June 2026 Full Garden Tour 🌳 Part 1

Welcome to our garden here in Zone 6A Upstate New York. It is time for part one of our June garden tour. We're going to be going through plant details, some plant changes, successes, all kinds of fun stuff. And we're going to start here at the foundation bed because the arborescence hydrangeas have joined the garden party. Invincibelle weewhite. Look at how gorgeous this plant is, Eric. Get super close in there. I love this little hydrangea and it looks like a beautiful tidy bouquet popping right out of the ground. There's four of them here planted together. They've been in full sun here for us since 2019 with supplemental drip irrigation. And there is an improved version, Christopher, that just came out. We have it planted elsewhere in the garden. We'll get there shortly. Shortly. And then if you see wrapped around the entirety of the front, we have artist blue floss flower. This annual gives amazing flower power and it's a nice tidy plant. So it looks great as a mini hedge. Behind that, we have double plate blue kazoo spirea, this kind of bluey green with little red accents. What's awesome about this is we coppice this to the ground, meaning we literally chopped it to the ground last fall. And this is what it's come back with in just one season. Big success on that. Sometimes a plant gets a little bit yucky, so you have to give it a refresh. When you coppice something, you forfeit the flowers on the blue kazoo, but you get even bolder, brighter foliage. And that's why we choose blue kazoo. Exactly. And then not necessarily for foliage, Invincible Spirit 2, another arborescence hydrangea and Eric's favorite pink arborescence. Yes. I'm getting so specific about my favorites for each category of hydrangeas. I have a favorite smooth leaf, but I have a favorite pink smooth leaf. And Invincible Spirit 2 is that one. Towering above everything is a Hetzi columnar juniper. This is one of those plants that has been a lot of fun for us to watch grow because we planted it when it was so small. This year we got a pole pruner and we actually did do some shaping on it. And I think we did a pretty good job, if I don't say so. And then the winter gem boxwoods around this area are also doing very well. They're for winter interest and a little bit of grounding with this kind of loose fun planting. This is Firelight Tidbit hydrangea. Still to come, they'll have beautiful bloom soon. Those are a panicle hydrangea. But before we continue on this side, why don't we back all the way up? Back up, back up, back up, back up. I'm in love with this tree. This is a Heritage River Birch. The difference between a Heritage River Birch and a regular River Birch is someone found this out in the wild and they selected it because it had more of a pink kind of peeling blue or bark. It doesn't get just grays. So it's just got a nice little color. But the structure on this, Eric did a little limbing. He lifted up the canopy quite a bit and it's gorgeous this year. I am such a fan of this tree. And you know, the main reason I did the limbing, Christopher, was because it kept smacking me in the face when I mowed the lawn. So this prevented me from getting smacked in the face. Below this, we tried a little bit of annuals because this area does not have drip irrigation. In fact, these are Invincible Wee Whites as well. And they were only planted a year or so after the ones in the foundation bed. But because they are not on drip irrigation, they only get sprinklers. They're a little bit behind, a little bit smaller. And then for fun, Supertunia Mini Vista Indigo. Why not have a little carpet of blue as we're driving up the road towards the house? I think they're doing very well so far. I think it's really pretty. It is funny how without the supplemental water, they suddenly turn into Invincible Wee Wee Whites. Wee Wee Whites. And then there's a couple more of the boxwoods repeating from the front. And this Walker's Low Catmint, which is just about ready for its first big cut back. Coming over here, this is a bed that we've had for a long time, but we've been expanding it over time. This is a Vanilla Strawberry Panicle Hydrangea. We did a big limbing up on it because it was really kind of flopping, just the nature of the plant. But now we've got this really awesome shape. It's so weird. Why is the top so flat? It's so flat and it's just kind of blocky and wide. So when this puts out the huge blooms, it's going to be crazy. Below that, we have repeated from last year the Surefire Rose Begonia. I like this because it does get such an interesting sunshade combo being underneath the hydrangea. And that particular plant does very well with that. Repeating some boxwood, Blue Kazoo Spirea, more of the catmint. You can see we're tying everything together in the front by repetition. Firelight Tidbit, another Hetzi Columnar Juniper. We have in here a little clematis. I would call this clematis that is unknown name from the Trader Joe's collection because they always have these short growing clematis and they're perfect for these little accents. We also moved a Lark Ascending Rose up here. It's just transplanted recently, so it hasn't gotten to its full intensity yet. A couple more Supertunia Mini Vista Indigo. This is actually, oh my gosh. It's Lime Rickey. Lime Rickey. We'll show you its mama shortly. Yeah, we'll show you one. This was actually a rooted piece of branch that Eric had dug up from the plant. We