In the pond grows, with June's winter flowers

If I was a minimalist, if I had to accept the tiniest courtyard garden, these six plants would satisfy me. A tree for structure. A shrub for shelter. A pioneer to nurse its companions along. A groundcover to carpet the bare earth. A pelargonium to flute in PINK, accompanied by mellow blues on shrub and groundcover.

Kingfisher and reeds

In this tiniest of gardens, as I sit under the tree, there will be water.
For wildlife a pond. Perhaps just a wide saucer on the ground for the birds to splash, for lizards and striped mice to snatch a drink, for passing frogs and dragonflies, for thirsty summer bees. And the cats, there will always be a cat in my garden.

Reeds Juncus sp.

In the pond. Or in a pot standing in a saucer of water. Not the bulrush – beautiful but too much of an I Need My Space! thug. Not my father’s Cyperus, nor even the dwarf variety – both will grow in a garden bed happily. Perhaps the yellow water Iris – tho it seldom flowers for me.

First six in Dozen for Diana

No, my choice is the Ungardener’s free spirited plant, gifted by nature. A rush Juncus, which fascinates me, as its flowers emerge, suddenly, just here, before the stem ends. Crook neck flowers.  

What do you choose as your Dozen for Diana plant for June?

The Sage Butterfly has a delicious Vanilla Strawberry hydrangea in her Zone 7A US garden. 
In London experiments-with-plants with a dark horse, snapdragons. 'Pirate's hats'.

Christine in Cape Town chooses camellias as 'investment dressing' for her shady garden.

Return to London, where Laura of patiopatch has chosen 2. Sulphur clover 'is now a nationally scarce plant in its natural setting and so I would encourage others to grow Sulphur clover, especially in the gardens of our eastern counties. Acanthus mollis is an architectural giant'.
Donabella of gardenseyeview  near Oneida Lake NY turns to Baptisia, spires of pea flowers whose 'leaves are clover-like and turn a beautiful silvery-gray in the fall'.
Beth at PlantPostings in Wisconsin has gathered Iris, including some South African species.

-~0~-

Winter solstice in our southern hemisphere gardens with Catmint and Bernie in Australia and Christine and Barbie in South Africa. A wide view of the four beds at Paradise and Roses shows mostly the tuxedos, quiet formal wear. Ballgowns follow.

Spring Promise, Autumn Fire
Winter Chill and Summer Gold
at Paradise and Roses

Since I ripped out the humongous Dusty Miller hedge, my Great North rose suddenly lived up to its promise with lots of flowers.

Great North

Autumn Fire is lit up with a flaming patch of Japanese maple, with the red roses.

Japanese maple with
Anna's Red, Burning Sky
Alec's Red, Duftwolke and Papa Meilland

Winter Chill has the first Narcissus opening. The roses are less ballgown, more buttonhole corsage.

Pearl of Bedfordview, Narcissus, Dainty Bess
Perfume Passion
Elizabeth of Glamis, Lavender Jade, bud and bloom of Sheila's Perfume

For this South African, winter means the deepest orange and flaring red torches of aloes in the Karoo. Our Hedge Fund Crassula ovata has gentle pink flowers, no fireworks but a sustained return. Cotyledon orbiculata Pig’s Ears plakkies, orange just touched with pink.

Aloe sp., Crassulla ovata
Cotyledon orbiculata

With the rain, the bulbs begin to bloom. The ‘yellow’ Kniphofia. Lachenalia viridiflora in sea-green and rubida. The first few lemon yellow Oxalis pes-capreae.

Oxalis pes-capreae
Kniphofia, Lachenalia rubida and viridiflora

My blue and yellow border, inspired by Jean's header. The wide view is uninspiring as the Plumbago is gearing up again, the purple daisies here are not yet blooming. The collage lets me show What I See.

Felicia, Tulbaghia
Plumbago
Euryops, Dimorphotheca jucunda

June flowers in a fanfare of yellow  and red.

Hemizygia, Pelargonium, Dimorphotheca jucunda
Lavender, daisy, Pelargonium
Tecomaria twice
Jasmine, Chrysanthemoides incana, Pelargonium, Tecomaria

Wildflowers from the Groot Winterhoek next week.

Pictures and words by Diana of  Elephant's Eye 

- wildlife gardening in Porterville, 
near Cape Town in South Africa

(If you mouse over brown text, it turns shriek pink. 
Those are my links.)