Friday, August 30, 2013

A Tale of two Easter lilies

On Easter Sunday, Easter lilies grace churches across the country. What happens to the lilies after the blooms are gone?

My mom took home two of the lilies and enjoyed them in her home until the blooms were spent. She was going to throw them away, but I decided to take them home.

I planted them in my garden in part sun (really, mostly shade). This was in May.

Now it's August and they've rewarded me with pretty flowers!


I don't know if they'll come up again next year, but I'm getting to enjoy them now.

Have a blessed weekend!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Summer: it's not over yet :-)

Heat and humidity, plus drought...it's not over till it's over. As for me, I love summer yet the cooler temps of autumn beckon.  The garden is very dry. We're in "moderate" drought conditions after having the wettest spring on record. I'm so glad we had that wet spring, because we were in "extreme" or "critical" drought last year. Global warming? Just a weather pattern?

The garden is looking a bit tired, but truly, I don't have to look too far to find a pretty plant to photograph.

 We have a lot of phlox in the garden, after I decided the solution to too much yellow in the late summer garden was to add phlox. I posted about that here. It's my most read post of all time, with nearly 5800 pageviews. This phlox is 'Purple Kiss.'


 Ligularia - I was gifted this plant from one of my former employees. Last year this plant didn't bloom; it just didn't like the drought and extreme heat. I'm glad it bloomed again for me this year.


 Grown from seed I purchased from Seed Savers Exchange, this pretty little Black-eyed Susan vine has just begun to bloom. Oops, looks like there's a weed or two growing in there too. I have them (weeds) but I try not to photograph them for my blog! lol


 Variegated liriope


 Morning glory 'Heavenly Blue'


 Larkspur will continue to bloom for most of the summer if deadheaded.


 Cuppa Shasta ('Becky')


 I like cosmos. I enjoy growing a variety mix.


 Most of the daylilies have finished blooming. This one, however, has been blooming for a month or so and has lots of buds remaining. Its' name says why:  'Autumn Minaret.' This hemerocallis is also unusual for its' height of approximately 6 feet.





 The Resurrection lilies finally bloomed this year. They must have heard me talking about digging them out and throwing them in the compost pile if they did not bloom this year!


 The three Butterfly Weed I had before all died. I bought this one and it is blooming beautifully.


 The American hazelnuts are almost ready to eat.


 A tree frog is making his home in with the potted fern. This is one of those "self-watering" pots; there is a reservoir around the bottom that holds water for the plant to draw on as needed.


When the coneflowers begin to dry, the goldfinches can be found eating the seeds.



I hope your day is "Heavenly" and not "Blue."

Enjoy what remains of summer; you won't get the chance again for almost a whole year!!!


Monday, August 26, 2013

Time for Tea

Welcome friends! Thanks for visiting and please join me for tea.

 Welcome to my August garden.


We have two porch swings on our adjoining patios. It's in the shade, and a really nice place to sit and unwind after a busy day.

 
If you haven't had lunch yet, how about a chicken sandwich, a chocolate chip muffin, and a mini cherry cheesecake - all served with 'English Breakfast' tea...


Whether INSIDE or OUTSIDE, at a Tea Room, a B & B, or at home, in my mind it's ALWAYS time for tea!














Linking to Tea Time Tuesday and Tea in the garden

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Late August in the gardens

Clematis 'Princess Diana' is a late-bloomer this year. Earlier, it developed wilt and I cut it all the way back and applied a copper fungicide. Surprise! It grew back and bloomed.


I'm growing glads this summer too. I enjoy them as cut flowers as well as in the garden.


This is one of my tranquil places in the garden. I love to relax on the patio. The view is unbelievable! :)


Tomatoes are abundant this summer, just as they were last year. I eat some, freeze some, and give some away.


I enjoy a wide variety of colors of phlox in the gardens.


Lobularia 'Snow Princess,' french vanilla marigolds, and pansies intermingle. I've never seen pansies bloom all summer long before.


A type of primrose, I believe this is also referred to as a sundrop.


The Mystery Plant - can you guess what this prolific self-seeder is?



Have a blessed day!


Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Festival of Trees

Although our yard in no way meets the criteria as a "wooded lot," we do have a large number of trees. That is, we have close to 30 trees on our half acre. For you tree enthusiasts out there, I thought I'd share how we got so many trees in such a small area, and still have a large full-sun garden!

As you approach our front door, here's what you'll see:
 We have two trees in the front yard, a redbud (foreground), and an ash. The ash was here when we moved in. We planted the redbud. In fact, there are only 5 trees in our yard that we DID NOT plant ourselves.


A better view of those two trees, but no view of the house...

Now to the backyard, wa-a-a-a-y back:
 Along the fencerow, I don't count the maple on the left. It's in the fencerow, and the fence is even growing into its bark. It isn't our tree, although we accept its shade with gratitude. The smaller tree is our cherry tree. It produces well, but since we don't spray, the cherries are wormy and we let the birds have them.


 Also on the fencerow, on our side, are three hackberry trees. Are you counting? That's trees number 4, 5, and 6 in our yard. We did not plant these, nor the other tree in our fencerow, a mulberry. (Why, of course we DID NOT plant the mulberry! It's a messy tree! lol)


Tree # 7, the aforementioned mulberry


 Here's tree #8, a tulip tree. It's planted in the hosta farm in the shade of the hackberry trees. I think that's the reason (too much shade) that it's underperformed; i.e., it's small and it's never bloomed.


 Tree #9 is Japanese maple 'Geisha Gone Wild.'


 Trees # 10 and 11 (above and below) are Japanese maples too. The name is 'Crimson Queen.'





Our first Japanese maple, in the Serenity Garden (# 12)


Next, on to the conifers:
 # 13 and 14 are "the littles." These were purchased as tiny seedlings, and we plan to cut them at some point for Christmas trees. Above, a white pine, and below, a Fraser fir.





 Our latest tree purchase is this Weeping Norway spruce (# 15).


 We have two Weeping pines (#s 16 and 17). We are trying to train them to weep!





 # 18 is another small conifer. I'm not sure what kind it is.


 Here's my $10 spruce, purchased as a tiny plant and growing to quite a nicely shaped tree. This is tree # 19.


 Love the color of this blue spruce (tree # 20).


Here in the triangular bed, left to right, #21-23, flowering crab, buckeye, and Black spruce.


 Here's that same crabtree, cultivar unknown, in May.


Gracing the cottage garden is this dwarf flowering dogwood (cultivar not known). This is tree # 24. Yes, there are more!


 Another $10 tree, a pin oak in what I call the rocky garden (# 25).


 # 26 is a $2.00 redbud tree, purchased on clearance from a garden center that was closing.


# 27 was labelled as an Autumn Blaze maple, although I'm not so sure, given its fall color, which looks more orange than red (see below).


In case you're wondering, the tree with yellow leaves in this photo from last fall was an ash, which we removed because it was a seeded ash, with many seeds, and we didn't want thousands of ash seedlings in our yard.





I have two of these dwarf Alberta spruces in the cottage garden. That's 29 trees!

Linking to Home and Garden Thursday and Fertilizer Friday


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