Six on Saturday – 22/06/2018 – Let Summer Begin!

After an usually cool, damp and dreary spring, it looks like summer may actually be here – fitting that today truly is the first full day of summer! Sunny skies and warmish temperatures have made the garden very lush, with lots of healthy greens and colour everywhere and, as has been the case for a few weeks now, it’s been difficult to chose which plants to feature today.

1 – Choose I must; however, and it would be a grave error not to start with peonies, which just this week started to bloom. I have a dozen or so varieties here and there, almost all of which I did not purchase; thus, I don’t know their names. Nameless perhaps, but very beautiful!

2 – Next up is this blue Geranium. A neighbour led me through her garden two autumns ago, shovel in hand, and dug up a few clumps for me. Here is Mrs. Wright’s Geranium:

3 – Many, if not all, farmers around here would call this next flower a weed. Indeed, it’s listed on page 324 of Weeds of Canada by Royer & Dickenson. I really love the bladder flower though, as invasive as it may be. I didn’t plant it – it just shows up if I neglect to mow a part of the lawn. It’s called Bladder Campion, or Silene cucbalis:

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4 – Also not planted, and popping up wherever it can find a patch of bare soil, is, from page 30 of the above mentioned book, the lovely Ox Eye Daisy – Chrysanthemum leucanthemum:

5 – I’m going to give one final SOS shout out to the lovely Lupin this year – they’re still going strong by the way – because I was amazed to find this one yesterday afternoon. The stalk is so tall, and the flowering season so long this year, that seed pods have already formed and are nearly ripened on the bottom of the stem while flower buds have yet to even open near the top!

6 – Finally, last but certainly not least – an early peek at my very first Ranunculus blooms! I’m SO excited that those tiny, alien looking corm/tubours I paid a fortune for over the winter are actually growing and will actually bloom! (You can see a picture of them here.) I’m thinking these may show up again in a week or two when fully open:

That’s it for this week from Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada. To see lots of great shots from other parts of the world, pay a visit to the comments section of The Propogator‘s Six on Saturday post. He spends a lot of time on the weekend hosting, viewing and commenting on all sorts of gardens.