May 31, 2011

Decatur Apricot Daylily

Decatur Apricot daylily. This one has 6 1/2" blooms and
is a rebloomer.


Queen Elizabeth rose

May 29, 2011

Paper Butterfly Daylily



Paper Butterfly Daylily. This gets to be around 24" tall with 6" blooms and is a rebloomer.  In my previous yard I had this planted with Southern Wood fern behind it and heuchera "Caramel" (coral bells) in front of it. Later in the season I will move this over by the shade garden and do the same with it as before.



This is Northfield Daylily. It is 36" tall with 5" blooms and also a rebloomer. Warrior Prince is in the background.


Purple fountain grass along side of Red Knockout



Southern Wood fern along with caladium and Electric Lime coleus


Evolution Salvia with lambs ear

Red Volunteer daylily. Again my camera doesn't capture the beauty of this red. I think it is my favorite of the red daylilies. It gets around 30" tall with 7" blooms.

May 27, 2011

Morning Plum Daylily

Red Hot Poker looking a little more orange yesterday.

I am helping my daughter make a Teepee quilt. She has finished the first square - 11 more to go. This is all handstitched.  I'm proud of her and she is proud.

Close up

My grand-daughter is coming this afternoon. I am getting her garden plot ready for her so she can plant her seeds. I wish I could find a sign with her name on it to put here for her. Maybe I will try to make one.

Morning Plum daylily bloomed today. I would like to have, someday, a daylily farm. I actually did a cross-pollination of two different daylilies last summer and it set seed - but evidently I didn't know what to do with the seeds because they didn't sprout. I'm planning on trying again this year.

Another shot

May 25, 2011

Warrior Prince Daylily

Warrior Prince for me, has lots of scrapes loaded with flower buds and 
reblooms at least once. It gets to be about 24 inches tall with
 5 inch blooms. See below photos for more shots of
 Warrior Prince. Don't forget you can double click
 on the photo for a larger view.








A squirrel that comes everyday to the bird feeder and "pigs"
 out on the birdseed. I give it bread but  he
 or she still wants ALL the birdseed.

My first bell pepper. I will be picking this very soon.

Black Krim tomato. Can't wait to eat them.

Purple onion peeking out of the ground. I will harvest this soon.


May 24, 2011

The Return Of The Daylily

Happy Returns daylily - this photo was taken yesterday at dusk, so it's  a little blurry. This is always the first daylily in my garden to bloom. It is a rebloomer, usually blooms most of the summer. It's flowers are around 3 1/8 inches and reaches a height of about 18 inches. This goes in the front of my borders. The color in the picture isn't a true color - the flower is more lemony yellow. (See other photos below for a truer color) I prefer Happy Returns over Stella de Oro.


I planted some of my tomato plants in between the Knockout roses. Next year I won't be able to do this because, hopefully, the roses will be bigger and fill in the gaps for my wall of roses. Nastursiums are growing in front of these.

Pink Knockout rose

Another shot of tomatoes with roses

A shot from the other end of the wall of roses. The road is on the outside of the chain link fence - which I am attempting to eventually block out.

More tomatoes 
Another shot of Happy Returns daylily 
by the Peach Schnapps Espadrille Verbena
Mystic Spires salvia in foreground and the small red color is the Shakespeare David Austin rose and a yellow lily 

Another shot of Mystic Spires blue salvia



Another shot of Happy Returns daylily with a red lily in the foreground.
This is Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia uvaria) coming up through the daylily leaves. I brought this from my previous house last fall. It was divided and replanted, so this one is considered a "baby". It will eventually have large tall flower spikes of a bright orange red that are really striking from a distance.

This is an old photo of Red Hot Poker from my previous house. 

May 19, 2011

Waiting

The garden is at a point of "waiting" for the next wave of blooms. The iris finished it's last bloom today. I'm always so sad too see them go and can't believe it will be a whole year until they come again. I do get to view them in the winter (or whenever I'm in the mood) - I have been putting my garden from beginning to end on video since 1997 - it started out as a video journal as to what blooms when, weather cycles and so on. So I view the videos in the winter time when I am longing to be outside. I also receive some insight on where to move things when spring comes. I've already moved some of the iris around according to color (remember I lumped all my iris in one bed when we first moved here in the fall) (you're not suppose to move iris until July-fall, but I've been doing it for years in the spring if I don't like were it was planted). I moved the light purple iris over by the bluish hydrangea. We will see how it likes the new spot by next spring. When the daylilies finally bloom I will be moving them all around the yard also. Dug up another spot for more vegetables and some melons. Planted okra,  melon "Charentais, watermelon "Crimson Sweet" and melon "Muskmelon/Cantaloupe Hale's Best Jumbo". Remember, I'm new to vegetables and fruit - so I may not get anything this year - but I've been reading up like crazy on the subject and learning a lot of what not to do. I am letting two of my grandchildren have their own vegetable/flower plot. The oldest grandchild is 9 and she just picked out the seeds that she wants to put in her space. I just added two new coleus to the flower garden - "Dancing Gypsy" and "Henna". I posted a spring photo of the "Firehouse" Nandina to show how it goes from it's fall color of red to it's current color of a pretty green. The zinnia, red hot poker, lupine, nastursium, columbine, sunflower, coneflower, alyssum, hollyhock, herbs basil, cilantro, and rosemary seeds are all progressing nicely.
"Feature Attraction" iris I moved over by the Nantucket hydrangea


"Dancing Gypsy" coleus

Unknown lily. It came with the property. It really is a striking one.


"Firehouse" Nandina with it's green color

.
Added another garden spot for the okra and melons. The grandkids garden spot will be here also.

"Henna" coleus

Lupine seed is coming up

"Mystic Spires" Salvia next to the Shakespeare David Austin rose

"Electric Lime" coleus

Nastursium leaves - I love how they have the white veins running through them - looks like a light shining out of the center.

May 15, 2011

Wishing for an English Garden in Texas

I love English gardens. My garden themes for the last 14 years have been about trying to integrate that style into a Texas garden. It is a real challenge.  Recently went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The gardens were just beautiful. I've included a couple of photos. One is of a mystery shrub that I would like to have. Can anyone identify this? I guess I will take the photo to the local garden center and see if they can tell me what it is.
Mystery shrub


Eureka Springs, Arkansas garden

Fireworks purple fountain grass

Purple Fountain grass growing

Another shot of Fireworks purple fountain grass.