popped it up here, but wait till you see how big this could potentially grow. I'm excited about some grasses in this area. This is a Totem Pole Panicum. We put it here a couple years ago, but again, not on drip at that moment. It really didn't thicken up, but this year we've had some really good rain. I think now that it's established, it's putting on some size and that should get quite tall. Thin Man Arborvitae, a really tall, skinny Arborvitae. I was a little worried about deer on this one. The deer haven't touched it, very interestingly. Knock on wood. Knock on. Red Foxcat Sora, one of our new favorite trees. It's always been a love of ours to have this, but look at this eucalyptus shape slash cool, olivey foliage. Really interesting, upright vase habit that it's getting on it. Then it goes through a lot of different color cycles through the season. Behind that is actually Blackhawk's Bluestem, behind this big old Catmint. That is going to get really dark, really red foliage. It's actually, they call it a turkey foot grass, Eric. Yes, they do. Because it gets little turkey foot seed heads. Spring Grove Arborvitae, and that brings us into this other area. We started calling this the Green Wall. Our fences aren't allowed in our neighborhood to go beyond the house. We just wanted a little bit more privacy, a little more beauty here. Soft Serve Camasiparas, this should grow about eight feet tall over time. Then we have North Pole Arborvitae, a, say it, say it. Oh, it's a Blue Juniper. It's a Blue Point Juniper. That's the one. Then down here are some Strongbox, Inkbox Holly, which is a nice sort of boxwood alternative that we might be using a bit more in the garden in times to come. Back up to the foundation bed, we use this tricolor beech as the point of transition from foundation bed into the east border. This tree is one of my all-time favorite trees. I love beech trees in general, but this one is just gorgeous. This was planted back in 2019, and it has taken off. It is in full sun for us in the first few years. It did brown out a little bit come August time, but as it's gotten established and we've added more water, it stays more pink longer. But that's underplanted with a hedge of Vanessa Bell Roses, a really beautiful soft yellow rose. In the very front is a brand new hedge of Let's Dance Skyview Hydrangeas. These were planted last fall, and you can see they're all budded up. Some of the flowers are even starting to open. In between that, though, are faded Allium flowers, and these are party balloon Alliums. Christopher and I are torn on this. I want to cut them back. Christopher wants to leave them just for the look. So if you have an opinion, put it in the comments. You're not choosing a side. We're just sharing ideas. Right. And the reason that I actually still kind of like them, I enjoyed this Allium so much. I really want them to get as charged as possible before we do cut them back so next year they look fantastic. Oh, yeah, I agree. I would probably leave the foliage and just cut the seed heads, but that's a discussion for another time. So we transition around here. Yes, we have our front hose tucked in there. That's a hose link. And to cap off the foundation bed, another Winter Gem boxwood. And now we officially transition into the east side with our Gatsby Pink Oakleaf Hydrangea. You know we had a brutal winter and our oak leaves are so hardy, but they bloom on old wood. And this is the very first time ever we have experienced this minimal amount of flowers on our Oakleaf Hydrangea. So this year hopefully it's getting all charged up to really give us a show because normally it's absolutely covered, under-planted with Roseanne Geraniums that like to climb up and through. You can even see some dangling up in here, Christopher, if you zoom in there. Oh, that's so funny. They do. They just sort of pop their way up through and you get a little purple show. And you'll be so proud of us because this year Christopher and I took the time to come out and tie up our Teasing Georgia Rose. We're not saying we did it in the most beautiful aesthetic way possible, but we certainly did our best to tie it up and it is paired here with Superba. Superba Acclementus. And I think this combination, let me just hold them right next to each other. I mean, look at that combo. That's pretty superb. I mean, that is just amazing. Love that. And then that's under-planted with another Let's Dance Skyview Hydrangea. Our Checkmark Trilogy Weigelas are done flowering. I don't know if I love the faded flower look on them. It's probably a good time to coppice them and let them regrow because they do bloom on old wood. That would be a good idea. You know, it's funny. I was trying to hit it with the leaf blower when I was cleaning up the edges and it actually did blow some of the old stuff out. So I think I might wait another day or two and then hit it with turbo mode on the leaf blower and try to clean out that black or brownish dead stuff. Columnar Scotch Pine behind that rebounded beautifully from the sawfly larva it had last year. So it's totally fine now. More Surefire Rose Begonia. Now here's the mom. This is the original Lime Ricky Hydrangea. It's a discontinued variety. You usually can't find it anywhere unless the nursery has leftover stock. And sometimes with Smoothleaf Hydrangeas what's so cool is they'll droop and it'll press into the ground and form its own roots. Just cut it and replant it. All right. Planted