A June miscellany 1

I've finally gone through all the photographs I took in June, many of which I never got round to posting here. So these aren't on a theme, except they show the garden, and some are from up to two or three weeks ago, while others are more recent.

Two geraniums - one wild, self-sown (Geranium robertianum, above), one cultivated, with larger blooms (unknown variety). The latter is very attractive to bees.

Cosmos! A favourite of mine. Easily grown from seed - I've raised over 40 plants with no difficulty this year - and in three months already starting to flower. They also have lovely feathery leaves, as seen in the upper photograph above. This flower is the variety 'Picotee'. I also have plain pink and white ones - though only a white one is flowering otherwise, so far.

Roses are my top summer flower, and I have quite a few dotted around the garden. The top two photographs show the same flowers, a few days apart. I don't know the variety, but it is a lovely rich burgundy, quite small. The lower one has massive magenta blooms with a strong perfume. It might be 'Fragrant cloud'.

The first alliums are done - 'Purple Sensation', I believe (the top photo is from over a week ago; the back garden ones flowered around a week later than those in the sunnier front). But other varieties are coming into bloom to replace them. The lower pictures show A. cristophii, which has striking metallic lilac star-shaped flowers on large, low, open heads.

The peonies started opening a couple of days ago - the buds have been developing all month, ants harmlessly gathering sweet secretions from their surface.

Foxgloves have come back nearly every year I've lived here. This time, they were smaller but more numerous.