Flaming June

“What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.”
-  Gertrude Jekyll, On Gardening

June 21 is the longest day of the year, and the extra light and warmth encourages the garden to put on an exuberant burst of growth. But this extra light and warmth also means weeds will sprout up from seemingly nowhere. Keep on top of them by weeding regularly.

Herbaceous borders are reaching their early summer peak and the kitchen garden is becoming productive.

Get those warm season vegetables planted! Young starts of tomatoes, peppers, corn, eggplant, cucumber and squash can be planted now that all danger of frost has passed. This should be done without delay, especially if you live in a region where summer is short.

Keep newly planted trees and shrubs consistently moist. This is especially true as we head into the dry summer months. To make this task easier, use water bags around the trunks.

Check your roses for pests and diseases. Blackspot, powdery mildew and aphids usually start appearing in June. As soon as a problem is detected, treat it with an earth friendly spray such as Garden Safe’s Fungicide 3-in-1, which tackles disease, mites and insects. It may be necessary to maintain a regular spraying schedule over the course of the summer.

If your spring blooming perennials are starting to look a little worse for wear, cut them back to encourage new healthy growth. It’s safe to do this until mid-July.

Vining plants often put on lots of new growth in short periods of time. One way to tame the tangle is to use dental floss to tie vines to their supports. The floss is easy to carry around by just sticking it in your pocket, needs no scissors to cut it, and if you use the green, mint-flavored type, it almost disappears next to the vine’s stem.

Sow seeds for biennials such as hollyhock, sweet william, campanula and foxglove for blooms next year.

Cut lavender blooms in early morning before the sun burns off the aromatic oils. After the flowering stops you can lightly prune the plant to keep it in shape.

Plant dahlia tubers, asters and other plants for late summer blooms.

Fill in empty spaces in the herbaceous border with annual bedding plants. Begonias, geraniums and heliotrope are good, bee-friendly choices.

Apply compost to feed your plants!

Related articles

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• The Lush Garden of June (janetshouse.typepad.com)

It does best in full sun, but it can also tolerate a bit of shade. It’s also deer-resistant!

My hydrangeas in containers are an interesting shade of lilac/blue.

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Even though they originated in Japan, Hostas are a mainstay of the English cottage garden. They are also attractive to bees of all kinds.

Honey bees can’t fit inside a Hosta bloom, so they poke a hole in the flower to suck out the nectar.  They have adapted to this exotic.

I love Hostas, and have many varieties. My favorites are the giants!

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I opened my Italian hive around noon. They’ve drawn out four frames of comb. Tomorrow I’ll add a second medium super.

Around 2:30 pm, my neighborhood’s electricity went out. I didn’t notice it much because I was weeding in the garden.

The lights and air conditioning came back on at 6:30.

Tomorrow I’ll open the other hive. And replace the red ivy geraniums on my deck with pink ones!!

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The variegated blooms are lovely with their peppermint-like shades of white and pale pink-purple stripes.

The repeat blooming flowers are double and appear in clusters. They are exceptionally fragrant, even for a Bourbon rose.

The foilage is plentiful and very attractive. Since the plant is tall and has arching canes, it’s best grown and trained as a climber, a great small climber actually. It can easily be trained on an open wrought iron fence like in the picture below.

This rose probably won’t give you a good flower show the first season, so don’t be alarmed if you have little or no flowering the first year.

It will make up for it later. Most of the old roses that climb don’t produce a lot of flowers the first season. They need time to grow flowering canes and flower mostly from old wood from previous year, so do not prune for a while, or you won’t have any flowers at all.

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I fell in love with this shrub at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It took me a few days to find out what it was because we were “driven out of the Garden” by a lightning storm.

It turns out it is Variegated Weigela Florida, beloved by bees and other pollinators everywhere. I ordered one on Amazon (they sell everything!!) and will be planting soon.

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Who doesn’t love hydrangeas? Thank goodness that includes honey bees!

You really can’t have an English cottage garden without a few hydrangeas. I have all kinds in my garden, from the old fashioned Nikko Blue to the new easy-care, repeat blooming cultivars Limelight, Little Lamb, Endless Summer, and Annabelle.

Gertrude Jekyll noted that hydrangeas are very useful for keeping the border full and beautiful throughout the growing season. Maybe that’s the reason I keep planting them…

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Chores and Maintenance:

• Finish preparation of planting beds
• Continue to cultivate planting beds and carefully remove young weeds
• Dig and divide early-blooming perennials after flowering
• Lift, divide and replant late summer and fall-blooming perennials
• Set supports for floppy plants, vines and vegetables
• Mow lawns regularly to keep grass at 2½ inch height
• Begin watering program as necessary
• Continue weeding
• Aerate and moisten compost pile to speed decomposition
• Mulch azaleas, rhododendrons, and other ericaceous ornamentals with acid mulch
• Mulch planting beds
• Deadhead bulbs but allow foliage to remain until yellow to nourish bulbs for next year’s display
• As night temperatures moderate into the 60′s, move houseplants outdoors (avoid full sun and windy locations)
• Look for pests and other problems; spotting early can mean fewer chemical controls. Note: slugs and caterpillars can be removed manually
• Begin application of deer repellents

Planting:

• Move self-sown annuals and perennials to desired locations
• Sow seeds of corn, cucumber and melon directly in the garden
• Harden off tomato, eggplant and pepper transplants before planting out at end of month
• Complete planting deciduous trees and shrubs, weather and soil conditions permitting
• Continue to plant and transplant perennials
• Plant summer annuals after last frost date
• Plant summer-flowering bulbs such as gladiolas and dahlias after last frost date
• Plant caladium and tuberous begonias in shady spots
• Complete reseeding bare lawn areas

Pruning/Composting:

• Pinch back late summer and fall-blooming perennials
• Continue to prune all plant material to remove any diseased, dead, weak or crossing branches
• Prune early spring-flowering shrubs after blooming
• Wait to prune evergreens, hedges and other shrubs until late spring into early summer
• Begin deadheading roses
• Add compost/organic fertilizer to roses
• Fertilize needle evergreens with  organic acid type fertilizer
• Compost/fertilize bulbs as they finish blooming
• Compost/fertilize annuals and container plants

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