Besides many tulips, which were blooming in our garden mostly in May, as I have showed you in my previous article, we had many other flowers in the second part of May or early June. Some of them were just starting to bloom and are in full bloom at the moment, others are gone by now.
One of them was Jacob’s Ladder – (Polemonium reptans) visible in the picture below. The variety I have is quite nice plant with variegated, elongated leaves. It makes many small light blue-violet flowers in late spring. They last for about 3-4 weeks. This plant needs partial shade and is supposed to be deer resistant.
We presently have also several hostas and here are 2 kinds of them. They are already well developed after winter dormancy, when they die to the ground in our climate. Later they will have beautiful flowers which last for a while and add beauty do our backyard. Hostas are good for more shady spots in the garden since they usually don’t like strong, direct light.
In the beginning of June one of our peonies – Red Charm was already quite large and growing much bigger than last year. Previous spring was its first in our garden and it only had one rather small flower. Over the last year it got quite established here and this year had 4 beautiful burgundy coloured flowers and most of them huge, bigger than my hand. I will show them to you later in one of my next post. It is still blooming right now, but has just one last flower left and one flower bud.
Its flowers were very short lasting even in pretty nice weather we had this year. Most of the time it was a nice, mild weather, except a couple of hot days. I have watered this peony well, but one day the flowers seemed dehydrated despite the fact I have watered it the previous day. They came back to almost full beauty after I have watered them again, but some of them got already a bit damaged. Then we had a short but strong rain rand after that the flower started to deteriorate even further and petals falling down. Overall, most of the flowers lasted for only about a week. I wish they would bloom for much longer since they were indeed looking amazing when at their best. They were certainly the biggest flowers we ever had in our garden, beside sunflowers.
Here you can see this Red Charm Peony before the buds opened and it lasted like that for about 7-10 day. Beside it on the right is growing one of our clematis and further to the right Eden climbing rose, which died almost to the ground during rather hard winter we had this year. I have planted one of the hostas in front of clematis to cover its roots since clematis plants don’t like to have strong sun shining there. Now clematis is flowering as well and I will show you later how it looks when in bloom.
We also had many smaller flowers blooming at this time in our garden. Here are some of them. Those on the left side don’t last for two long – about 2-3 weeks, but are quite nice and contrast well with purple flowers on the right. According to the label it is “Rockfoil” (Saxifraga x arendisi) and it is supposed to be “Purple Robe” vivid pink variety, but this one looks white and pink. Maybe the labels got mixed up. In any case it is quite nice, but blooms for only a few weeks in spring. Beside it is a purple flower, which also comes in other colours. It is Rock cress Aubrieta deltoidea. It blooms best in spring, but then occasionally reblooms later during the growing season.
We presently have two kinds of perennial geraniums in our garden and the below variety was just starting to bloom in the beginning of June this year. Now it is is in full bloom already for a while. This variety blooms best in late spring- early summer then it might occasionally re-bloom with a couple of flowers. It is best to trim flowers stalks after they stop blooming to encourage re-bloom.
Sometimes I add annual flower to our garden to make nicer composition and fill in empty space. Here I have added annual petunias beside this pink magenta flowering Geranium. There is Scotch Moss in front of them, which also blooms at this time of the year. I really like it since it keeps this beautiful vivid green colour for most of the growing season and small, white flowers during spring add to its beauty. It can be easily propagated by division and planting a section at the new location. Make sure you keep it well watered at all times during the dry spell.
Here is a different kind of perennial geranium we have in our garden and I like this variety even more than the other one. It has interesting dark purple patterns on the leaves and once it starts blooming, it blooms till late fall. It has grown quite large over the last two or tree years we had it in our garden. In spring it creates a nice mount and then later in the season flowers stalk keep growing and producing new blooms.
I think I will need to divide it this year since it is now blocking some light to our Ebb Tide rose growing on its left and to the Butterfly Bush, which in the middle of this spring is still rather small after it was killed to the ground, as it usually happens during the winter in our climate. Now in the middle of June when I am writing this post, this Geranium is in full bloom and looks great and I will show you its pictures in one of my next posts. It is certainly one of my favorite plants in our garden since it looks beautiful, blooms for most of the year and seems easy going. It needs good light to grow well and it gets plenty of it on the right side of our garden facing South.
Chives are one of the first plants coming to live in spring in our climate and one of the first to bloom in the middle of spring. These year they were getting ready to flower in the end of May and here they are already blooming abundantly in the beginning of June. They flowers are quite beautiful light purple and last for about a month before they dry out. During this time they form many seeds, which are ready to go. Once done flowers have the tendency to fall over and then drop the seeds around creating more new plants. Unless you want to have lots of chives, once the flowers are dry, they are best to be cut back, along with the whole plant, or the chive will be spreading rapidly in the garden.
I have started our chives plant from seeds in 2015 and now we have several of them growing in the the middle of our garden, where I grow herbs, as well as a couple of them in our vegetable lot. They have self seeded in many locations and I have already divided and shared them with other people as well, but I need to do it this year again, or throw some of them out since they are spreading too fast for our small garden. I
t is a nice herb to have since the flowers are beautiful and pretty long lasting and the leaves are of course edible. You can also decorate your food with the flowers. Once the plant will be cut back, the leaves will regrow pretty fast and you can keep cutting them back occasionally. They will be usually weaker and not growing so fast later in the season. They grow best in cooler weather and might dry if there is too much heat. They also like to be watered well or start drying out.
At this time of the year our Forget-Me-Not (or similar species) were blooming abundantly and growing very well. Now most of their blooms are already gone. They are self-seeding and like more shady and wet areas. In our garden they grow very well on the left side were the soil is more wet since this part of the garden received sunlight only in the afternoon. However these plants also grow quite well on the more sunny-side of our garden when planted beside other flowers and shrubs in a group. In such arrangement, there is better moisture retention since plants create some shade and water is evaporating slower. If you don’t want more of Forget-Me–Not, it is best to cut some back to prevent seeds from falling.
