What happened to June?

Well, it turned out to be the hottest June on record. At the very end of the month, a cold front came through, but it was a false and evil front: thunderstorms in Silver Spring, not a drop here. Even the perilla is wilting. Yesterday and today I've been watering, which I hate to do, but I don't want to lose the shrubs - okay, not anything else, either.

What else happened:
Hiking in North Carolina - the last of the rhododendrons in bloom
 

  
 

Lots of white in the garden
  


 

Discovery that the tithonia was not the Mexican sunflower I remembered, tall and branching, but a lovely but short zinnia-like plant. Had I but known, I would have planted them in a group rather than spacing them throughout the garden, where they look silly.

 

Also, that these dark dahlias are perfect with the deep red-orange day lilies - just need to move them so they are amongst said lilies next year.

 

Anxiety

Should I be pinching back my dahlias? I have one in bloom! But it's way too soon... Hope to be able to post pictures again one day, so you can see it.

What I've learned about dahlias

1. They are beautiful on their own or as cut flowers, and definitely worth growing. Maybe try them in the cutting garden, too.

2. They need to be staked.

3. Although they make a great show together (see earlier posting from Scotland), I think I might prefer them mixed in the border.

4. You can't always trust the stated color to be what you get - either that, or the dahlias I got were mislabeled. Here's the pale pink 'Good Earth' in my garden this month - yowza!

 

Gardens in Scotland

This was not a garden trip, nor a walking trip, but we tucked in some of both, anyway.

Crocosmia were everywhere, even along the roadsides. When I spoke to our kilted guide at the Edradour Distillery in Pitlochry about them, he called them montbretia and said he had them in his garden, too. Wikipedia tells us "They are commonly known in the United States as coppertips or falling stars, and in Britain as montbretia."

Here they are at the distillery garden
 








and here they are mixed with daisies.
 

In Glencoe, they were growing along the roadside, with the lowering hills in the background.
 

I also enjoyed the dahlias, these in a village garden at Glencoe
 

and these in a bouquet at Glamis Castle.
 

We kept running into strange pairings throughout the trip, undoubtedly due to their cooler weather, like sweet peas in early September, when the autumn sedums are in bloom. Will globe thistle bloom with tiger lilies for us? They made a charming pair at Armadale Castle on the Isle of Skye.
 







 
Tuberous begonias adore the cool, wet shady climate, and I should not be surprised that they cook and die in Virginia. These pots were at our B&B in Pitlochry. 

First of the dahlias

The dahlias I planted next to the walkway have been growing very weedily (if that's a word), but only one has bloomed so far.




The label has disappeared, so it's either Arabian Night or the unnamed one I grew last year. Isn't it perfect?? I am certainly being converted to dahlias and now wish I had planted more.

Divine dahlias

Martha persuaded me to try dahlias, and I loved the single dark red one I grew last year. I wintered it over in vermiculite in a plastic bag in the shed, and took it out just last week. It immediately began growing like mad, so, heartened by its vigor and beauty, I crept out to Roxbury Mills and bought six more. (Not in the budget, but I used cash which makes it all right.) Above is Arabian Night.

Good Earth is a pale pink cactus form.



This little pale yellow one is Canary Fubuki.

If all goes well, they should be full of blooms by mid-summer. I've planted them along the walkway where the tulips were. I hope they work there - they're amidst some hostas. We shall see.

Late Summer Colors

 

Blue potatoes from Cub Creek Farm were the inspiration for a red, white and blue potato salad for Labor Day. Here they are in the pot, ready to boil.

 

I got this dahlia at Roxbury Mills on a whim, finally took it out of the bag and planted it, and it's blooming despite my neglect (I should have staked it long since, for example). Martha is trying to persuade me that dahlias are not the artificial dinner plates I suspect them of being, and this dahlia (wish I had recorded the variety) may just do it! I love the dark red color and the precision of its petals.

 

Digging around in the back yard (planted the sweetspire and mulched some beds-to-be), I found this purple acorn. The little green ones are starting to shower down on the terrace with a startling bang when they hit the metal table. The maple leaf is from the tree in the front of the house. Though it doesn't have the brilliant color of a sugar maple, it does offer pale yellow, citron green and red.