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. My gardeners and I spend a lot of time caring for this garden - carefully placing and planting each specimen. Right now it is bursting with vibrant colors - the poppies, roses, lupines, columbines, and dianthus are all blooming profusely. The garden looks beautiful.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
My large flower cutting garden, which measures 150-feet by 90-feet, is growing more and more lush each year. I wanted the plants to be mixed, so every bed is planted with a variety of specimens. Every row of flowers is interesting and colorful.
This garden bed is just outside my fenced flower cutting garden – both are among the first ones seen when visiting my farm.
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 – they’re so pretty.
Here’s a closer look at the small blossoms. Lady’s mantle grows extremely well in full sun to partial shade and will tolerate near-complete shade. In very hot climates, it prefers some afternoon shade to avoid sun-scald on the leaves.
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 in the garden.
Here is one in dark purple. Lupines come in lovely shades of purple, pink, white, yellow, and even red. Lupines also make great companion plants, increasing the soil nitrogen for vegetables and other plants nearby. (Photo by Chhiring Sherpa)
Here’s another gorgeous lupine plant – in yellow and soft pink. Their telltale look is a tall, showy spire of flowers with impressive grayish-green textured foliage.
Iris flowers can begin blooming in late winter to early spring. A range of varieties provide extended color in the flower bed. Iris care is minimal once the growing iris is established. I have many iris cultivars growing in the garden. Iris flowers bloom in shades of purple, blue, white, and yellow and include many hybridized versions that are multi-colored.
Dianthus flowers belong to a family of plants that includes carnations and are characterized by their spicy fragrance. Dianthus plants may be found as a hardy annual, biennial, or perennial and most often used in borders or potted displays. There are numerous types of dianthus – most have pink, red, or white flowers with notched petals.
The columbine plant, Aquilegia, is an easy-to-grow perennial that blooms in a variety of colors during spring. With soft-mounding scalloped leaves and delicate blossoms nodding on flower stems, columbine is ideal for borders, cottage gardens or naturalizing wooded areas.
There are more than 65 species of columbine, most ranging in height from one to three feet tall. This is Aquilegia Vulgaris ‘Nora Barlow Pink’.
Here is another 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.
Baptisia produces loads of sturdy spikes filled with rich pea-like blossoms that emerge in mid to late spring. The showy terminal flower spikes are followed by inflated seed pods. The pea-like flowers are attractive to butterflies and other insect pollinators.
Comfrey, Symphytum officinale, is a tall, easy to care for perennial plant that is often grown for its beauty. Comfrey plants shoot up quickly, early in the season, and can easily reach heights of around five feet.
There are poppies popping up everywhere! 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. 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.(Photo by Chhiring Sherpa)
Aruncus dioicus, commonly called goat’s beard, is a Missouri native plant which occurs in moist woodlands and along bluffs in the central and southeast part of the State. A tall, erect, bushy, clump-forming plant typically growing four to six feet high features pinnately compound, dark green foliage and showy, plume-like spikes of tiny, cream colored flowers which rise well above the foliage in early to mid summer.
I have many roses in my flower garden. Many of them were transferred here from my home in East Hampton a few years ago. I also planted many new rose bushes and climbers this year from rose hybridizer, David Austin.
Here is a beautiful rose in light pink with the late afternoon light shining upon it. Soon, we will have an abundance of gorgeous roes.
These are the large leaves of Rodgersia – a genus of flowering plants in the Saxifragaceae family. Rodgersia are herbaceous perennials originating from east Asia. The common name is Roger’s Flower.
And, among my favorite flowers is the peony. The peony is any plant in the genus Paeonia. Peonies are considered rich in tradition – they are the floral symbol of China, the state flower of Indiana, and the 12th wedding anniversary bloom.
I have peonies in this garden, but I also have a garden filled with only herbaceous peonies in shades of pink and white. Peonies love cooler climates where they get pronounced winter chill. Some will do well in warmer areas. All are also worth a try in dappled shade.
