As May merges into June, spectacular flowers begin unfolding that are an experience in themselves huge blooms, intense colours and a presence that can be fondly remembered long after they fade.
Oriental poppies are one of the plants that fill this niche. An eruption of their fiery scarlet blooms, often 20 centimetres wide, is visible blocks away. Gentler whites and pale pinks are also available as well as purple-reds like Pattys Plum. Bi-colours, picotees and fringed or lacinated petals are in nurseries.
These floppy, delicate petals are deceptive. Oriental poppies are hardy survivors in any sunny, well-drained place. Their thick taproots guarantee
drought-resistance and they can live with little fertilizer. After flowering they vanish into dormancy leaving a bare patch. But when fall rains begin fresh leaves sprout and remain all through winter.
Herbaceous peonies also love sun and good drainage and are greedy feeders with an appetite for compost, bonemeal, mushroom manure or other well-rotted manure. Their flowers are at least 20cm across and some are very fragrant. One of the most fragrant herbaceous peonies is the heritage white, red-speckled Festiva Maxima.
These peonies develop deep red foliage in fall then die down for the winter. Their clusters slowly expand while they survive and flower for many decades. Its safer not to mulch the roots. Thick mulch prevents flowering. They can be divided in fall, but flowers may be smaller for a couple of years after dividing.
Tree peonies like similar conditions to herbaceous peonies, but are shrubs which retain their woody framework and grow quite large. They can handle partial shade Their flowers are huge, sometimes 60cm across. These are not grown nearly as often as herbaceous peonies but are even more eye-catching.
Usually tree peonies are grafted, and its important to remove any stems emerging from the base and producing small, single peony flowers.
Rhododendrons also produce huge flower clusters and are easy to grow in our West Coast climate, not least because these woodland shrubs like a sun-shade mix and an airy, well-drained moisture-retaining soil. Bark mulch is a good aerator if you mix it into the planting hole.
The award-winning rhododendron Lems Cameo sometimes produces up to 20 pinkish yellow flowers in its clusters. Another interesting one is Rhododendron Augustinii, which has lavender blue flowers. All the dwarf Rhododendron Yakushianums have pink or white flower clusters which are large in relation to their size. These fit nicely into small space.
When the other flowers fade, some roses can carry colour and fragrance through to the fall. The David Austin series produces large, double fragrant blooms for long periods, longer if reliably deadheaded. One, the pink shrub Heritage is said to be almost thornless.
Some rugosa roses have very large blooms and repeat-flower. The white Blanc Double de Coubert is a repeat-flowerer. So is the heritage Hansa. Rugosas are thorny and tend to sucker but are very fragrant. Most rugosas are superbly disease-resistant. Like other roses, they love rich feeding and water.
Landscape roses are also extremely disease-resistant. Their healthy leaves are a pleasure to behold, but usually arent noticed since these bushes produce flowers from summer through to frost. These bushes have small and usually non-fragrant flowers, but stand up beautifully in difficult situations.
Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions. Send them to [email protected].