last fall here. Punk Hill Japanese Maple. I love this like raptor like foliage on it. And I really like this contrast. The contrast of the green of Lime Ricky with the purple strappy foliage here. Very cool. Invincible Weewhite. Not Weewhite. Invincible Weewhite. Not even Invincible. Weewhite Innocent Hydrangea. This is a big leaf variety that's not notorious for re-blooming. So it's one of those that we have because we are collectors. But it is putting out some buds right here. Red Rover. Am I right? That is Red Rover Huccarella. Red Rover Huccarella. Some Lamium. And now this is a really fun part of the garden Christopher. If you back up a little bit you can see we head into like a little bit of shade area here underneath the Pollarded Willow. And we also have our Hydrangea room over here. Which way do you want me to go first? You know what? Why don't you stay in the shade for just now. All right. So we'll head this way. Oh and a Royal Frost Birch tree. We love a birch. You know and I gotta say Eric a couple days ago I was out looking and I noticed that it put on a tremendous growth spurt this year. But it's thickening up a little bit. Not just growing straight up. It is. I mean this bark is gorgeous. I love it. And we planted this in 2020. Yep this was a birthday present. We planted it in a freezing cold March day. And I remember it was a two inch caliper when we planted it because that's when I learned what that meant. All right we have Limelight Prime Hydrangea. Everything on this side as we go through just keep in mind is barely full sun to part sun. So it's like right on that border of part sun to full sun. But underneath here is shadiness. So I'm going to need your help Christopher. And let's keep this non-judgmental as we go through the names of these hostas. This is a golden hosta called. This is Coast to Coast. Coast to Coast. We also have a Neptune hosta here. We have a new variety of coleus from approval winners called something about pepper. Oh my goodness you're gonna do better than I am. This is actually new for next year and I do not know its name. We have Queen of Hearts Brunnera. We also have a Mouse Ears hosta. We've got some hellebore foliage. Jack of Diamonds Brunnera. This beautiful one right here. Is this wee? That is wee. I love that one. And then this blue one in here is what Christopher? Diamond Lake. Diamond Lake. This blue one's Neptune. My favorite one is the one in the back right there with that variegation in the center. Is that sound of? That is Hudson Bay. Not even close guys. All right and then this is? That is one that I'd have to check the name on. It is not Coast to Coast. Coast to Coast. But you can see it's getting more sun. There's a couple that came out. Love Song and Sound of Music. There's so many. Yes and then we have a Bug Bane. Yep that's Actaea. And that'll flower pink and get tall and skinny. We have seed heads happening on this thalictum right here. A little Sprinter Boxwood in there. Not Sprinter. That one is? Sprinter. No it's been replaced. That one is New Gen Freedom. Oh okay. And this is our hedge of Invincible Ruby. These are full size. This is full maturity. They get this gorgeous ruby color flower on them. They flower on new wood so they're super low maintenance. They are really remarkable this year. They've done a great job and it took them a while to get established. It took the Invincible Rubies a little bit longer than some of our other varieties to really start to put on a show. In front of that is a hedge of a mix of Golden Coral Bells. It's a pistachio variety and then it's something called Ballgown right? Yes it is pistachio ambrosia and dressed up ballgown which are identical leaves but different flower colors. So one's a little whitish flower one's a pinkish flower. Okay and above that is our Winecraft Gold Smokebush. You might remember in the spring we cut this way back because in previous seasons it was growing 20 feet tall and the tag on it says four to six feet tall and wide so we wanted to get a little more control. I actually love the way it's grown in since the pruning. You know sometimes they say when you prune a smokebush you can get sort of a fireworks explosion of growth. I'll take it. I love it and I was wondering I meant to ask you what do you think about this sort of internal section that's filling back in? Should we make it more of a tree form? I do not believe that would be my choice. All right. Is that what you would like to do? I did have a thought about making it more tree form but part of the joy of this tree is it covers up some of the ever so attractive vinyl. That's exactly my thought is like the more of that big block of dark we covered the better. So coming this way we have under planting here Lamium which is a great ground cover. There's some faded peonies. This is an Aphrodite Sweet Shrub that we coppice to the ground every year. If we don't coppice it to the ground it would be above the window right there. Yeah this will actually put a good 12-14 feet on in one season for us. So you get giant leaves when you coppice something so we'll take giant leaves. I mean the leaves are bigger than my hand and I think that the leaves are to me more impressive in the border than the actual flowers. The flowers it produces look like magnolia flowers and they are highly fragrant and they are pretty. It's something you forfeit if you coppice to the ground but I like this transition right here and it allows you