Goodnight, Josephine

Unfortunately, June has been a difficult month for some of the plants in the garden. There have been some regrettable horticultural mishaps.

Henry met with an accident that almost did him in. Half of the vine was somehow destroyed when a trellis was carelessly moved.  To add insult to injury, our kitten Griskit then dove onto the vine thinking it was a hammock and detached it from the fence.  I think Henry will recover, however,  Josephine didn't even turn up this year.

Nellie Moser clematis in my front garden

Another favourite of mine met with their demise after  I followed someone's advice at the garden club.  This frugal gardener suggested lacing pots with compost.  It sounded like a good idea at the time, but is something that works best if you don't have marauding raccoons.  The beasts dug up the pot with one of my brunnera. It took a fatal beating.

A heavy rainfall came and sank the peony flowers to the bottom of the bush, where they stayed with heavy heads. They looked so downtrodden and depressed, their big pink heads muddied in the rain.

And then I transplanted my peony orchids a bit too late, and it doesn't look like they'll bloom this season.  Sigh.

Also this month the lattice on the back retaining wall was taken down, it was rotting.  There is no longer a line there to stop the eye, but the open space feels somehow precarious.  We've repositioned the stone bench on an angle and that seems to work.

On the 'wow' side this past month, the beauty bush was amazing, lush with blooms and heavy with perfume.  The roses are having one of their better seasons, proliferating.  The daisies are opening and the lamb's ears are inviting huge bees.

Overall, things are looking well.  I've been enjoying the countless shades of green and different shapes of leaves, I just don't have much photographic evidence since my macro on the point and shoot is still on the fritz.

beauty bush after the rain