When we are talking about wild flowers, lets don’t forget Sweet Violets which were also growing and blooming profusely in our garden in May, at the same time Dandelion flowers like to appear. By now Sweet Violet’s flowers are already gone. These plants were already growing in our garden when we have moved here more than 3 years ago and I left them in place. They are sometimes spreading to other locations mostly by underground runners, but sometimes they also appear a few meters away from the plant, so perhaps they can also spread via seeds. Sweet Violets look quite nice and add some light violet colour to our garden when there are almost no other flowers blooming, beside some early spring flowers like hyacinths, chives and wild dandelions. We are trying to get rid of the dandelions and now have much less of than in previous years. We just keep pulling them out,but it is not easy since roots break easily.
We also had this feathery-looking flowering plant in our garden blooming in May and the beginning of June. It is called “Spring Symphony” variety of Tiarella cordifolia. The flowers are very delicate with a slight shade of pink. It only blooms in spring, but I think it is still worth keeping because of its delicate beauty. Besides original looking flowers it also has quite interesting leaves, which are similar to some kind of ferns. It is hardy from zone 3-8, so it is Ok in our rather cold climate.
Our Salomon’s Seal (polygonatum biflorum, multiflorum, odoratum, etc.) is a beautiful plant. It the traditional medicine, it roots, if prepared in a special way, were sometimes used as medicine and as cosmetic tonics to make the skin free of blemishes and beautiful. However the upper part of the plant and especially the berries, except the young shoots, are poisonous. You can read more about its medicinal use here but herbal preparation should be only made by a professional herbalist, who knows what he/she is doing.
This plant was already growing in our garden before we have moved here, but has grown bigger over the years. It looked beautiful this spring. I like its gracefully shaped and delicate stems with white-cream bell or berry-like flowers hanging from them. This plants is easily recognizable and particularly likes to grow in shady, woodland areas. It can be propagated from roots or via seeds contained in berries made later in the season. It is pretty cold hardy and can grow from zone 3-9.
We also had this beautiful irises growing in front of our house. I think people who lived here before have planted them. These irises bloomed abundantly in late May, but the blossoms lasted for only about a week. I don’t really recommend keeping irises in the garden unless you have a lot of space. The flowers bloom for only a very short time, but the leaves last for most of the year and occupy a lot of space.
Another iris we have is dark-bugundy-violet, almost black when opening and it used to grow in front of our house. I have divided it and shared with one of our neighbours who liked it, since it has grown pretty big. I have decided to move the remaining part to the back of our garden and it was not blooming yet this year. It is probably getting used to the new location and getting over the shock of being moved.
Finally, I would like to present to you our columbines, which as in a previous year, were blooming beautifully during the second part of May and early June. By now they are gone and made a lot of seeds. I have cut back the spent flowers, but dropped a few seeds just in case the plants dies. They are short lived, so it is a god idea to let them self seed a bit.
There are many kinds of columbines and I think this particular variety is very beautiful with its full, ruffled pink-yellow flowers. It grows in a pretty sunny place in our garden, but will probably do well in a more shady spot. Columbines don’t like to be over-watered, or the leaves will start to develop mold. Otherwise they seem quite easy going. I really like them and despite the fact they bloom only for about 3-4 weeks, I think they are worth keeping in the garden since they are one of the most beautiful late spring flowers.
Now there are some new flowers blooming in our backyard including roses. Two roses just started to open up and other have many flower buds. I fact I have seen the first rose blooming this year in our garden a couple of days ago around Summer Solstice. It was William Morris rose, which was light pink with slight touch of peach colour. Each rose of this kind seems a be of slightly different colour. It is one of the most beautiful, elegant roses in our garden and it also smells very niece.
A few days later I have also noticed the first flowers of our Abbotsford rose in the middle of our garden. I will tell you more about flowers and shrubs blooming now in our garden in one of my next posts, so if you would like to find out more about them, stay tuned and subscribe to my blog. Thank you for reading this article so far and if you like it, please click “like” and share it with other people. Thank you.
Tell Us About Late Spring Flowers You Have in Your Garden.
What kind of late spring flowers do you have in your garden? Are there any varieties you particularly like and why? Please share your comments with us. Thank you.
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The Copyright, Usage Licence and Fine Art Prints.
All photographs and this article are copyrighted by me, Renata Ratajczyk unless otherwise mentioned. I you would like to use any of them in your publications, on your website, or purchase these photographs as fine art prints, please contact me.
My Other Blog – Light Vision.
If you like this blog, you might also like to visit my other blog – Light Vision, where I write about photography, art and travel. Thank you for visiting, liking and sharing my blogs.
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- Villa Garzoni Garden, Italy – Part Two.
- How to Choose the Best Tomato Plants For Your Garden – Part 1.
- Visiting Niagara Park’s Botanical Gardens, Part 1.
- Visiting Niagara Park’s Botanical Gardens, Part 2.
- Roses Blooming in our garden – Part 1.
- Roses Blooming in our garden – Part 2.
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- A Beautiful Italian Garden For You to Visit – “Giardino Sigurtà” in Valeggio sul Mincio, Northern Italy.
Vibrant Garden 
Piękne zdjęcia! Czekam niecierpliwie na przyjście wiosny i na relację, co w Twoim ogrodzie słychać 🙂
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Dziekuje Ewo,
Ja tez nie moge sie juz doczekac wiosny, ale na razie do niej u nas daleko. Dzis kolejna sniezyca.
Z pewnoscia napisze cos na temat naszego ogrodu, jak w koncu przyjdzie wiosna.
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