June is the most important month in my garden, especially this year. The last Sunday in June is traditionally The Annual Rose Viewing, my version of Garden Open Today. I send out an open invitation to anyone who wants to stop and smell the roses, visit with friends and have a glass of lemonade and some cookies in the comfort of the Cottage Ornee.
This year is different. This year our garden is part of the Franklin Land Trust’s Farm and Garden Tour which has been an important event in the gardener’s year for 22 years. Since this tour is not only about roses, I am thinking about what else might be in bloom that weekend. So many plants, astilbe, cheddar pinks, heucherella, snow in summer, and Connecticut Yankee Delphiniums have fat buds or are beginning to bloom. I am hoping that there will be other bloomers in addition to the roses, and the herbaceous peonies most of which are still blooming. I’m going to pay close attention to the bloom progression this year. And I am going to record it clearly, week by week.
The rugosas, always the first to bloom have just begun. Dart’s Dash and Rugosa alba are beginning to perfume the air. Madame Hardy is a replacement, and I should have pinched off the bud, but I really wanted to see that flower with its green velvet eye.
Also in bloom right now, besides the plants I mentioned before, is a pale pink columbine, Joan Elliott campanula, wisteria – and my new Pagoda dogwood, a native variety with unusual flowers. I bought this at Nasami Farm, a nursery operated by the New England Wildflower Society.
That Pagoda Dogwood is lovely. Sadly, none of the Cornus varieties grow for most of us in the Houston area. Some folks in the northernmost reaches of the city may be able to grow them but not me!