The only way to keep up with June is weekly reports. Last week the biennial Verbascum phlomoides was in bud, and the four or so planted last fall have started to open this week. I’d forgotten but obviously I got ahold of a white seed strain of the so-called Orange Mullein, sold as ‘Spica’ or ‘Snow Maiden.’ And I’m really glad I did. Yellow in the garden doesn’t bother me, and I’m growing other yellow verbascums. But this cool ruffly creamy white is so unexpectedly elegant. I hope it reseeds true.
relatively large flowers for a verbascum give it almost a hollyhock-type presence (with much better leaves, no rust, no insect damage)
with the restio and phormium in the rocked area, the tallest and first to flower, growing in a much drier area than the borders
in the back border. And look at the branching! Tall yellow on the right is Verbascum roripifoliium, which has reseeded a bit, the self-sown making much better plants
Verbascum roripifolium adds so much to the garden but its wayward antics make it hard to capture in photos. Its slim basal clump elongates to as much as 6 feet then erupts to claim a huge amount of air space, all elbows and angles and sprawling aerial fizz
garden trimmings are kept in a vase on the metal cart against the house. Verbascum roripifolium surprisingly makes an excellent cut flower, with lots of swooping kinetic energy. This verbascum loves to reseed near paths, and a couple inconveniently placed have been removed
Also opening buds this week is Centaurea macrocephala
long view of basket flower. The foreground Pheasant’s Tail Grass reseeds and just seems generally happy here, unlike growing in zone 10, where it’s very short-lived, never flowers, never reseeds (Anemanthele lessoniana)
Silver Spike Grass is just now blooming too, foreground Selinum wallichianum, incredible characterful plant, early in leaf
looking at the height and volume of June from the porch. I do like my small garden, but if the back neighbor wanted to give me his big grassy weedy lot, I wouldn’t say no
Orange poppy flowers of Glaucium flavum var. aurantiacum
the breadth of the garden from the east fence looking west at the garage/workshop
I’ve been seeing a lot of large gardens lately and have been surprised by a lack of envy. A small garden suits me. I like the intensity, the dailiness of watching it change up close, the manageablity. Though we have expanded to the east a bit.
Persicaria polymorpha moved to the east side last year along with other giants like Joe-Pye Weed. The new boardwalk is a godsend, thank you Marty. Vast improvement over a lumpy sparse grass path in summer, muddy in spring. Prior leveling and reseeding of the grass inevitably turned lumpy and sparse.
Dieramas opened this week. The biggest clump, a dark-flowered seedling from Dancing Oaks, was removed along with the Stipa gigantea last year to keep the path open and passable. No worries, the dark-flowered seedlings are everywhere. This dark pink strain is much better placed growing in the back corner near the shed.
shout out to Langley Fine Gardens of Vashon Island for growing hard-to-find annuals. I always find interesting things under Langley’s label at Portland Nursery, like this Salpiglossis ‘Gloomy Rival’
so glad this Eryngium variifolium comes back every year. A nearby Morina longifolia quit after two years or so
Forecast calls for a little rain the next few days, which if true would be rare for the normally summer-dry June. More soon, AGO
