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.

 

One of these things is not like the others

There should be three 'Shasta' viburnums along the fence line, but I bought them at different times - one from Merrifield (the one in bloom) and the other two from Colesville. I have a sneaking suspicion that the other two are a different variety (ya think?) - but which? Anyone know?

 

Verizon, not Dominion

I take it back - it turned out to be Verizon that trimmed my neighbor's trees and left the debris in my yard. The Verizon person claimed they would clean it up by the end of the week, but it hasn't happened. Pretty amazing.

After, Part One

The carpenters were here on Thursday to install the trellis and re-do the back gate. They did exactly what they were supposed to do, but I'm not sure it's right. You know that sinking feeling you get about things like this? My concern is that eight feet is too high for the trellis - six feet would be better. And though the carpenter cut a half circle in the back gate as I had asked, it's a little wobbly, and it goes way too far down. I'll ask Shelley if I can have them come back to re-do the gate, but I'll wait and see about the trellis until the terrace is installed next week. Stay tuned...


 
Here's the carpenter at work

 And here's a view of the trellis

Gardening errors

This year I thought I'd try to have bulbs in bloom in this pot for a month or more. The blue hyacinths (Blue Jacket and Sky Jacket) were okay, but I decided that they need to be at eye level for the fragrance to be noticeable.


At the moment, Salome is in bloom, and I like its delicacy, but the color seems almost too faded. The yellow and purple pansies are too strident for the colors of spring bulbs - the pale yellow and blue in other parts of the garden work much better.

Here's an example of planting things in the exact wrong place. The Thalia daffodils are right in front of the white bleeding heart. I will need to pull them out later this spring and consider something small like anemones instead. OR, move the bleeding heart, as I have been meaning to do, since it's almost hidden under the white azalea.