June Bloom Day
Philadelphus microphyllus
Yesterday was bloom day. Our garden’s happy but messy. That storm at the beginning of the month was good for foliage and flowers, though it also spread bamboo leaves everywhere, which we still need to tidy up. The star right now is our mock orange, Philadelphus micranthus, which you can smell as soon as you come up the stairs into the garden.
Brodiaea with Nigella
Brodiaea is in bloom throughout the yard. We have two varieties; the bluer ones are ‘Corrina,’ the more purple ones are ‘Queen Fabiola.’ I always have to look it up to remember which is which.
Brodiaea with Salvia Hot Lips
Brodiaea with Dudleya
Several of the dudleyas are budding or blooming. They are all somewhat close to our walkway and their bloom stalks have a tendency to get damaged before the flowers open. This one is nicely ensconced amongst some brodiaea so it has stayed safe.
Lilium parryi
I grew a bunch of these native lilies from seed, germinating them three four years ago. They’ve been impressively tolerant of neglect, but slow. This is the first year I’m getting a significant number of blooms; last year we had a few, this year maybe a dozen. I think the leopard lily is the cooler flower, but the lemon lily is less common and also beautiful, so I tend to prize it more.
Leopard Lily, Lilium pardalinum
Scarlet Monkey Flower Mimulus cardinalis with Stream Orchid Epipactis gigantea
All of our monkey flowers are in bloom. The orange monkey and the scarlet monkey are thriving; a red monkey, Mimulus puniceus, is getting swallowed up by Matilija poppy and a hybrid monkey seems to be in decline after several years of heavy flowering.
Mimulus aurantiacus
Bloom Day is hosted as always by Carol at MayDreamsGardens. My thanks to her. Click over for links to over a hundred and fifty other blogs posting about their flowers. The list of everything blooming in our yard is below.
Full Bloom:
Brodiaea
Philadelphus microphyllus
Calycanthus occidentalis
Mimulus aurantiacus
Geranium ‘Mavis Simpson’
Lilium pardalinum
Lilium purdyi
Oenothera speciosa
Nigella
Galvezia speciosa
Blessed Calendula
Canna sp.
Alyssum
Salvia ‘Hot Lips’
Matillija Poppy (first flower opened yesterday)
Dudleya spp.
Stream Orchid
Mimulus cardinalis
Clarkia bottae
Starting Up:
Monardella macrantha
Sedum spathulifolium
Calylophus hartwegii (first 3 flowers opened the 16th)
Woolly Thyme
Chives
Calandrinia spectabilis
Light:
Campanula spp.
Salvia mellifera
Penstemon heterophyllus
Mimulus puniceus
Scrophularia
Aquilegia chrysantha
Sacred Flower of the Incas
Dicentra formosa
Oxalis oregana
Sisyrinchium bellum
Coreopsis sp.
Geranium ‘Bill Wallis’
Heuchera spp.
Hardenbergia
Dicentra ‘Bachanal’
California Poppy (both coastal and regular)
Hebe ‘Patty’s Purple’
Sidalcea malviflora
Abutilon sp.
Mimulus hybrid
The Mariposa Lily, Calochortus venustus, bloomed between bloom days. The late May rains tattered the petals almost as soon as the flowers opened.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 at 8:59 am and is filed under garden bloom day, plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 16th, 2011 at 9:44 am
Great post…I’ve never heard of Brodiaea before…they are stunning…I especially like the purple ones…and paired with the Nigella…stunning!
June 16th, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Beautiful! I especially like the mock orange. I have a mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii), but mine has barely even leafed out after the winter.
June 17th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
@Scott Thanks. The brodiaea’s are native to California, so I think they’re more well known here. The nigella photo happened on its own when they decided to come up next to the brodiaea patch.
@Gayle Our mock orange was really slow for the first couple of years too. But worth the wait.
June 18th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Love it: “Messy but happy.” A great place to be. I surprised at the lilies blooming after two or three years. I’d always read that they require double that time and had never tried them for that reason.
June 18th, 2011 at 8:35 pm
You’re right about the lilies. I looked at last year’s bloom day post, and realized this is the fourth year for this batch, not the third. Last year I got flowers from one or two of the lemon lilies and two or three of the leopard lilies. I also have a batch in their third year, but none of them are going to bloom this year. I did a better job of taking care of the first batch so they grew faster. I’ve been happy with growing them from seed. The slowness is balanced by them being very tolerant of neglect.