to see the hanging baskets up there which we'll get to shortly. There is behind these Invincible Spirit 2 hydrangeas. Look at this stand of them. I love this stand of them. It's spectacular. This is four of them. So I bought four of them online as little courts literally like that big and they came in the mail and the first year they just kind of sat there and we can put a link in the description for you if you want to do this but the first year they kind of just sat there. The next year they quadrupled in size and then the year after that they were just absolutely gorgeous and I love that about smooth leaf hydrangeas how fast they grow but anyway behind that a quick fire hydrangea on standard meaning in tree form. I love quick fire. It's a paniculata. It blooms on new wood but quick fire is called quick fire because it blooms so early in the season and that I gotta say that's one of those plants in our garden we will always look back on as one of the original probably five dollar late season big box store plants. Super clearance. End of season. Five dollars. That was a great steal. Coming underneath the Invincible Spirit 2s again we have a Campanula variety. It's a Mini Marvels Midnight. Yes from Proven Winners. Another Hetzi columnar juniper to help provide privacy from the road but also a little rest for the eye and then we get to our garden arch which has growing on it Betty Corning Clematis. It is also flanked by Bobo hydrangeas which bloom a little bit later in the season and on this garden arch is also Generous Gardener Rose which I think we have figured out the issue with. I think it died to the ground because of our brutal winter and then the Clematis took off so quickly in the spring that it has shaded it out but there is a little bit of Generous Gardener happening but we're going to reconfigure things for next spring but should I back up and do the hydrangeas quick? Yeah let's back up because this is one of the big shows of this garden. I love this part of the garden. So you start up here at the front and I say it's the hydrangea room but we're going to start with a rose and a Clematis. So the Raguccii Clematis right here paired with Bathsheba on our trellises and these are just free trellises we got at Home Depot and we zip tied them together and we hooked them to the fence with these vinyl fence hooks. Very simple solution to getting a wider trellis. A whole little hedge of Let's Dance Blue Jangles hydrangeas. These were also planted last fall when we planted the Let's Dance Skyviews and I think they did well for being big leaf hydrangeas planted in the fall. You know what I was thinking is Blue Jangles is sort of the smallest of the Let's Dance series and I wonder if the reason it's getting its blooms so quickly is not only were these protected because of the house being here from harsh wind I don't think they get as tall so the distance they're growing before they make blooms I think is smaller. Does that make sense? Yeah that makes sense and then behind them the next level up are in more Invincible Rubies. So these are less established than the ones we saw earlier so they're not as far along but then the back row every other is an Invincible Sublime my favorite smooth leaf hydrangea with an Invincible Lace which is a lace cap smooth leaf hydrangea even more popular for the pollinators and then if you come around front here you can see every other is Incrediball the original Incrediball and look at that foliage holy smokes and that's alternated with Incrediball Blush which is like a little bit smaller I think and a little further behind so what's nice about mixing different varieties of smooth leaf hydrangeas is you get different bloom times you get different textures you get different colors and then it's all hedged in with this hedge of New Gen Freedom Boxwoods and I think it just kind of keeps it nice and tidy and really encapsulates it and if these decide to start flopping they've got something to hold them up. As we move from the hydrangea room into the east border we start with the most asked about plant in our garden both in person and online this is Kinsley's Ghost Honeysuckle it looks like a eucalyptus vine but it is a party climbing shrub really so you're going to have this eucalyptus like bract that's coming out from the vine you get yellow flowers which happened earlier in the season covered in pollinators they're going to turn into little red berries that the birds love so much Eric has tamed it a little bit it does get a you know a but ultimately it's just amazing and there's only one of them there that was against a court size that I ordered online and I mean the vines that you look at in the winter they're pretty thick now this area has been a favorite of ours because of this plant pairing we have the Peachberry Ice Coral Bell and behind that is Magic Show Ever After Veronica so you get this orange and then with this sort of roughly flat foliage then you get the pointy strappy darker blue the flowers are just coming then there's the Mugo Pine that's just a traditional straight up Mugo Pine we've done some candling to keep its size controlled it's just a cute evergreen then we move into the Winecraft Black Smokebush which was also coppice to the ground this year it's gotten wider than it has tall but I like that yeah I like it and in a couple months it's probably going to be about six feet tall ultimately every season it does that and since we coppice it we won't get