The Garden in June
It's officially summer and the garden is taking off
It’s a little funny to remember how I used to be worried that the terrace might not get enough light for gardening. In the winter it was shaded out, but once spring came I could tell that getting enough sun wouldn’t be a problem at all, and now that summer is here I sometimes even worry that there might be too much sun. I’m not sure where other New Yorkers’ gardens are at the moment, but this one seems to be on fast-forward, and I’ve been getting flowers from plants that didn’t bloom for me in Portland until late summer.
Maybe eventually we’ll have to put up a sun shade of some kind, but right now I’m not complaining. Like a lot of the world, we’ve just gone through a heatwave, but hopefully the temperatures will get closer to normal soon and the garden can have a little break. I usually give most of the plants a little seaweed fertilizer every two weeks, but I think I’ll skip this time around. I love all the flowers, but I really do need these plants to calm down a bit.
In Bloom
Dahlias! Probably the most exciting development, especially since I’m used to growing from tubers and not getting flowers until the end of the summer. These ones, grown from the new Floret ‘Petite Florets’ seeds, bloomed before summer even began, and they’re even prettier cut and in the vase. Much more ruffly, and the centers when they really open are so fuzzy and cheerful.
Cosmos: In last month’s update only the ‘Apricot Lemonade’ was blooming, but currently ‘Apricotta’ and ‘Rubinato’ are going wild. I’m especially impressed with ‘Rubinato.’ It’s a dwarf variety so it’s meant to be short, but it puts out so many flowers of a deep burgundy color that does the prettiest fade to a dark, dusty pink.
Cornflowers: I’ve had to rip out a few so far (heat) but I do like how they don’t take up a lot of room and are so easy to throw in a pot with something floaty like a cosmos. They pop up like a weed, make a pretty appearance, then start drying up. Then you just pull them out and put something else in.
Chocolate Lace Flower: I wasn’t going to sow these since I wasn’t sure how they’d do in a container, but I’m glad I did. In Portland I grew a bunch of them in the cut flower bed, mixed with cornflowers and cosmos, and I loved how the heads would grow tall and sort of float about over the other flowers. Of course it’s shorter in a pot, but still so graceful, and best of all, so pretty in an arrangement.
Nicotiana: I’m growing the ‘Suaveolens’ that I’ve grown for the past three years, but this year I decided on a whim to plant ‘Lavender Cloud,’ which has turned out to be so much more of the tall, floating nicotiana that I’m used to seeing in the garden magazines. This one has a mix of colors—some whites and lavenders and pinks—that go so well with everything else in the garden. Drew said that at first he didn’t know why I was growing so many of them (I have two big pots full) because they’re not great-looking before they bloom. They’re tobacco plants, after all. But once the stems shot up and the trumpety flowers opened he changed his mind.
Calendula: I’m growing ‘Zeolights’ again, and, they’re less than exciting? Very sulky in the heat and not pulling their weight in terms of blooms, which are a dark, kind of 1970s orangey-brown that doesn’t really fit the color scheme of the garden. I don’t think I’ll bother next year, or maybe I’d like another variety better?
Scabiosa: I’m still waiting on the ‘Oxford Blue,’ but as of this week I have a few ‘Fata Morgana’ in flower. Still waiting to see how they do, since last year they didn’t like the Southern heat much, either. But so far, they’re faring better.
Zinnias: This variety, ‘Precious Metals,’ is also from the Floret breeding program, and I couldn’t wait to see them in bloom. Very pretty, a bit smaller than I’d thought they’d be, but I’m sure that’s because I have four plants crammed into a pot. I can’t imagine how they would look grown in the ground. I’m really loving these Floret mixes and how in one seed packet you can get a variety of colors that are all different, yet go so well together.
Mignonette: Seed company descriptions give this one too much credit, in my humble opinion. It’s pretty—the sort of tall and graceful spikes that work so well in arrangements—but I guess there are better spiky flowers out there. I do wonder if my terrace is too hot for them. The white petals turned a crispy tan after not too long. In a cooler climate I think I’d like these better, but I don’t know. Still not terribly exciting.
Snapdragons: Now here’s a tall and graceful spike I love. I grew ‘Chantilly Light Salmon,’ though mine turned out very light pink—no complaints at all. They’re in the first group of snapdragons, which means they bloom early, so I didn’t think I’d have them for long, but mine are still flowering and looking perfectly happy, even during a heatwave.
