Early June in My Perennial Flower Garden
Early June is such an exciting time at the farm because so much is growing and blooming, especially in my flower garden.
The perennial flower cutting garden is located just outside my main greenhouse at the foot of my long clematis pergola. Every season, I add a number of flowering plants to this collection. And this year, it is bursting with vibrant colors. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, and I spend a lot of time caring for this garden - placing and planting each specimen. I am so proud of how well it has developed.
Here are some recent photos, enjoy. And be sure to look at more on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.
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- This garden is among the first ones seen when visiting my farm. It is several years old now and has developed more and more every year. I wanted the plants to be mixed, so every bed in this garden would be interesting and colorful.
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- Earlier this season, I decided to use up some of the black granite bricks I bought years ago that were never used. They look great edging the main footpaths now topped with gravel. It has completely transformed this space.
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- The lupines are in such abundance this year. Lupinus, commonly known as lupin or lupine, is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus includes more than 200 species. It’s always great to see the tall spikes of lupines blooming. Lupines come in lovely shades of pink, purple, red, white, yellow, and even red.
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- Lupines are attractive and spiky, reaching one to four feet in height. Lupine flowers may be annual and last only for a season or perennial, returning for a few years in the same spot in which they were planted. The lupine plant grows from a long taproot and loves full sun.
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- Look at them exploding with rich colors.
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- The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spike, each flower about one to two centimeters long. The pea-like flowers have an upper standard, or banner, two lateral wings, and two lower petals fused into a keel.
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- I grow many alliums here at the farm and they continue to bloom so beautifully. These easy-to-grow bulbs come in a broad palette of colors, heights, bloom times, and flower forms. They make excellent cut flowers for fresh or dried bouquets. What’s more, alliums are relatively resistant to deer, voles, chipmunks, and rabbits.
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- Alliums will grow in most soil types as long as it is well-drained. Alliums adore sunlight and will perform best when they can bask in it all day long. Since most of them multiply naturally, they can be left untouched in the same area for years.
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- And many of you will recognize the chives. Chives is the common name of Allium schoenoprasum, an edible species of the Allium genus. Chives are a commonly used herb and can be found in many home gardens.
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- Oriental poppy blossoms, Papaver orientale, last only a week or two, but during that time, they provide one of the high points of the gardening season with its bold colors – these in bright red.
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- The flowers appear to be fashioned of crepe paper and can be more than six-inches across on stems up to three feet in height.
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- I also have Iceland poppies in shades of orange, yellow, and white. They come in more than 80 varieties. The flowers also attract birds, butterflies, and bees.
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- Anyone who visits this garden admires the bearded irises. These flowers get their common name from their blooms, which consist of upright petals called “standards,” pendant petals called “falls,” and fuzzy, caterpillar-like “beards” that rest atop the falls.
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- Bearded irises need full sun, good drainage, lots of space, and quality soil. They come in just about every flower color, both solids, and bi-colors. Branched flower stalks range in height from eight-inch miniatures to 48-inch giants – and all make excellent cut flowers.
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- This bearded iris is a deep shade of burgundy.
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- And, Iris × hollandica, commonly known as the Dutch iris, is a hybrid iris developed from species native to Spain and North Africa. Dutch irises grow well in zones 4 to 9, and they reach heights as tall as two feet.
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- Here is a columbine in rich, dark purple. The bonnet-like flowers come in single hues and bi-colored in shades of white, pink, crimson, yellow, purple and blue.
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- Johnny Jump Ups are a popular viola. They are native to Spain and the Pyrennes Mountains and are easy to grow. Small plants produce dainty, fragrant blooms – some in deep purple and yellow.
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- Geum, commonly called avens, is a genus of about 50 species of rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plants in the rose family, widespread across Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa, and New Zealand. They produce flowers on wiry stalks, in shades of orange, white, red, and yellow. Geum is a relative of the strawberry. Its bright and showy, cup-shaped flowers appear in late spring.
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- Lady’s mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris, grows along both sides of the path of my cutting garden. It is a clumping perennial which typically forms a mound of long-stalked, circular, scallop-edge light green leaves, with tiny, star-shaped, chartreuse flowers.
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- Flowers open every day in this garden and we continue to plant more and more flowering plants here. I will share photos as new blossoms appear. What flowers are blooming in your garden? I would love to hear from you.
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