant, critter damage is much less obvious…perhaps my eyes are getting older and my brain is becoming more tolerant of imperfection, but I’m really loving (almost) everything in the garden this year. (The ‘almost’ refers to creeping bellflower, dog strangling vine and bindweed…ugh!) There’s a few flowering trees shining bright this week, as well as Siberian Iris, and Alliums are opening up, one species at a time. Here are Six things in my garden; to see Sixes in gardens around the world pay a visit to Jim’s site, Garden Ruminations.

I’m going to start with Siberian Iris – Iris siberica. They self seed quite readily, clumps grow rapidly, they’re generally pest free (no Iris borer with these!) and I’ve discovered that their seeds will come up in different shades of blue.

Ox eye daisies, or Marguerites, or Leucanthemum vulgare have started to bloom. These are a true harbinger of the summer to come, I’ve always thought. They do self seed much too freely in a garden setting and I find myself trying to dead-head a bit early or pulling out small clump as they appear. But they’re beautiful, and make a lovely addition to a vase of cut flowers. Here’s a small clump in front of some Lamb’s Ear…

Alliums continue to open, one species at a time. This week Allium stipitatum ‘Mt Everest’ and A.’Globemaster,’ a hybrid cross between A. christophii and A. macleanii, seem to be at their prime.

On to a few trees now blooming. I grew this non-native Umbrella Magnolia – M. tripetala – from seed; as you can see, its leaves are huge, very tropical looking, and the flowers enormous.

Dogwoods are also blooming now, both shrubs like red and yellow twig dogwood plus this small tree, the native Cornus alternifolia. The common name is Pagoda Dogwood thanks to its branching structure.

Finally, I’ll head back to the kitchen garden, where ‘Norli’ snow peas are now blooming. This variety is shorter than many snap peas and, the seed packet said, very sweet and tasty. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

19 Comments

  2. irises are stunning! What a gorgeous, almost unreal color. Daisies and Alliums are pretty! Fun to have started a tree from seed. The Dogwood flowers look a lot like Witherod Vibernum, which is blooming on the edge of my woods. Yummy snow peas! I love the pea flowers. (I have 11 large pots full of several different flowering peas…looking forward to the pods!)

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  3. Alliums are a favored landscape flower here, and the light blue ones seem to be everywhere just now. They do remind me a bit of Tootsie Pops. My favorites among all these are the ox-eye daisies, even though they’re probably considered the most ‘common.’ On the other hand, all of those white flowers against the lush green foliage are beautiful.

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    1. Yes, I think it’s the white against all the green, and the white as a calming sight amidst a kaleidoscope of colour that makes them so appealing. I love seeing them in a field, among grasses….

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  4. Pagoda Dogwood is one of my favorite trees, and it needs to be highlighted which you have done very well. Growth is relatively slow to obtain a very good result.
    My first peas will be picked tomorrow Sunday!

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  8. ‘Mount Everest’ is one of the Allium that I would like to try. I got Allium christophii and Allium schubertii as gifts first, and coincidentally, both supposedly need less moisture than other cultivars. I think that I would like to try white also.

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      1. I thought that one to be a bit too weird. I know that weirdness is the appeal of some of the Allium, but Allium karataviense looks something like Haemanthus albiflos. Apparently, it is also a chaparral species though. I have seen it only once near here. Otherwise, I saw more it up north, and got the impression that it was happy there.

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  9. The iris are gorgeous…. I never knew they self-seeded and produced new shades. That is a really nice bonus. Love the ox-eye daisies too. 😃

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