the flowers but again larger boulder foliage for a fun little annual accent we have Meteor Shower Verbena that kind of weaves its way through and there you can see the improved Wee White 2.0 if I'm not mistaken Eric they said it's a whiter flower yes it won't have the pinkiness of the original one and again these are just little baby samples that were sent to us just planted repeating some of the Surefire Rose Begonia it'll be interesting to see how it fares in the different locations with different sun qualities this is Velveteen this is one of the torch or um one of the color blaze coleus varieties and this one happens to have a slug on it oh my gosh isn't that we've been so diligent about our sluggo too yeah I think I'm gonna have I'll grab it well oh he's flattened now um gross um in this area we've added some shrubs because we've had a little bit of trouble getting things to take hold as far as perennials and even some other annuals in here we added some more of that Glow Girl Pinks by Rhea because it has that beautiful chartreuse pop there's some more of the Leucotho the um Paisley Pop there is the Dervilla which is called Kodiak Fresh and then there's also a Kodiak Jet Black but look at the incredible from the ground perennial Sun King Aurelia I saw Walter's Gardens just did a video of that this was a division we cut ours into four pieces and I think that is actually its second season from being literally a little chunk they're a great really awesome perennial so that is all under our eastern redbuck I was gonna say did we mention the tree yet right and this is just Circus Canadensis this is the species it's done very well for us this year we actually went through and did some pruning out because we wanted to um I don't want to say weaken the canopy we wanted to lighten the canopy so there was a little bit more dappled sun coming through here so let's walk through the arch now you can see the Betty Corning has gotten very thick it will grow to the top but it's gotten heavy and it keeps flopping before we can lift it up I think it's perfectly fine it's beautiful I like it I mean it's different every year yeah if going into this area which does have that kind of dappled shade in the afternoon it does get quite a lot of sun we have a river here of the Astilbe which is dark side of the moon this is Bumble Sky Meadow Sage one of the first perennials we ever planted we've divided it a bunch of times and you can see it's been cut back it'll start to reflush some more flowers in just a couple weeks there's some Serendipity Allium tucked in there this is James L Austin Rose which is just finishing its first flush and does need a deadhead so see you can't say it's always perfect around here sometimes we have some deadheading to do and this is a Lambs ear I think it might be called Fuzzy Wuzzy yes it's Fuzzy Wuzzy and we normally don't let it bloom but we saw some blooming in Europe and decided you know what let's see what it does I think it's kind of cool it's very different looking as we go down the east border this area has taken on a bit more formality it's less of a like a really loose kind of planting we have the repetition of the Quickfire Hydrangea, Pinky Winky Hydrangea, Quickfire Hydrangea as you can see they have gotten big these are pretty much the full anticipated size Pinky Winky they were planted a little later this will probably get even a bit bigger and then at the center is the Tromner Blue Spruce before we repeat the same pattern of Hydrangea there are also two Emerald Green Arborvitaes in this section that provide even more of that formality something interesting to note is after we had weevils on our Tromner Blue Spruce the leader had to be cut we did some pruning on it to try and clean it up a little bit but if you look at where the leader was it's put out this little thumb it's got a new little leader it's got a new leader I did actually post a picture on Facebook in Planet Conifer a Facebook group of all Conifer aficionados and I said should we cut that other piece off and it was almost unanimous everyone said leave it let that just do its thing maybe that becomes the leader that would be kind of crazy which one that one wild one the one wild one I think the little thumb is going to be the leader I know well but I wouldn't cut the other one off I know it is too cool looking yeah and then in front of it we have this big curve that we had brought out a year or two ago and we have filled this with a combination of shrubs with lots of flower power more annuals and the whole picture really come together beautifully we framed the whole thing in Artist Blue Flossflower as you can see it is tidy iridescent blue looks gorgeous we have some Gaura here which is the just for a little wispy accent and then we have just going out of its first flush the oh so easy peasy rose such a vibrant intense pink and the good thing is it's self-cleaning so we don't have to worry about deadheading it if we don't want to we could if we were going to be that particular but it's going to just flush right past those blooms and put a whole other show out and it's magic ball arborvitae little golden evergreen accent don't sleep on that one that's a really good plant to add in and then we have incredible storm proof this is a advancement in the incredible hydrangea very sturdy stems slightly shorter habit and is it more floriferous it is more floriferous and again Christopher these were just little courts