What's Bloomin' June 19th?

This weekend was busy but I made time to incorporate gardening as much as possible. My husband was off for a few days, and Thursday he took me to the Boerner Botanical Gardens in Milwaukee, WI. I took a ton of pictures, and will post them soon. Oh my, it was incredible.




At home I did some serious pruning. Here in upper zone 5 we have to plant roses with the bud union 4 inches or more beneath the soil surface. I have ever thought to improve the roses air circulation by pruning the leaves and such up a few inches off the ground after planting. Now that I've thought of it, it seems like a no-brainer. I experimented with my Sombreuil, a newer climbing rose I have. I found a day and half after I pruned the bottom the plant seems reborn. The rose bush was in full bloom when I bought it, and seemingly overnight it's made a whole new flush of buds. Incredible. I set out to clean up a few more bushes later this weekend.



Saturday my mother-in-law was in town, so we took her to the Dane County Farmer's Market & Henry Vilas Zoo. I found a red coreopsis (label was there, but not for each plant) I had to have at the farmer's market, and a clearance coleus... pictures to share soon, also. Sunday we roamed around locally, and I found 'Limerock Ruby' Coreopsis, the very last plant on this year's wishlist! Pumped! I also could not resist an orange "Mardi Gras' helenium and 'Midnight Blue' penstemon. I placed them all in the garden last night, despite the maddening mosquitos. I've had to use the type of Deet hunter's use when I've been out there this week!



Thursday, before and after visiting the public garden I took a few pictures in my own garden:



'Love' rose below:





'Morden Centennial' rose



'John Cabot' rose



'Etiole Violette' clematis w/a variegated hosta, Russian Sage, and Salvia Nemorosa, 'East Friesland' (corner of the photo, far right) and 'Blue Hill.'



'Heirloom' rose


The vegetable & herb bed:


'Toulouse Lautrec' rose


Happy Gardening everyone!