Day 234: "And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days." So wrote poet James Russell Lowell, and I'm sure he must have been a gardener. June brings the widest range of colour to the flower beds of the Pacific Northwest, and in unsurpassed abundance. While not all of my plants are blooming currently, this is probably at or near the peak in the east bed. The north bed and the Barren Wasteland will follow in two or three weeks, but something will be in bloom in each plot from now through killing frost in late September or October. Even then, a few things will persist: Gazanias, determined to flower until snow buries them; Hellebore, the January faithful. But June, the month of Lowell's vision, excels. Count down their alphabet: azalea, bleeding-heart, calendula, cornflower, columbine times seven, dogwood, kerria, lilac, lily-of-the-valley, lithodora, Oriental poppy, pansies, peony, pyracantha, Siberian iris, snowball bush, spirea, wood-hyacinth in a spectacular rainbow array.
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