In my zone 8b garden here in Portland, Oregon, lots of perennials have had a slow start this spring, due to cool and record-setting wet weather. In contrast, today is beautiful, sunny and warm, which makes for challenging photography, but is incredibly welcome!
Making up for lost time, the parking-strip-roses are flowering nicely and, much as I'm uncommitted to these inherited plants, they deserve a little shout out in June. Though they're over their first spring flush of bloom, there are still lovely colors for the neighbors to enjoy as they stroll along my south-facing sidewalk.
Since these hybrid teas were here when we moved in, I don't have IDs for them.
I do know the name of this rose: I added 'Darlow's Enigma' to screen part of our back garden from the street in summer. It performs the task nicely, and thrives in spite of some shade from a large deciduous magnolia. Kate Bryant wrote more about this rose in
her latest Plantwise blog post.
Also shining this month is the semi-climbing rose, 'Sally Holmes'. I added her in front of our wide chimney where her big trusses of simple, pink-tinged ivory flowers continue through summer.
Keeping with the simple white flower theme, here is
Cistus obtusifolius,
Potentilla 'McKay's White',
and some of the callas that spring up everywhere.
More white flowers are these small, rare (in my garden) bloom clusters on
Pyracantha 'Mohave'. 'Mojave' is supposed to be fireblight resistant, but my four along the fence struggle every spring with the disease: the plants look burned, the flowers mostly die as buds, and berry formation is practically non-existent as a result. I'm not willing to start over with something else, so I prune out the worst of the damage and put up with the rest. In spite of the yearly setback, they are slowly growing larger and doing the job they were assigned.
Up next are some native bloomers
: Sisyrinchium 'Rocky Point'. Sorry for the burned-out image, but these only open in sun so they're hard to capture.
Ceanothus 'Victoria', still blooming from last month's post.
Salal.
Now to more exotic blooms:
Kniphofia NOID.
Abutilon 'Tangerine'. This one wintered over, but I lost
A. 'Temple Bells'.
Acanthus spinosa (thank you,
Ricki!)
Acanthus mollis.
The blooms will open any day now on
Clivia minata 'Belgian Hybrid Orange'.
Oxalis valdiviensis (I love this plant! Will the kind giver from our Portland Plant Exchange please remind me who you were?)
Eryngium variifolium.
Indoors there are a few flowering plants, too. An orchid from Trader Joe's that has re-bloomed many times.
And a
Streptocarpus I have had for dozens of years. But oh, that blue!
Thank you Carol, for hosting Bloom Day each month at
May Dreams Gardens.
Happy Bloom Day, all!