I grow so many alliums here at the farm and they continue to bloom so beautifully interspersed with other blooms. We continue to plant more and more flowering plants in this garden. I will be sure to share photos as new blossoms appear. What flowers are blooming in your garden?
Three stalls in my stable are now more donkey and Fell pony friendly!
I share my Bedford, New York farm with four Friesians, five Sicilian donkeys, and one Fell pony. All of my equines reside happily in my large stable. Recently, I decided to change three of the stall gates, so that the smaller animals could have better views of their stable-mates and all the daily activities. We called on the experts at American Stalls in Fairfax, Virginia to make us three heavy-duty steel half-size stall gates. Once the gates arrived, I sent them over to our friends at Patty's Portico: Outdoor Furniture Restoration & Powder Coating, so they could be painted in my signature "Bedford Gray." I'm happy to report the gates are now installed and Rufus, Clive, Billie, Jude "JJ" Junior, Truman "TJ" Junior, and Banchunch love them.
Enjoy these photos.
Here are my two female donkeys – the only females in the stable. Billie and Jude “JJ” Junior share one stall. Until now, they did not have a good view of the wide aisle outside their enclosure. And to see them with their stall gate closed, one had to look over and view them from above.
Here’s Truman “TJ” Junior with his front on the step looking at his “girlfriends” next door.
A few stalls down, Banchunch looks over his stall gate to see what’s going on.
Not long ago, three gates from American Stalls arrived at the farm – these are made of all-steel materials and designed for smaller horses, donkeys, and ponies.
Helen takes a look at the gates after they arrived from Patty’s Portico, where they were powder-coated “Bedford Gray.” They look like they will fit very well.
Each gate was adjusted to accommodate heavy gate hinges.
My property manager, Doug White, installed the hinges to the gates and then marked where they would be installed on the existing gate posts. These gates will not interfere with the existing wood and metal ones.
Doug secures two hinges on the side of the gate. He uses a twist bit to drill through the metal.
And then he screws in the hinge securing it to the post.
Each hinge has has four screws.
Next, Doug attaches a latch to open and close the gate.
Here is the new gate – this one installed at just the right height for the donkeys.
The gates are designed with European-style yoke openings.
The vertical bars are closely spaced. Beneath the bars is a metal mesh bottom.
Billie and “JJ” can see everything so clearly now.
The donkeys can look over very easily to see everything that is going on in the rest of the stable.
And so can Banchunch… And look at the video to see what else he can do now that he has a new gate on his stall.
Today in the Northeast, we’re expecting scattered thunderstorms and partly cloudy skies, but so much continues to flourish here at my Bedford, New York farm.
Every day, I notice something new blooming. And, while many of the flowers are erupting with vibrant color, we've also been watching all the trees come to life. I've shared some images on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 - I hope you've seen them.
For this Memorial Day weekend, here are more photos from the gardens at Cantitoe Corners - enjoy.
When I first moved to my farm, it was a blank slate. Over the years, I’ve planted thousands and thousands of trees and plants. These gorgeous ferns surround part of my Basket House under the shade of bald cypress trees. In the distance – a section of my long and winding pergola and gardens now filled with shades of purple and blue.
On the right is a Japanese maple. With more than a thousand varieties and cultivars, the iconic Japanese maple tree is among the most versatile small trees for use in the landscape. They look so pretty with all the green foliage surrounding them. Japanese maples are native to areas of Japan, Korea, China, and Russia. In Japan, the maple is called the “autumn welcoming tree” and is planted in the western portion of gardens – the direction from which fall arrives there.
Red-leafed cultivars are the most popular of the Japanese maples. Japanese maple leaves range from about an inch-and-a-half to four-inches long and wide with five, seven, or nine acutely pointed lobes.
Astilboides is an interesting plant with huge, bright green leaves that are round and flat and measure up to 24-inches across. The effect is dramatic, and beautiful among other hardy perennials.