we planted last year and now look how big they are yeah they look really good and in fact you transplanted these yes and they've been transplanted so this is a solid shrub really a good addition behind that soon to come is a dark foliage accent because that'll help create that garden vignette picture we love so much it's a torchlight coleus last year we did newly noir which was straight dark purpley black foliage this has more of that green edge i think it'll give a little interest of course you'll never find our garden without rock and play in the blue salvia those are just starting to flower that'll fill in beautifully almost four feet tall there this is totally tempted vivid violets i really think this kufia is another must-have annual it is a magnet for pollinators just gorgeous it never is out of color it stays relatively tidy this is you know obviously a nice little clustered drift but really pretty next to it is a new salvia coming out in 2027 it's outshine orchid it's a different salvia form as you can see i really like this pink with the kind of soft green foliage it pairs really well with all of the things around it before we i'm interested to see how it does it is smaller than i anticipated it being i think it's set on the tag 18 to 20 so i'm assuming it's going to start to zoom up yeah it must be like most of our annual salvias that really pop off in july and august you know when the sun starts because it's officially about summer now 80s and 90s now this urn our jensen urn which is on a greenwich pedestal this is alpine stone color from campania international when do you think we put that in 2024 or yeah i think this is two years now and in there is that decor wow obelisk that we've been using it's an amazon obelisk but what eric did is use a metal paint that matches some new structures we'll show you in a minute so it's just got this nice sagey green color so instead of the black which kind of recedes and you don't really see it so much with the planting this is part of it and we thought that would be a nice way to elevate the planting this urn is going for it right now we have one rock and play in the blue salvia we have several of the meteor shower verbena some more of the caroli petite pink and then there is a collection of four new for 2027 annuals this is sea spray felicia really adorable kind of periwinkle blue this is plum honey namesia it's one of the aromance series at first i wasn't in love with the color but the fragrance knocked me over and i fell in love with it one of my new favorite plants of all time super bells double midnight magenta i'm so excited to watch this perform because if it performs as well as i'm watching it this is gorgeous this is super bells double mardi gras can you get fun i love that one this one eric is in love with so it's fun so it's four of the 2027s that'll come out next year and we really packed them in there so we're pushing them to see how they do for us in this section here we have more of those glow girl pink spirea really awesome foliage it comes out with this like pinky orange and then turns chartreuse it gets a beautiful pink flower that's almost identical color to the salvia here so that's been great the cotton candy phallic drum which is such a beautiful spring performer it does need to be cut down for us because the foliage does not look great once it's done blooming so we're thinking that this might be a transplant yeah we need to change that maybe leaves a giant hole right and it'll flush back and put some foliage out but in the meantime it's a little bit yeah we do have a bunch of new hampshire purple caster beans that i started new hampshire purple not no they are not new hampshire purple they are new zealand oh new zealand purple caster bean they once they really get going that's going to be probably eight to ten feet tall which will look amazing with these hydrangeas also tucked in here the landscape plant of the year senorita rosalita cleome doing its lovely pink flowering action and that's a little bit tucked in and around the lark ascending rose one of the biggest david really pretty color not a huge fragrance friend but as this gets bigger and you see we've got it on this plant support because it does get quite tall it's got this iridescent quality when the light comes through it that's very pretty this is more firelight tidbit we're excited to see that bloom some autumn joy sedum which of course won't bloom for some time and that takes us to this sort of back corner area that changes so much every year we have the pink profusion salvia that's been cut back it did beautiful this year this was an amazing year for low perennials and it's already putting out some color it's only been like two weeks maybe since this was cut back three sting arborvitae that were all planted around the same time but grew at different rates i know so we put them together this year i kind of like the staggered height of them though so do i and i love that you tucked one of the castor beans back there oh yeah did i i forgot right behind the north wind panicum oh yeah right how well it's doing back there oh and you know what's funny the north wind panicum which is such a huge beautiful billowing grass it looks a lot smaller this year because it's been cut back quite a bit we gave some wonderful uh chunks away to some friends so it's smaller and it'll be a little tidier cut to the almost round lemony lace elderberry what a cool shrub huge in just a