Roses: Both of my David Austins have bloomed—’Carding Mill’ first, and then ‘Windermere,’ though it’s very pink and I’m not entirely convinced it’s really ‘Windermere,’ which is more on the cream side. Still pretty, though. I’m debating whether to keep my roses on the afternoon shade side of the terrace because the petals do struggle in the sun. The plants look happy, though, now that the aphids have stopped messing with them.
Silene: I’m growing ‘Blushing Lanterns’ for the first time, though I think I bought the seeds a few years ago after seeing some stems pop up in a Milli Proust bouquet on Instagram. I do have a thing for a weedy flower.
Various nasturtiums: This year I went a bit wild and grew four varieties: ‘Ladybird Rose,’ ‘Tip Top Apricot,’ ‘Tip Top Pink Blush,’ and ‘Purple Emperor.’ I couldn’t get ‘Ladybird Rose’ to grow very well at all, so I probably won’t be sowing it again, though the others did great.
Nigella: I can’t remember the variety, but I threw a few seeds in one of the raised beds, and I always forget how much I love them. So weird and delicate and spidery, and then the seedpods are great, too, though I think I prefer the flowers.
Thunbergia: Very happy I chose to grow them this year, because last year’s batch was terrible and I was second-guessing growing them again. When I grew them in Portland I direct sowed into the ground by teepee stakes, which worked great. Last year’s crop probably failed because I grew them in seed trays but never trained them up anything before replanting into a bigger pot. This year I took Sarah Raven’s advice from A Year Full of Pots and transferred the seedlings from their trays into five inch pots outfitted with mini stick teepees, which I kept them in until my sweet peas died and their pot could be replanted.
Sweet Peas: What happened? These had been so promising, and the plants had looked so healthy right unil they started to bloom. But the blooms were short-lived, and the stems short, too, and I think I only got around a good week’s worth of flowers. My guess is that it was too hot up here for them, epsecially because I first had both pots set out on the sunnier side of the terrace. Next year I’ll give them more shade, but I’ll probably be sticking to one pot instead of two. Not a huge problem, though, because now I have two big pots for other flowers, including the thunbergia, which are more than happy taking over the sweet pea teepee.
Growing:
I have a bunch of perennials going, blooming intermittently, some of the flowers showing up in flushes and others more steadily. I love the echinacea ‘Pallida' that’s in the same container as the silene—very High Line/prairie-looking. Salvia ‘Bumblesky’ had a chelsea chop last month and is on a bit of a break, which is fine since so much is happening elsewhere. I’m still loving the verbascum, which sends up new flower spikes so quickly. The lavender I left in the raised bed is blooming now, and once again I’m glad I didn’t go too crazy pulling out plants that were here when we moved in, because the bees are thrilled with it.
I’ve been tucking some cleome and celosia seedlings into containers to fill in gaps left by any heatwave casualties. I need to be careful since both plants grow tall, but I love them at this time of year for how fast they grow and for their heat tolerance.
I’m also growing some vegetables! Not many, and mostly herbs—a pot of basil and some oregano and thyme that look pretty trailing out of a window box—but I did plant some green onions, arugula, and bush beans. I will say that I’m slightly scared of eating them since our terrace is on a rooftop that has some strange pipes with questionable fumes coming out of them. I had a dahlia hidden away under one of the pipes and it grew up so gnarled and twisted that I had to pull it, but maybe dahlias are just sensitive? Mine are, at least.
Maybe I’ll do another update on the window boxes. The perennials I planted in them are happy, but the nasturtiums are reaching their limit, so I just did a re-sowing and I’m hoping they’ll grow quickly. The boxes definitely aren’t perfect, but I love the height they give to the garden. They make it look a little bit more like a garden and less like just a collection of pots on the ground, which I guess is what it is, but it has been so lovely to sit in so far this summer. There’s a shaded spot where we sit during the afternoon, and sometimes at night we set up a little table and eat dinner with the flowers all around us.
I love the plant by plant update! :) it’s funny how some things go so much better than you think while others are like what happened?? I bet you’re right about the heat with the sweet peas - I think mine did well because we had such a long unusually cold spring. I’ve always been curious about migionette - glad for your review! Happy to see your garden doing so well!