This is my first time joining Six on Saturday, but I do love making lists!
It’s been super dry and warm in our corner of Finland through most of June, which has taken its toll on the younger plants in our garden. Luckily, we had the wells to draw from and we made it through without too many losses. Now, as we’ve rounded the corner into July, there is rain expected every day this week! I’m looking forward to a jungle by the time I do my second post.
1. Strawberries have arrived! We picked our first strawberries this morning and they were worth the wait. Soon, we will even harvest enough so that everyone (and not just certain people with small grabby hands) gets to taste them…
2. Our ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ peony unfailingly times its bloom to coincide with the first thunderstorm of the year. It’s uncanny and hilariously contrary of it. Once again, I rushed out just before the heavy rain was due to cut the two flowers that were most at risk. The flowers in the middle with the cute yellow poofs are from a young ‘Garden Lace’ peony, which I just planted last year. It has proven to be quite an overachiever, growth-wise, and reportedly stands up to rain pretty well too! Two different personalities that combine so prettily in one vase.
3. The hose stand arrived in the post yesterday! Now the garden hose is happily tucked away in its very own place rather than trying to trip everyone whilst snaking its way around the entire property. Safety win!
4. ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ was the first of my Austin roses to bloom this year, and it’s doing so very enthusiastically. I just planted it last year, so was happy to see it easily overwinter and put out an impressive number of big buds considering how little water it was getting. Just one of these flowers is perfuming the entire kitchen right now.
5. This bird feeder fell off its admittedly inadequate stand two years ago. I finally put it to rights this week and added a platform made of spare boards so that it’s better balanced. Owing to my having neither the right-sized nails nor a power drill, this was all accomplished with garden twine. Hopefully, I will have better tools by the end of summer to make this sturdier.
6. This one is actually from late last week, but I wasn’t doing SoS then and really wanted to get it in. The ‘Lemon Chiffon’ peony, planted last year, was the first of my lactiflora peonies to flower. It had just one enormous semi-double bloom with the loveliest scent. I can’t wait to have more of these next year so I can take some inside.
Little Blue and White House 
Welcome to the SOS gang! I think you are the only one from Finland. Surprisingly with very English flowers. I agree that Gertrude is a fabulous rose. Mine has finished flowering now, but she was beautiful this year. You have some lovely peonies.
Jude xx
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Thank you, very happy to be here! Kate (Vanha Talo Suomi) is also in Finland and she’s the one I learned about SoS from. I agree that the Austin rose collection is on the English side, but I’ve been obsessed with them long before I moved to Europe (I’m originally from California) 😂 They do seem to be getting more popular out here, though! The warming climate has made it easier to keep roses alive, and it’s been noticeable even between now and when we first moved here a little over a decade ago.
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Welcome to the SoS scene, do you know Kate? She has recently joined us with her Finnish garden too. I love the peonies and laughed when you said that one times its flowering with the rain storm. I have one like that. I shall look forward to more of your garden posts.
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Hi there and pleasure to meet you! Yes, I found Kate’s blog last month (she lives a few hours away from me) and that’s how I ended up burrowing through old SoS posts 😊 It’s so much fun to see what everybody’s been up to! As for badly timed peonies, I’m in a Facebook group where several people were sharing how they’d elaborately rigged umbrellas over their flower beds and am actually considering it for next year…
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What beautiful peonies. Thanks for sharing your garden with us.
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Thank you and I look forward to taking a peek at your garden posts as well! Might just have a mystery rose I’d like to pick your brain about.
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A lovely six and you have some beautiful Peonies.
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Thank you, everybody here is so kind. It’s so nice to be amongst people who understand why you’re babbling on about plants 😂
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I saw the yellow peony and straight away thought P. mlokosewitschii. I didn’t know there were yellow lactifloras, something else to check out.
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That’s a good idea, actually! I love the yellow ones and you can’t have enough early blooms. Don’t know much about species peonies yet but will have to keep an eye out for it next time I put in an order. As for the ‘Chiffon’, I looked it up and it’s officially an herbaceous hybrid rather than full lactiflora. Haven’t noticed much of a difference in growth, but time will tell!
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I am glad that you have found us. The umbrellas sound too much effort for me!
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