“In those heavy days in June
When love became an act of defiance”

— "June" by Florence + the Machine

June arrived and departed in the blink of an eye for me. Each day arrives as a reminder that I am extremely fortunate to have this garden. We planted a lot of peonies for our project we shared in the May entry, have been weeding when we can, and harvesting little bits here and there while the amaranth, celosia, cosmos, dahlias, sunflowers and zinnias grow steadily in spite of the severe heat. We added some chrysanthemums for our fall weddings, but they’ve already been munched on. The rabbits are so darling though, it’s hard to be upset.

Shasta Daisy grown from seed finally blooming on June 24, 2022

Foxglove grown from seed on June 6, 2022

The last of our astilbe on June 10, 2022

We have over ten astilbe plants, but after years of tending to them, they still haven’t gotten as large as expected. I found this one at the local greenhouse last year grew beautifully and these are the first blooms we’ve gotten to enjoy! I ended up clipping them for a lucky client who ordered three of our Signature bouquets at their peak beauty. I will be brainstorming new locations for the other astilbe to see if I can get larger and taller plants.

Foxglove, sprouted dahlia, and the first Chinese forget-me-not on June 10, 2022

While the foxglove I started last spring did flower, the blooms were more bouquet-sized than the iconic towering spires as seen in gardening books. Luckily I bought some potted foxglove from a local nursery and I’ve had repeat blooms since planting them in May. Although they are highly poisonous, I cannot resist their shape and coloring.

Our dahlias have sprouted! After a small run-in with one of many rabbits we now have living in the cutting garden, all of our tubers are looking good. Next up for them is a good weeding and possibly pinching.

We started a lot of Chinese forget-me-nots this spring and while they seem very delicate, they have started to bloom. This blue and the pink of the ‘Mystery Rose’ are so dreamy. If you love blue flowers, take note of these! June has quite a few blue flowers, which cannot be said for many other months. Other blue flowers include bachelor’s button, hydrangea and nigella.

Hungarian blue bread seed poppy and giant rattle bread seed poppy pods on June 12 and 24, 2022

We tried growing poppies this year and I’m excited to say we had a few germinate! These poppies are not grown for the flowers themselves but the seed pods. The flowers only last for one day! The seed pods are looking so lovely out in the garden right now, and I’m hoping to save them for a special project for the fall. Are you charmed by these poppy pods too?

This month, the most wonderful scent has been welcoming me into the garden…if you read my Instagram posts, you will already know. I sniffed a few things I thought it might be, but it turned out being our common milkweed! In the early spring, when I see the little volunteer milkweed plants emerge, we try to work around them and leave as many as possible in the garden for the pollinators to enjoy. We do not use them as a cut flower because they are so much beneficial as a food source. The bees have been loving them so much this year. No signs of Monarchs just yet. A little side story about milkweeds. When I was in college, when I was studying to become an architect, my parents requested I gather milkweed seeds for them on an overlook to a lake they camped at when visiting me. It sounded like such a funny thing to me at the time, but I obliged and gathered the seed pods which reminded me of fish scales and bird’s feathers. They took the seeds I gave them and scattered them a few different places here in Cape and now when I drive past these places, I spy such abundant milkweed each summer! I had no idea back in the late 2000s that I would still be saving milkweed seeds in my flower-filled future.

What I’m most excited about for the coming months are our late summer hydrangeas that are starting to bud out and our japanese anemone varieties that hopefully brighten a few shady areas of our garden. Also, fresh mulch! And of course the dahlias if I have better luck with them this year!