A Transitional Lull Between Spring and Summer
Tomorrow is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, when bloggers around the world share pictures of the flowers in their gardens. In our garden things are a bit on the quiet side. The excitement of the spring blooms has passed, and the hot yellows and oranges of summer are yet to be. But there are still flowers to be seen, mostly of quieter white and blue.
In the front garden our shrub rose ‘Cassie’ is having an outstanding year. She is in fact just covered with blooms. In this case the blooms are small, white, semi-double and slightly fragrant. I’ve written about ‘Cassie’ before, but for now I’ll say again that this is a compact, trouble-free shrub rose that really delivers the goods.
On the other hand, in the Driveway Border my Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis) has flowered very sparsely this June, a big change from prior years. Maybe it needs a shovelful of compost.
Also in the Driveway Border, I am tentatively satisfied with the results of my experiment with California Poppies (Eschscholzia californica). If you remember, I direct sowed them back in March. They have germinated and covered the areas that would have otherwise been bare and have just started to bloom, so far rather sparsely. I hope that they gain enthusiasm as we head into the second half of June.
In the Sidewalk Border the ‘Husker Red’ Smooth Penstemon (Penstemon digitalis) is blooming in combination with several varieties of Salvia: ‘May Night’, ‘Blue Hill’, and ‘Caradonna’.
I planted the Salvias in an area along the sidewalk that had been full of Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum).
This year the Salvia is being smothered a bit by lusty Geraniums growing back from seed and bits of rhizome. I may have to dig up everything in the fall if I want to keep a drift of Salvia here.
Behind the sidewalk border things are quiet in the Island Bed, but the Giants of the garden – Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) and Sweet Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum) – are preparing to make a statement.
In the meantime, there are the blue flowers of the Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohioensis). This Spiderwort does not run like its Virginia cousin (Tradescantia virginiana).
In the East Side Bed, the Geranium ‘Biokovo’ are past their peak but still blooming.
And the Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum), now in their third year, have really come into their own.
In the back garden, probably the most exciting blooms belong to Clematis ‘Ice Blue’.
This is still a young plant (planted in the fall of 2013), but it has enormous blooms at least 6″ wide. It’s supposed to bloom over a long season. We’ll see.
What else? The Goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) is flowering, though also flopping a bit. In this case I have restrained myself from staking it because I think it looks good this way.
Also there’s some European Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum), along with Yellow and White Corydalis (Corydalis lutea and C. ochroleuca).
I’ve left out some things, especially the containers which have mostly been switched from spring to summer annuals. We can cover those in future posts.
In the meantime, check out the June blooms in other gardeners’ posts at May Dreams Gardens.
gardeninacity 
Beautiful photos! I am having a similar transition stage in my garden from autumn to winter. It can’t be helped sometimes! Love your clematis, fingers crossed it gives you a nice long season.
I’ve got another new Clematis I planted this spring, ‘Elsa Spath’. It looks healthy but still very small – hope to see flowers next year.
Love the look of that clematis. It all looks very lush and peaceful, with lovely combinations (I particularly like the penstemon/grass/salvia combo). Thank you for the tour.
You’re welcome.
My garden is in a lull as well – Hosta are gorgeous, there are lots of Peony, Rose and Hydrangea buds but no blooms right now.
I obsess over those buds. In my heart of hearts I believe I can make them open by staring.
Jason, I like that clematis and the piece you have it growing up. If Garden blogger post tomorrow, it would just be my containers of annuals. Hehe. The back border is entirely green right now!
The lull makes us enjoy the explosions of summer color all the more.
It looks like your garden is about a month behind us here in the PNW. My garden is really rocking it this month. I don’t know if your California poppies will follow the same pattern as mine, they sprouted and bloomed somewhat sparsely last year when I sowed them for the first time, but this year, they are everywhere. I left them all winter to self sow, and they did with abandon. So if they’re disappointing this year, just wait a year.
That’s very good to know. I just want to confirm somewhere that the seeds will survive a zone 5 winter.
I am such a fan of solomon’s seal. It was one of the first wildflowers I ‘discovered’ when I first got interested in native plants. Yours are so pretty. That colour of that geranium is lovely — a kind of vintagey-pink. And the clematis … oooh …(nice arbor)
This is the first year the Solomon’s Seal is really looking good for me.
Always lovely! Yes, its the quiet time between Spring and Summer bloomers!
But there is nothing wrong with taking a breather.
My focus is on foliage, but who can resist the lure of flowers when they appear? I saw some spectacular goatsbeards on the ANLD tour, but mine has yet to bloom. Your transitional phase looks perfect to me.
Surprising that yours would bloom after mine. Is it the same species – A. dioicus?
Looks like it. Since it was a gift, I can’t be sure.
