June is Off to a Good Start

The Nova Zembla rhododendron, my most anticipated new planting, is finally in bloom. I'm happy with the color, although it's not quite as red as I had hoped for. The shrub looks great though and seems to like its location. Things are really starting to come together in the gardens. I know it will be a couple of more years before everything really fills in the way I'd like it to, but I feel like I'm off to a good start.

Nova Zembla (with hardy gladiolus and African daisy to the left):


Iris in the pool bed:


Lone white siberian iris bloom from Terry. It's beautiful! I'm going to move these to the new island bed in the fall next to the purple ones.


Peonies:




The border in front of the house filling in:


Other side of the walkway:


Pool bed is pretty much filled in. Allium starting to lose color with iris and coleus in the front:

Floribunda + Annuals

Here are a few recent pictures. The floribunda was a rose my Mom got for me in New Haven that I thought had died. The gardens there are actually doing really well, thanks to my gardener tenant Dominic, who takes care of what I planted and has added a few of his own flowers and vegetables.




Onion chives with siberian iris:


Million bells is happy in its new full sun location. I planted a basket of verbena and lobelia next to it. My hope for annuals this year is that I can keep them alive. So far I have quite a few and not one plant has died. I'm watering a ton.


I couldn't get a good shot of the purple dianthus in almost full bloom:


Geranium x sanguineum with lots of blooms:


Coral Bells (heuchera):


First bloom on Rhododendron Nova Zembla, probably my most anticipated bloom of the season:


Globe Allium:




Siberian Iris - the first time I've seen it bloom since moving here. It was buried under the evergreen shrubs we removed.

Purples

A few photos from dusk tonight.

Drumstick allium with grape hyacinth in the pool bed:


Backyard purples: hyacinth, allium, lilac and rhodies. There's also purple and white lamium in bloom in there:


My first attempt at transplanting a lilac sucker/runner. It seems to like its new home near the iris so far:


Vegetables! Tonight I transplanted 4 tomato plants (beefsteak and roma), 2 marconi pepper plants, 3 jalapeno and 3 ancho. I also unearthed 2 sugar snap pie vines that I didn't realize had germinated. All this is planted out on the back deck, and everything (except for the peas, which I sowed outside directly), was started indoors this winter. Most of the pepper plants have fruit or are in flower now.

A Few Pictures

And I also want to try out my new settings to see if my 2 "followers" get notified about this post.

Geraniums are just beginning to bloom (I'm try to get these ID'd on one of the gardening forums):
Geranium sanguineum (from Bob)


Geranium x cantabrigiense (from Terry)


Now identified as a perennial - Geum coccineum (Scarlet Avens, from Bob)


Irises have also just begun blooming and smell HEAVENLY:




Different variety:


I think this is Million Bells - it's too dense to get at the tag right now :)