This is Pulmonaria, or lungwort – a beautiful, versatile, hardy plant. Lungworts are evergreen or herbaceous perennials that form clumps or rosettes. They are covered in hairs of varied length and stiffness. The spotted oval leaves were thought to symbolize diseased, ulcerated lungs, and so were once used to treat pulmonary infections.
The lungwort flower appears in early spring and can be blue, pink, or white, and is frequently two or more colors on a single plant. Often the flowers on a lungwort will start out one color before eventually fading into another color as the flower ages.
These are the dainty leaves of thalictrum. Plants in this genus are native to stream banks, shaded mountains, and moist meadows. It grows best in moist, humus-rich soil in partial shade. Thalictrum has some of the most beautifully textured foliage. The name Thalictrum means “to flourish,” and it does, with elegant, finely cut and rounded compound leaves.
Japanese painted ferns are beautiful mounds of dramatic foliage with luminescent blue-green fronds and dark central ribs that fade to silver at the edges.
In contrast are the ostrich ferns – a light green clump-forming, upright to arching, rhizomatous, deciduous fern which typically grows up to six feet tall.
The hostas are so lush with their varying leaf shape, size, and textures. Hostas have easy care requirements which make them ideal for many areas. I have them all around the farm. Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name, giboshi. They are native to northeast Asia and include hundreds of different cultivars.
This is Syneilesis – a tough, drought-tolerant, easy-to-grow woodland garden perennial that prefers moist, well-drained, slightly acid soils. If in the proper environment, syneilesis will slowly spread to form an attractive colony.
I’ve planted several American horse-chestnut trees around the farm. These two are at one end of my Boxwood Allee. Aesculus hippocastnum is a large deciduous tree commonly known as the horse-chestnut or conker tree. It’s easy to spot by its showy bright pink flowers.
The blossoms appear on erect, eight-inch-long panicles at each branch tip – they’re very attractive and very accessible to bees and hummingbirds.
On this side of my large Equipment Barn is a hedge of parrotia trees. They’ve developed quite nicely since we planted them two years ago. Persian parrotia or Persian ironwood is a small upright tree or large, rounded, multi-stemmed shrub related to witch hazel. The oblong green leaves turn various shades of red, orange, and yellow in the fall.
There are so many fruits growing at the pear espalier down by my stable. I have six ‘Shinseiki’ and four ‘Nijisseiki’ pear trees here. ‘Shinseiki’ Asian pear means “new century” and was developed from two of the best Asian pears of the 1940s. The ‘Shinseiki’ Asian pear is round, medium to large, yellow smooth-skinned fruit with little or no russet. It has crisp, creamy white flesh, and a mild, sweet flavor. The ‘Nijisseiki’ pear, or the 20th Century Asian pear as it is often called, is incredibly delicious, easy to grow, and smells just like a pear, but, like an apple, the outside of the fruit is crisp, firm and round.
On the other side of the stable above my azalea grove are several paulownia trees, which are broadleaf and deciduous. The flowers are pale violet and grow in 20 to 30 centimeter long panicles. The scent is a lovely vanilla fragrance.
From afar, one can see the gorgeous blooms.
Beautiful irises are popping up everywhere. Iris is a genus of 260 to 300 species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris.
I love my curving border of tree peonies, Paeonia suffruticosa. There are very few plants that can compete with a tree peony in full bloom. They flower from late April to early May but the season often varies from year to year.
This is just one of the many amazing tree peony flowers. Tree peonies do not die back to the ground in autumn. Like a rose bush, tree peonies drop their leaves and their woody stems stand through the winter.
Nearby, the herbaceous peonies are opening with such vigor. Herbaceous peonies die back to the ground in the autumn and emerge again in the spring. These flowers are all erupting with color. I will post images when all are opened – they’re so stunning.
At the end of this day, the clouds rolled in and opened with a drenching rain. The recent weather has done well for the gardens – everything looks so green and lush. I look forward to sharing more photos as the gardens transition in summer. And, during this Memorial Day Weekend, let us all remember our heroes in uniform who made the ultimate sacrifices to defend our country through the years.
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