Lovely clemetis you have! I do like that goatsbeard too….you seem to have plenty of plants flowering away in you garden….good for the pollinators!xxx
Thanks. There’s a decent amount of color, even during a lull.
That’s a beautiful clematis. I had a shot of it two or three posts ago but I didn’t know its name, so thanks for that!.
You’re welcome.
Funny, I was just reading Alison’s comment and she must be ahead of me here in the PNW..as my poppies (also direct sown in March) have yet to bloom. Your gardens look lush and brimming. I’ll be excited to see your summer show!
Well, if your poppies have not yet bloomed, I’ll try not to be so impatient.
Curious, my Baptisia ‘Purple Smoke’ is also weak this year, a surprise to me as each year it’s bigger and better. In the prairie B. leucantha is terrific.
Gardening is always full of mysteries. Maybe there is something about the weather this year that was bad for B. australis but left other species of Baptisia perfectly happy.
Jason and Judy,
I so enjoyed getting to know you two this last week at the Fling and sharing some great Indian food! I look forward to following your gardening adventures and meeting up with you again! ~Julie
Julie, we are really pleased that we got to spend some time with you. Maybe we’ll see each other in Minneapolis. In the meantime we look forward to keeping up with your blog!
The Husker Red looks like something growing in my front garden (I’m shamefully lazy when it comes to plant identification). I love California Poppies and used to have some…thanks for reminding me!
Husker Red is a good plant, both for flowers and foliage color.
Cassie is lovely, I haven’ t see it before. It is a fantastic year for roses here too. What a pretty Clematis.
You may like ‘Cassie’ in your garden should you decide you want more white flowers. You can keep it quite reasonably sized for a shrub rose.
You have a lot coming. No lull in my tiny garden, but then I don’t have the drifts you have in your garden. Husker Red going big in my garden too.
I’m very fond of Husker Red. I mix it with the straight species Penstemon digitalis.
Lovely!
Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
Same to you, Lea!
I’ve been meaning to add Corydalis to my garden, and now you and the Fling gardens are making it harder to resist. 😉 We have Ohio Spiderwort growing wild up at the cottage, so I’m sure it’s probably blooming up there now. Happy GBBD!
Corydalis is a very easy plant that seems happy in dry shade. But what I really want is some of that blue Corydalis that we saw in Toronto! Seems to be quite rare, though.
So many blooms Jason….those poppies are outstanding! As is that photo of your salvia! Here is to more blooms to come! Nicole
Amen to that!
Truly lush plantings Jason – enjoyed your post so much. Lassie is particularly fine, and nice to see Clematis ‘Ice Blue’ again. I remember appreciating in your previous post. Thanks for sharing.
‘Ice Blue’ is not a big Clematis – about four feet this year. It doesn’t get covered in blooms like the jackmanii – at least not so far. We’ll see how long it keeps blooming.
What a gorgeous clematis! My baptisia didn’t do so well this year either; I’m wondering what’s going on with it. Thanks for the tip on the spiderwort–I do like it, but I’ve been afraid of planting any for fear it would take over the whole garden. Now I’ll look for the Ohio cultivar. We’re just a little ahead of you downstate; the daylilies are starting as our the poppies. By the way, I hope you didn’t get as carried away as I did spreading poppy seeds at the end of winter–I had to pull some seedlings before they overwhelmed everything else:)
The Ohio spiderwort may need staking or something to lean on. Also the flowers don’t open on cloudy days. I probably should have thinned the poppies but didn’t – maybe why there aren’t more flowers.
Nice to see Corydalis in someone else’s garden – a very useful and long blooming plant, though the yellow spreads like wildfire here.
It does spread, but it’s not hard to scratch out. I love how the blooms go on and on.
Hello Jason, I love the clematis! I did notice a lull in flowering, but that was earlier in the year, it was after the spring flowers had finished, but the roses quickly bloomed and they’re in full flower now. As there’s not much planted in the garden, there are only pockets of flowering here and there. Hopefully as the garden fills out and is planted, I’ll be able to cover the gaps and smooth out the lulls in between the seasons – perhaps apart from winter.
A lull now and then isn’t so bad. My ‘Sally Holmes’ has just started to bloom, which is very nice.
That doesn’t look like too much of a lull to me 🙂 And that “Cassie” rose is a delight – looks like a really showstopper but cute too – a perfect thing to have in the garden.
‘Cassie’ is overall the best rose in my garden.
It does look like a lovely thing
So gorgeous! That ‘Ice Blue’ clematis is absolutely stunning, and ‘Cassie’ is breathtaking.
‘Ice Blue’ has such big blue flowers. Nice and compact, too, would be good in a container.
I’d say your in between time is lovely.
Thank you!