How I Started From Scratch

Year before last I received a box of Daylilies for postage. Do any of you recognize this one? It was the first to bloom and is still going strong. They were single fans then Hubby called sprigs but they have grown like crazy and have grass-like foliage instead of stappy leaves. I measured and the blooming scapes are nearly 4' tall. There were several clumps of these scattered and dug them today, now in a holding pattern. I think they'd be lovely planted around our mailbox or telephone poles unless any of you would like a clump or two.

I'm sending a pic of my Bitsy, my earliest bloomer. Not as tall as yours, Hyperion is similar, tall, but mine blooms late.
Herman

Susan

The pond has been up and running for quite awhile. My first waterlily opened today, but I did not get a picture. I woke up early this morning and had my coffee by myself out on the deck by the pond with the umbrellas up. It was so pleasant this morning. From where I was sitting, I could see glimpses of my garden with most of my peonies open.

I love your daylilies - they are so beautiful. I noticed a scape starting on my Beyond Thunderdome - the rest should follow shortly.

I don't know your mystery daylily. Is it nocturnal? Just curious.
I used to be able to post many photos at once, but I have noticed the last few weeks that if I try to post more than two at a time I end up somewhere else altogether. I get frustrated and give up.
I have a several, especially reds, that are splotchy like Chocolate Splash the first few blooms.
Magic Carpet Ride and Red Eyed Shocker FFO's don't look like much but they make up for it later.

The poppies are almost over.

Most of the Hybrid Teas have finished their first flush of blooms. Gold Medal was a straggler.
Daylily Wind Frills-think I got this one from you, fruity. Love it!

Exotic Candy goes poly.
Elizabeth Salter.

Thanks for that info, Herman.

What wonderful eye-candy! I'd love to have a Koi pond, but am afraid the cats would enjoy the fish more than we would. I've just started a small container bog garden and am really in new territory. Day before yesterday one of our cats snatched an immature Purple Finch right off the sunflower feeder. Seeing that made me sick to my stomach and chased her trying to free the bird but she was too quick. The mystery daylily's blooms stay open for several days, unlike any I have except for Stella D'or.

How I enjoy so much seeing blooms of plants I've shared, Alana. Try resizing your photos so the largest number of pixels is 500. That's usually the number I use, sometimes 550, and have had success loading multiple pics with no problems.

Today there were only a couple of new blooms.

Pic 1 Daylily 'Druid Chant'
Pic 2 Daylily 'Gypsy Ballerina' looking a little washed

That leaves "Lemon Lily. The EX-GF had one in the back because she didn't like it and I didn't pay much attention to it but I think the flowers did last longer. and the bloom preceeded DLs. I looked through my books, but couldn't find any info. Didn't but should have gone to PF.
Herman

Too many Daylilies blooming now to post them all but here is my favorite today, Cluster Muster.

Herman, thank you for the suggestion. I put a feeler out on the Daylily Forum but had no responses the last time I checked. Aren't Lemon Lilies yellow and fragrant? These are orange with no scent. Anyway, the box I received two years ago included these as seedlings with a note that some were crosses. This one could very well be one. That's OK and will enjoy consolidating the clumps or share them.

Wiling away yesterday at my mail lady's farm put me behind in more ways than one and know what you mean about so many Daylilies blooming now, Alana, but it was well worth the drive, company, and a change of scenery.

These are new blooms today.

Pic 1 Daylily 'Tomato Surprise'
Pic 2 Daylily 'Rainbow Spangles' -- darn cats dug the label up and went back to my photo archives last year to ID this one and make a new tag

The first bloom of D/L 'War March' opened too, but the bloom was really washed and will be much prettier later.

Wow, it's been almost a week since I checked in here. So much blooming the past few days, it looks a show.

Do any of you want Irises besides you, Kathy & Joy? I started digging the short row today. Man those puppies are thick. Will have some Dayilies coming your way too, Joy.

Daylilies
Pic 1 Granite City Towhead
Pic 2 Siloam Bo Peep
Pic 3 Westbourne #12
Pic 4 Wish Fulfillment
Pic 5 Jambalaya (maybe)

More Daylilies

Pic 1 Fairy Tale Pink
Pic 2 War March
Pic 3 Spider Miracle
Pic 4 Brown Witch
Pic 5 Gentle Rose

Hope you all like Daylilies...lol

Pic 1 Joan Senior
Pic 2 Always Afternoon
Pic 3 Baja
Pic 4 Forsyth Hot Lips
Pic 5 Hello Dolly

A few more Daylilies.....

Pic 1 Howdy
Pic 2 Jack Michael
Pic 3 Jacob
Pic 4 Lavender Rainbow
Pic 5 Little Fat Dazzler

Another handful of Daylilies.....

Pic 1 Spacecoast Dragon Prince
Pic 2 Summer Echoes
Pic 3 Westbourne #13
Pic 4 NOID, very tall with Pink blooms
Pic 5 NOID, Pale Peachy Bi-Color

Good googley moooo as someone I know would say, you sure have a lot of daylilies!



I have been popping tiny seedlings in here and there where I think they will work as large swatches of raw open soil do not exist here. In nature, things are not thinned. I suppose then that whole natural selection takes over. I am enjoying the mild weather in the mid-south. Court in a rush heard something about the "Greenland block" on the weather channel. I guess we may be in for a milder summer than last - no complaints here. