Lovely Lilies

In past years, the gardens seemed to bloom by plant -- first the tulips, then the peonies, then the roses, then other stuff. This year, the tulips still came first, but after that it's been like a free-for-all by color starting with the blues, then the pinks, and then the yellows. But, now we're back to plants.

And, the plant of the hour is the lily -- both lilium and hemerocalis! Maybe they bloomed together in past years and I just don't remember. The only lilies left to bloom are the Monte Negro in the front boulevard garden. The Martagons finally bloomed this week. (A friend's bloomed weeks ago.)

And, my beautiful pink lily bloomed this week, too. (The year I got it, it was 4 feet tall. The bunnies got it the following year and the squirrels nipped it off last year.) But this year, the creatures left it alone and it bloomed. It's shorter than it was the first year, but I'm grateful that it bloomed -- at any height!

The Stellas are popping out -- adding a burst of color to the corner garden. As we walked through the gardens this morning, the Riverman asked about the pretty yellow flowers and I told him their name. He was very excited that a flower had the same name as his mom. He looked at them again and said, "I think she would have liked these."

How is your garden growing this year? Flower by flower, or color by color?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – September 2010

It's the 15th of the month, and you know what that means . . . . Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. The premise is to post photos of what’s blooming in the garden on this particular day. May Dreams Gardens hosts, and provides a list of participating garden blogs.

As I looked around the garden yesterday (thank goodness I took snapshots then, because it’s storming this morning!) I realized I could almost re-post my August entry. The coneflowers have faded, but the rudbeckia, Russian Sage, phlox, salvia, and asters are going strong.




Lavender (pictured) and spring anemone (not pictured) are both having a second bloom.








Asclepias (pictured) and Stella D’Oro (not pictured) continue to add a splash of orange to the gardens.







The sedum seems more rosy this year. In past years, it has been a deeper, wine color.









The roses, which had taken a beating from August storms are back. Here’s Morden Blush and Julia Child. Crown Princess Margrethe is still in bud, but will also bloom once more before the chilly weather sets in.



Elmer, my tropical hibiscus, should be moving back inside this week, but he’s been blooming so beautifully, I’ve left him outside to soak up every last bit of sunshine. (Okay, to be perfectly honest, I’m also procrastinating about the “coming inside” routine. To prevent the whiteflies that come inside with him, I remove all the soil, hose off the roots and re-pot with new soil—a production that takes a bit of time.)

The volunteer sunflowers and cosmos are both still going strong, too. That’s what’s blooming in Auntie K’s Garden this month. My prediction for October is aster-o-rama!

Sorting Seeds

Right before Labor Day, I took a couple days of vacation to build a compost bin and install the stone steps in the west hill. I didn’t accomplish either of those projects. The weather didn’t cooperate fully. And, truthfully, although my heart was in it, my body just wasn’t up to it. So, I puttered. I planted here; I weeded there. I moved things around and mulched.

And, a funny thing happened when I was puttering here and there--I noticed the seed pods and seed heads. When I was mulching the lupine hill, I noticed the coreopsis had set seeds. When I was weeding the rose corner, I notice the stellas had seed pods. And, when I was watering the herbs, I noticed that the cilantro had turned to coriander.

So, I got out my seed sorting equipment and spent the afternoon sifting and sorting seeds. I like my plastic Tupperware colander for the first round of coriander and lupine seeds. The chaff and stems stick to the plastic rim and I can clear it off with my finger. After most of the chaff and stems are gone, I can pour them into the smaller strainer. Then, they can go into the baggies. The coreopsis was harder to sift and sort. And, if you’ve ever seen a coreopsis seed, you don’t have to wonder why one of the common names is tick-seed.

Stellas don’t really need any sifting, you just pour them out of the seed pods into your hand (or the baggie)—unless, an earwig comes out of the seed pod with the seeds, in which case, the seeds get scattered from here to kingdom come while you’re doing the ookie bug dance on the sidewalk. Thankfully, they’re big, shiny diamond shaped seeds that are pretty easy to see. So, I was able to recover some of them.

Seeds made an appearance at our neighborhood plant swap today, too. More on that tomorrow. Carol brought Baptisia seeds. Mary Kaye brought 4 o’clock seeds, and Theresa brought perennial hibiscus seeds. The hibiscus pods are so interesting, I asked her to hold them in her hand for a snapshot before giving them away!

I guess the point of my meandering, puttering tale is that if I had stuck to the plan and built the compost bin and installed the stone steps, I most likely would have missed the opportunity to collect and save the seeds from some of my favorite plants!