June 2022, Northern Hemisphere.

[brianw]

My experience is that stems and plants in seed (pod) are more vulnerable than when in flower. Maybe it is the scent that puts them off with flowers in general.

[Robert]

The "June Gap" refers to the period when the Spring flkowerscare past but thesummer flowers have not yet got going - this is thoiught of as a dull time for gardens and, of course, it's a spell when pollinators can suffer.

Hi Maggi

I worked out in our garden all day today. Some of the garden beds are seas of green, not one flower to be seen! I guess that I am not the only one with this dilemma, however the lack of flowers in our garden might be extreme. I am working on solving this situation, however it will take time. Some times I feel like a gardener version of Rip Van Winkle. I just woke up from a long sleep and missed out on a lot.   :'(

[shelagh]

The raised bed is full of colour at the moment.
Erodium Pippa Mills.
The bed outside the greenhouse with the first of Iberis Masterpiece.
Heuchera and Campanula Mrs. Resholt.
Iberis Masterpiece and a Penstemon.
A very small flowered Dianthus but the colour is intense.

[shelagh]

A Saxifraga and Stachys grandiflora, the seed came from Gothenburg Botanic.

Maud and her attendant Hostas.

Pelargonium Vancouver Centennial.

Now a trip around the raised bed. Geraniums.

[shelagh]

Time for a few more.

[MarcR]

Shelaggh,

Lovely mix of color!

[shelagh]

As you can see once you have Iberis Masterpiece you are never without it.

[shelagh]

Thanks Marc.

[ruweiss]

Flowering now:

[Gabriela]

Your raised beds are lovely, so colorful Shelagh!

Interesting how we catch up, various Dianthus, Helianthemums, Iberis...are also in flower here.

[ruweiss]

Some pictures from our meadow garden:

[Akke]

This June-gap sounds very interesting, it would be nice to hear about it from different places.
Lots of lovely pictures and flowers to fill it though.

Over here June is the right time for the aquatic flora.

The clump of Iris pseudacorus got a bit big on the small duck island and fell over, didn’t stop it flowering. Now it’s more common, it has been on the red list, wild or weed, it’s welcome.
Nuphar lutea, Nymphaea alba and Stratiotes aloides are also in bloom, enjoyed those and the dragonflies (making new ones) in the city park.

A new one, grown from seeds.

Looks like Sisyrinchium bellum, got this one in a mixed package, any ideas?
Californian flora seems to like it here, Nemophila and phacelia tanacetifolia (self-sown) are flowering here, Eschscholzia californica just around the corner. 

Back to local.

Viola arvensis has found it’s way again, I was planning a container for interesting weeds, well it is around already at my neighbours’.
Self-sown Viola seedlings from hybrid origin are flowering as well in various colours, fun to watch and see them changing. (In trade they’re called V. cornuta, these are not the species).

More to enjoy there.

Pisum sativum, grown from dried peas for consumption.

Jasmin

The Battus philenor picture is wonderful, you can see it moving, very rewarding that your efforts to attract it, worked.  Sometimes words are even better, I loved your description of the bee poking its head out, Iris will have an extra to enjoy.

This one is common, but butterflies don’t seem to like my containers usually, at least it was patiently waiting for the picture.

I hope your birds are doing ok now, probably another bad year for our common duck here, didn’t hear any of them lately.

Robert

Weather conditions have turned more normal over here, a bit of autumn last week, around 20 C now, rain dropping gently down on and off, other parts got the worse again. In some of your pictures the sun looks very strong.
You know I love the Calochortus, superb.😀 Brodiaea terrestris ssp. terrestris should be arriving soon (bulb) any advice is very welcome.

Mariëtte

Sorry to see Diplacus pictus so small, I hope you get another chance with seeds 

Rudi

Love your meadow garden, especially the Sophora japonica.

[Jon Evans]

Hi Shelagh
I like your deep red rock rose.  Which one is it ?

[Redmires]

Re June gap - apologies for a long post, but Akke did express an interest!

I've always thought that - at least as far as the northern England is concerned - the June gap is a bit of a myth.

I live in South Yorkshire and here we segue smoothly from spring into summer whether you're thinking of the countryside, or lovingly tended or unkempt gardens. Indeed some of the unkempt gardens offer a wonderful display at the moment - Centranthus in three colours - and it seems that almost whenever I go out for a bike ride or run (which I do most days) a new element has been added to the floral tapestry. As spring tips into summer gardens do start to have the edge over wild habitats when it comes to flowering of woody species, but for everything else I think it's pretty even.

In my own partially shaded back garden June is very colourful, because I have large drifts of Silene dioica in my 'meadow' in front of the hedge.

The micro-variation in flowering times is also very noticeable. Obviously some of this will be due to differences in aspect and local microclimate, but some will also be genetic. Here most of the Crataegus have finished flowering now, but I still encounter one or trees covered in blossom. There's a lot of variation in when the Digitalis flower (interestingly the wild type seem to be later than garden strains). To the extent that gardens rely on clones, flowering times are going to be more synchronised, which might create the impression of a gap in gardens with a less diverse flora. When I started this post I planned to make a rough list of all the species I saw flowering in local gardens on my bike ride this morning, but not only would it have been much too long, I was also having difficulty deciding what was close enough to peak flowering time to warrant inclusion on a shortlist.

For me, late summer is the period for which I have to plan more carefully to have colour in the garden (I have to admit that my dislike of daisy-type flowers in classically autumnal yellow-orange-red hues doesn't help - I want to cling onto summer proper for as long as possible, so I prefer to go for blues and pinks...) and I'm more reliant on species with no close native relative. Out in the countryside - up on the moors to be more precise - Calluna vulgaris offers a wonderful late-ish floral hurrah (it's like cycling through fields of honey, the scent is so powerful) and Centaurea nigra, Serratula and Leontodon hispidus are the latest of the common wildflowers. However I'll usually be able to enjoy colour on bike rides into October, thanks to escaped Michaelmas daisies.

There's much more of a gap - although polytunnels seem to help - in vegetable produce. It's even worse for fruit - stored apples and pears are long gone before the first strawberries are ready. 

[Mariette]

Akke, thank You for Your concern, but luckyly a second seedling of Diplacus pictus fared better and looked more like it should do.



Right now, there is an abundance of flowers in the garden, in a shadier spot Thalictrum petaloideum ´Ghent Ebony´ flowers together with foxgloves and Angelica grown from SRGC seed.



Lamium maculatum, Oxalis debilis and a self-sown Campanula portenschlagiana.



Pyrola in a local wood, which was recultivated after coal mining.



And in the evening the living room is scented by an epiphyllum.