Luscious early June

It's allium season in my four-square garden
Oh, early June, how lush and beautiful you are!

Old garden hands love to tell novices that it's easy to have a great spring garden, and early June is proof of that. Everything is growing: there are jewel-toned colors in the flower garden, the rock garden is in it's prime, the needles on the evergreens are still soft, and drought hasn't crisped the lawn yet.

My mystery peony
The name of this peony, which is now in glorious bloom, has escaped me. I lost the plant tag years ago and don't have it written down anywhere. It blooms at the end of May (last year) or beginning of June (this year because it's been so much cooler).

I do know that it is a Japanese peony. Here's what I learned about this type of peony when I researched them for an article for Canadian Gardening magazine:

Actually a double form made up of five or more petals around a centre of stamens with non-pollen bearing anthers (stamenoids), which resemble a soft mound of small petals. Sometimes called "anemone-flowered" when the stamens in the centre have been transformed into narrow petal-like petaloids.

The rock garden is at its peak of bloom
Here's a close-up of a prized Lewisia cotyledon, which John grew from seed, and has planted in the wall of the rock garden.


© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener