I have always had difficulties to have the Houseleeks (Sempervivum montanum “Mountain Houseleek”) overwinter.
Finally found a spot just above the lake surface. Only about 30 centimeters from the waterline which gets plenty of sunshine.
For some reason the Houseleeks survive the cold winters on this spot even though I loose them from the other places.
I have had Yellow Queen (Aquilegia chrysantha ‘Yellow Queen’) in the garden for few years now but never blooming this well.
Finally found a spot this columbine likes. Moderate shade and well drained soil seems to be the best place for it.
The Yellow Queen is quite tall but surprisingly survived the thunderstorm we had yesterday which was a surprise for me.
Must collect the seeds next month and plant more in the spring.
Today we are close to having the warmest day in June ever. The previous record is from the year 1935. It sure is unusually warm up here in the north now.
The Chandelier (Lupinus ‘Chandelier’) seems to enjoy the warmth and blooms by the lake. Nowadays it is forbidden to grow many of the lupine varieties here in Finland. Several varieties have been classified as invasive.
Luckily Chandelier is not one of those varieties and I can continue enjoying it as well as the heatwave.
Up here in the north the days are now long. The sun goes down at 11 PM and comes up at half past 3 AM. We are also enjoying a heatwave temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius.
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are now blooming beautifully. In May I collected some to the freezer and now I am able to enjoy the blooms.
I treat chives as flowers and have it here and there in the flowerbeds. Like their blooms and the taste as well.
The bumblebees are also big fans of chives blooms. In other words a wonderful plant – edible, blooms nicely and is bee friendly.
Columbine Olympia (Aquilegia ‘Olympia’) also called Lapland’s Aquilegia is always the one that blooms first. Way too earlier than the other aquilegias.
Even though it is a low growing variety it has big blooms and lots of them.
I only have this one plant and have been trying to grow more from the seeds but without success this far.
The violets (viola) are now in the stores.
It seems that this year I was not able to select my favorite color.
I just ended up buying all kinds of colors.
This season the most popular colors seem to be different shades of violet, purple or blue.
Black is a color you do not often see in a flower but it is gaining popularity.
I guess I still need to buy few more colors to brighten my day. Luckily violets are not that expensive.
The first pansy (viola) found its way to my balcony during the weekend.
I know it is a bit early for them because the nights might get too cold still but could not resist the temptation to have something blooming outside.
It will be interesting to see what kind of colors there will be available this year. I usually go for the light colors since they stand out better in the shade.
I still have few pictures left on my phone from the summer. It was actually not that good year for the sunflowers but Sunspots (Helianthus annuus ‘Sunspot’) made it.
For a sunflower Sunspot is a short one but the blooms are big, nearly the size of a tall ones.
It is a bit shame that they bloomed late and there is no hope for harvesting any seeds for the next year.
The Giant Sungolds (Helianthus annuus ‘Giant Sungold’) finally started to bloom.
It was not a good year for sunflowers. The spring was cold and that caused a slow start. Therefore there was not enough time to grow. Which is unfortunately quite usual up here in the north.
Luckily the Giant Sungolds seem to be able to open their first and largest blooms just before the first frost.
They are almost three meters tall and look so good.
Gardening in the North 