Remembering June 1

The rainy winter continues and we continue reviewing garden moments from late spring to early summer.
The drought was well installed by June and a lot of time had to be devoted to keeping an eye on various susceptible plants and on the seedlings. It was also a busy time seeds-wise, with early flowering species seeds coming to maturation.

Fast growing seedlings started indoors in February, especially alpine species, can be planted in the ground/rockery in June, sometimes with better results than keeping them in pots. In the featured image: Degenia velebitica, an endemic species of Croatian Mts. requiring a rockery location with a stellar drainage. We’ll see next year if I managed it well; good to have it on record.

From the first time to flower: Linum capitatum. It was purchased from Wrightman Alpines (attention – new catalogue on line!), after I had the occasion to admire it in the wild habitat during a trip to the Pirin Mts (Bulgaria). You can relish again in mountain plants & landscapes in this older post:  A taste of Pirin Mts. – part II.

Close to Linum, another golden species, Tetraneuris herbacea, the Lakeside daisy, started to flower in May and continued well into June. This is a localized endemic species found only in Ontario (alvars of Bruce peninsula and Manitoulin Island.) and Ohio, US. It can be found on rare occasions in specialized nurseries. It is rhizomatous, so dividing and sharing small divisions is another way passionate gardeners can provide a refuge in their gardens to this threatened species. Because yellow looks wonderful in combination with blue, Penstemon saxosorum was in full bloom, simply gorgeous! A few seeds were shared, hoping for more this coming season.

Dictamnus albus, the gas plant is a garden staple of June and it cannot be ignored. Even if it was previously discussed, I still feel the need to try and convey its beauty and usefulness. It is hard to obtain (it dislikes being grown in pots) and slow to grow from seeds, but once you have it, it will increase in size and live on for many years, just like Helleborus.

Besides its attractiveness, it is one of the few species in Fam. Rutaceae that we can grow in this climate to provide hosts for the Giant swallowtail butterfly (others being the hoptree, Ptelea trifoliata and Ruta graveolens).

I will conclude the first part of June with a few cheerful pictures of easy to grow plants which make a smooth transition from May into June, often overlapping in bloom. They shouldn’t be missed by anyone: Dianthus species like the wonderful fragrant D. moravicus, D. arenarius ssp. bohemicus, plus whatever cultivars you can purchase, Phlox subulata and cultivars in various colors which make for terrific borders, Baptisia australis, Iris sibirica, Salvia pratensis and other species, Aquilegia, Phyteuma, Erinus alpinus, Papaver atlanticum ‘Flore-pleno’, Papaver chakassicum, and any other Papaver species…to mention just a few.