few weeks really it's such a good shrub in front of that there is a stackies i cannot remember the name of it i have to go back in the archives for that one we have that planted all around crown princess margaretta a climbing rose that acts as a shrub for us because it does not like to make it all the way through the winter but we now have it on which comes in this green color and eric matched this color when he painted oh yeah i took the little the little ball off the top it unscrews you can unscrew that and i brought it to a big box store and they color matched it so i could paint our other metal things the same color oh yeah and the jack mantii birch trio this is one of those really intense white himalayan birches doing insanely well i can't believe how fast that tree is growing love it below that you're going to see some b-bomb some baptisia there is a switchgrass there is more b-bomb there's actually a little king dwarf birch that is slowly pushing its way up kind of not need to get too close to it because it's not doing much yet there's a hydrangea in here this patch of b-bomb is clearly very happy i love b-bomb it is so good and it's so good this whole area is like pollinator central this is litchfield angel another david austin rose very much thornless if someone's looking for a thornless rose and it's getting bigger than crown princess margaretta which is supposed to be a climber amazing and this is another of the trader joe's clematis collection how beautiful to let a little clematis grow through a rose gives you flowers that extend a little bit longer doesn't choke the rose out at all really good unless it's betty corning and generous gardener yeah unless yeah those they're not compatible this is serendipity allium that is soon to bloom and this will actually vibrate with buzzing because of the amount of bees that'll be on there really an awesome perennial round out this is a lovely little spruce let's say is really tiny and round and this is cherry truffles hooker up planted as quartz not quartz just like little regular four inch plant cans it's trying it's on drip it's gotten growth i'm hoping it thickens up because it's supposed to be this nice little red border under the green plant yeah i think it will i think it just has to get going yeah and then we do have the luminary backlight flocks that had a little something we're not sure what it was it was not looking good so it got cut to the ground it's flushing back and we'll see what it does for us hopefully something a little nicer than what it was doing it really didn't look great there are some hibiscus in here that are soon to come they're going to look fantastic and this is gatsby glow ball which is a smaller gatsby oak leaf hydrangea that gets this bright white and then it's going to turn really greenish in the fall so it'll look like little glowing lanterns really pretty oak leaf three to four feet tall and wide at full maturity is what i understand okay that's a good one and then above that which i always forget to mention the bald cypress that we've been limbing throughout the years another of the five dollar collection from how many years ago oh many years ago probably one of the very first trees we ever planted back up to the arch but this time we're going this way so come on through christopher and we can see our pagoda dogwood christopher's favorite tree in the garden he loves the pagoda dogwood this whole section we're about to go through was planted in 2022 so it's about four seasons old at this point and this was just a little baby i remember we could fit it in the car oh yeah that came with us from burlington vermont it did it came from gardener's supply up in burlington vermont but it is underplanted with some shade things including this new high five fatsia from gruvo winners that's not hardy for us but we had a gap we threw it in and i just kind of love the way that it's playing and with the other textures around it not to mention it's really thriving it is and behind the high five these giant hostas these are empress woo and they're enormous and we learned when we were at walters last year that if you want them to get really big don't divide and transplant just leave them as is and give them lots of water so that's what we've decided to do here and this is that my favorite host again and you would think that i would remember the name of it because we just talked about it 10 minutes ago but i don't but the good thing is it's not actually hudson bay this i believe is love story okay well i have two favorite hostas one is called hudson bay and one is called love story they do look very similar and then we have that red rover repeated here and then this is the spearmint coral bells that flower pink uh this time of year another one of the chunks of the sun king aurelia that we divided a couple of years ago boom chocolata geranium it's interesting this one's doing very well there's one here that's barely doing anything and one there that's barely doing anything so inconsistent performance but when it does perform i love this combination every so often in the garden you're going to see a lichfield urn and in the lichfield urn is going to be a tater tot arborvitae and some super bells and this one happens to be more of that double midnight magenta super bell and you'll see those repeated all throughout the garden when you repeat things and then my favorite smooth leaf hydrangea invincible sublime this hydrangea is again