June into July 2014: Meadow Lupines, Fenced Garden Poppies

The meadow begins to bloom in June with lupines (Lupinus perennis). The foxglove is a self-sown interloper from the garden beds, Digitalis grandiflora. Oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) were planted in the original meadow planting with seed from a local farm field.

Lupines are joined by a few remnant coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata). In its early years the meadow was yellow with coreopsis. They are short lived perennials, though, and have found fewer and fewer open spots for seedlings to establish, as the meadow sod has tightened.

Lupinus perennis in the meadow

The fenced garden, from a studio window

A Liddon Pennock long vista(!): on the south side of the house, looking across the Hips Terrace and the Great South Lawn to the fenced garden entry.



The gateway (and the electric wires that form the upper part of the fence) have so far kept deer out.


 

Looking though the fenced garden entry as poppies begin to redden the fenced garden. An unusual photo in that the too-small center path is partially visible.

Penstemon 'Dark Towers' adding light lavender flowers to its handsome purple foliage. Shirley poppies, Papaver rhoeas, are here mostly in shades of red-- but in the foreground, a delicate pink.

Red Shirley poppies, Papaver rhoeas, with the last few flowers of Geum 'Totally Tangerine'.

A Shirley Poppy in gray-lavender, with a pale edges.

Early summer spires from the admirably self-supporting Nettle-Leaved Mullein, Verbascum chaixii, mostly, for us, in white-- but sometimes, as here in the foreground, in yellow. Both forms' flowers have lovely purplish eyes.

Some of the mullein spikes are rigidly upright; others curve and wave a bit, echoing the arching foliage of a sedge, Carex 'Silk Tassel', and daylilies.

Three adjoining poppies: two Shirley Poppies, Papaver rhoeas, in red shades, topped by the orange of Papaver pilosum, or perhaps Papaver atlanticum. The best name I've encountered for these perennial orange poppies is "Elsa Bakalar's orange poppy."

Poppies are reliably deer-resistant. They're safe enough outside the fortifications of the fenced garden-- here, in the entry courtyard. This orange poppy (Papaver pilosum or...) started to bloom in late spring and will continue, sporadically, into the fall-- see the developing seed capsules from the early blooms.

Coming soon...

Mulleins and miscellany

The Calycanthus Collection

Vining Clematis

Non-vining Clematis