Bloom Day - June 2018

Despite the heat that's been scorching some areas of Southern California and a flurry of wildfires across the Southwest US, we're still benefiting from an early morning marine layer most days here, which has held local temperatures down thus far.  I anticipate the situation is temporary but we're expecting below average temperatures (low 70sF) this weekend and I'm going to enjoy that while I can.  Summer flowers have begun showing up in earnest and the late spring blooms have yet to take cover from the heat so the garden is colorful to say the least.

Unequivocally, the stars of my June garden are Achillea 'Moonshine' and the Agapanthus.

I've lined both sides of the flagstone path in the middle of the back garden with 'Moonshine'.  On this side of the path, the yellow color is mirrored in the tiny blooms of Cotula 'Tiffendell Gold' and the foliage of Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold'.

Clumps of Agapanthus are spread throughout the garden.  Most bloom in shades of blue but there are some white blooms too.

The front garden is especially colorful right now, as you can see from the photo on the left.  The highlights include: more Agapanthus, Gaura lindheimeri, Hemerocallis 'Spanish Harlem', Cuphea 'Starfire Pink' and Rosa 'Pink Meidiland'.

While the Echiums are fading, the daylilies are pumping out new blooms

Echium candicans 'Star of Madeira', shown here, is waning and I've already cut back the spent bloom spikes of Echium webbii (not shown) in the back garden

New blooms of (left to right) Hemerocallis 'Indian Giver', 'Plum Perfect' and 'Spanish Harlem' greet me every morning.  'Spanish Harlem' has been especially prolific this year despite our very dry winter.

Like the front garden, some areas of the garden are putting on an especially strong show this month.

The bed shown on the left sits outside my home office window.  Clockwise from the upper right, the blooming plants include: Grevillea 'Ned Kelly', Lantana camara 'Irene', Leucanthemum x superbum, Leucospermum 'Brandi', Lobelia laxiflora, the first ever bloom I've had on Melianthus major, and Phylica pubescens.

The arbor over the gate between my cutting garden and my dry garden is once again blanketed in blooms this June.  The photo on the left shows the view from the cutting garden and the photo on the upper right shows the view from the dry garden side.  The flowering plants include: Pandorea jasminoides, a dark pink flowered Pelargonium peltatum that's chosen to climb, and Trachelospermum jasminnoides.

On the back slope Bignonia capreolata is sprawling over property boundaries into two neighboring gardens (photos top and lower left).  It's a beautiful but aggressive plant.  I didn't put it in but its trunk sits on our property.  I believe the neighbor on our north side planted it as she'd originally gardened on our lower slope, believing it was part of her lot until a prior owner of our property had an official survey done.

A few other areas offer more subtle displays of color.

In addition to Catananche caerulea and Convolulus sabatius, there's some noID Brachyscome and thyme in the mix here

Crassula pubescens ssp radicans has filled in the areas between various agaves and aloes on the south side of the house

Penstemon x mexicali 'Carillo Purple' and Polygala fruticosa 'Petite Butterfly' provide subtle color echoes of one another here

And here are some other plants just too pretty to ignore.

NoID Anigozanthos

Arbutus 'Marina'

Eustoma grandiflorum (Lisianthus) - so far, most of the blooms have been produced by the blue-purple varieties.  This is 'Rosanne Black Pearl'.  It didn't flower well last year but the plants that lived to bloom a second year look better than the first year blooms.

Gaillardias 'Arizona Sun' (left) and 'Fanfare Citronella' (right)

Globularia x indubia - it's also known as Globe Daisy but I call it my hairy blue eyeball plant

Hesperaloe parviflora 'Brakelights'

Magnolia grandiflora

Melaleuca thymifolia - the plant itself looks ungainly but the blooms are extraordinary

Romneya coulteri (aka Matilija Poppy), beloved by bees

I'll close with a few collages capturing the best of the rest.

Top row: Consolida ajacis, Erigeron glaucus 'Wayne Roderick', and Geranium incanum, a weed in an unreachable spot
Bottom row: Limonium perezii, Ozothamnus diosmifolius, and Plectranthus neochilus

Clockwise from the upper left: Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer', self-seeded Anagallis 'Wildcat Mandarin', Cotula 'Tiffendell Gold', Euphorbia 'Dean's Hybrid', Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream', Hunnemannia fumariifolia 'Sunlite', Hymenolepsis parviflora, Tagetes lemmonii, and, in the center, Grevillea 'Superb'

Top row: Abelia grandiflora, Antirrhinum majus, Cistus x skanbergii, and C. 'Sunset'
Middle row: Dorycnium hirsutum, Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite', Hebe 'Wiri Blush', and Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'
Bottom row: Mimulus 'Jelly Beans Crimson', Pelargonium peltatum, P. cucullatum 'Flore Pleno', and P. 'Pink Blizzard'

And a fond farewell to Lathyrus odoratus, the remains of which I pulled out of my cutting garden on Wednesday evening

For more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts, visit our host, Carol of May Dreams Gardens.


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party