best garden time of year

I am always amazed how lovely the weather can be and the garden's bounty of flowers in May and June. The temperatures are mild and the flowers are plentiful. Looking forward to going to the National Botanical Gardens next weekend with my quilting guild for some time in the big garden amphitheater for hand sewing Saturday in the shade. Meanwhile here are a few of my favorite flowers from my gardens. Beginning with a new one that is almost orange the Coral Charm Peony! What a beauty it is.

Then the red peony from Manassas 

Sedum are so colorful this time of year and they bloom too! 

dianthus and the white silver of dusty miller

 lots of bearded iris and siberian blues follow soon after

 blue cadet hosta with chartreuse heuchera, miniature hosta in a low pot, honeysuckle the native orange, geraniums on the steps and maroon and red/yellow columbines 

Two clematis survived the cold winter in pots. The others were white and froze up with the surprise snow and deep freeze we got after a week or two of mild weather. 

A favorite yellow foxglove or digitalis that reseeds after the bees pollenate the flowers and return to bloom the following spring just like the columbines.

This flat blue iris is a Japanese Roof Iris that grew from seeds I planted four years ago! Now they are happy and prolific bloomers at the edge of our big flower bed. Below them is the lavender flower of the money plant a bi-annual that drops seed and takes two years to form new flowering plants. 

"Mary Rose" is one rose bush I have had since I lived in a house on 11th ST. NW back in the mid 1990's and grew them in big pots. It's an old fashioned rose that blooms with lots of petals and a great scent.