Intermingling in the June garden

The garden in June is turbo-charged. Drifts of rain, bouts of sunshine and record-breaking heat make for prodigious growth, with visual exuberance at every turn. A gardener’s blog post at this time of year should therefore focus on images, not words. But this month, as I wander round the Dumfriesshire garden at various times of the day, one word has stuck in my mind. As gardeners we focus on individual plants that we try to place to best advantage. We may also group plants together in particular ways. Both of these suggest a sense of order and formation. This June however, I have been particularly struck by adjacent plants not merely sitting side by side to good effect, but actually growing in and through one another. So the word of the month in question is intermingling.

In the following images, you can see various degrees of this. There are plants cheek by jowl and friendly with each other, as well as two, three of more plants forming an intermingled whole, that is more than the sum of its parts. Crucially this intermingling is also happening between what I have introduced to the garden, and that which I have not. I am becoming more and more interested in celebrating this, rather than rushing to remove plant life that has come uninvited. You see here what can result.

Photinia and Lupin in evening sunshine. It was this striking almost intermingling, that got me hunting for other examples around the garden.

Solitary Herb Robert emerges through Juniper. Jerusalem Sage foregrounded by the now resting, and post-flowering Euphorbia.

Delicate wild rose amidst Hornbeam in a hedge. Deeper coloured variant growing alongside and through lush Ivy.

Johnson’s Blue Cranesbill rampant below Sambucus Nigra as grassy seedheads spike through.

Fern, Astilbe and Hosta touch at the margins in a damp spot. Not far away, Acers, Yew and Day Lilies meet and greet.

Could you ever plan this? Self seeded Oxe Eye Daisies, Buttercup, Herb Robert and soon to flower Campion are threaded through by the exuberant Cranesbill.

A solitary Oxeye and its neighbours.

Rampant intermingling!

Of course, there are dangers in such a celebration. Garden splendour can rapidly become overgrown chaos. It’s a case of balance. Informality will no doubt benefit from a curatorial hand. So we’ve already started pulling grasses out of the borders. Raspberry canes, introduced by blackbirds, are also a target for removal. Undoubtedly there is more weeding ahead. But for an inspirational look to the June garden, on balance, and to paraphrase a song by the Cranberries: you have to let it mingle.

Featured image New Cotinus growth contrasts with the massing pinks of the rambling rose that is now spreading over its branches.