was planted as a court in 2022 so just a teeny tiny little thing there's five of them here and since then this is what they've become this color stays the entire season and they're so strong and so sturdy and i love the way they're paired with our weeping ruby falls red bud which i think kind of made a full recovery we underestimated this tree it really did not flower well and it did not branch out well after the harsh winter but all of a sudden it took off and now it's it's shaping itself kind of more interesting it's a little less you know of a big muffin i think it's really cool and then let's go this way before we go that way i want to show you this vignette which i love i think this is like one of my favorite moments in the garden we have our catarina fountain here under planted with walkers low catmint behind that along the wall lady of shallot roses there's five of them there it's a short climber in our growing zone the colors to die for the pairing of that color with the purple of the walkers low catmint and then the color of the walkers low catmint with this shiny gorgeous burgundy purple foliage of midnight wine shine yep i got it you got it i got it is oh i love it and then it's repeated over here so there's cohesion on both sides my favorite evergreen in the garden which is our weeping white spruce right here which has now officially put on two feet in one year it's like finally doing the thing that i envisioned like that's what we love about gardening so much right is that we have this vision in our mind and then years later it starts to happen and it's so exciting to see it coming around front we have some lemon coral sedum our um this is one that never sticks in my brain but give me one second it is moonstone correct blue spruce stays nice and tidy tottering by gently after its first flush first flush is done it has been cut back prepping for its second flush but you can get a little idea of what it looks like yeah it's just such a charming very open yellow roots our let's dance sky view hedge which is really exciting because it is a big leaf variety that does well for us in our growing zone rock and play in the blues happening back there faded ambassador allium seed heads which again i think i think they're ready to be cut back christopher wants to leave them so we're leaving them but you let us know your thoughts sprinter boxwood more of that phlox oh i wish we must have footage of this and oh wow i have footage of it i can share um sensation honeysuckle it's beautiful it's going to keep flowering the hummingbirds love it the pollinators love it we have a small hedge of let's dance lovable hydrangeas and it's an interesting hedge and christopher i can go into detail about how we cared for each one i think the audience might be interested i think that's a good idea all right so there's three of them here this one was planted last year in the ground as a three gallon and we covered it in a plant protector and we stuffed it full of dried panicle blooms to help ensure protection despite all that it still died to the ground over the winter and so this is it coming back from the ground these two were one gallons that we had gotten in the fall and we thought it was too late to plant them so we're going to store them in the garage over the winter and we did and so this spring we put them out in the ground as one gallons both treated exactly the same and so that's the result of those two different one gallons so we have a three gallon that was established and then these one gallons that were overwintered and different results from all of them yeah interesting i do love the let's dance lovable it gets a little bit more of a vivid color to it than what the sky view will which is more of pastel i have high hope for all of them i think this past winter was like just a one-off it was exceptional and so i think next season we'll see even better results we finally found our third boscobel i was at a local garden center that we normally don't visit and i don't know why it's like like a little bit out of the way and one day i was like oh i feel like shopping at a garden center and i'm so glad i stopped because they had one left so now we officially have three boscobel roses christopher's grandmother's um birdbath has been moved from underneath the blood good japanese maple out here i really like how it fits underneath our green gable and these are zinnias christopher grew from seed they're floret flowers yes those are victorian wedding it's one of the um floret original seed packets they're a smaller flower variety it's funny one of them came out and it was like marigold orange yellow and i did pull that one but the rest of them are nice pastels and behind that is a short little or small little grouping of steady eddie viburnums and then of course it caps off with more sprinter boxwoods which is really interesting because this group of three did extremely well over the winter so it's something when you study your garden you try to learn from it i think well these three did so well what possibly could be different about this area in another area where they didn't so i mean that's why gardening is so fun but we have so much garden to share thank you so much for joining us on part one of our complete june garden tour please make sure you click like and subscribe so you are notified when part two comes out again i'm eric and i'm christopher and we're grow for me gardening thanks for growing with us