June in VT.

6-19-17 VERMONT: We left NJ yesterday, but just before we did, I got a few pix of new blooms. We both had fast trips and got here on a muggy, hot, breezy afternoon. I took pix of the VT flowers, but it was so windy that the flowers were dancing around so much that I had to re-take many pix today before the massive rain we got this afternoon.

New blooms—NJ: St. John’s wort, catalpa.

Some disappointment here in VT is the total loss of the corn crop. The seeds germinated, but something, maybe crows, pulled up the six-inch seedlings, I guess to eat the germinating seeds. Little corn cadavers are scattered all over the veggie beds. The electric fence keeps out furry critters, but the garden is open to aerial assault. It is too late to re-plant corn because it won’t be ripe until we leave for NJ at the end of August.

The tomatoes are all fine and the herbs are OK. Some of the basil and oregano had died, but I added new plants today.

The perennial beds are fine, all the new plants and transplants are doing well. That is except for the butterfly weeds on the pond bank. They were just coming up when I left at the end of May, but have been overwhelmed by the established grasses et al growing on the bank. Maybe I can rescue them. The new bloom list is extensive because it’s June and I haven’t been here for almost three weeks. I am listing everything that open since I left, even if some of them are almost finished.

New blooms: yellow lady slipper, lady’s mantle, iris—bearded, flags and Siberian, Asian lilac, Wentworth viburnum, weigela, white spirea, hybrid daylily, celandine, lupin, columbine, meadow rue, hesperis, geraniums, primrose, rose, anemone, Solomon’s seal, pink thyme, bunch berry, Jacobs ladder, centaurea, stephanandra, sweet woodruff, wild daisy, flea bane, vetch, clover, Indian paint brush, buttercup, dianthus.

New blooms today: trascantia, peony.


St. John's wort, the many stamens make a beautiful star. These first two pix are from Short Hills taken the day we left for VT.

Another southern magnolia huge flower.

Yellow Lady Slipper, one of about six, by the pond is almost done for this year. Thank you, Melissa, for sharing these beauties.

Siberian iris has three sets of three petals. The upper set are upright and the lower two sets are paired and hang downwards. The pollinator has to get between the two lower sets of petals. The other irises have a similar pattern.

Another Siberian iris as above, the anatomy may be more easily seen in this one.

Yellow flag iris has the same pattern as above, but the upright petals are very diminished in size.

Bearded iris has the beard on the lowest set of petals, and it is between the two dependent sets of petals. The upright petals are visually dominating.

Flag irises on the left and primrose on the right.

Eastern tiger swallowtail looks a lot like the western tiger swallowtail from Los Gatos, post of 6-13-17.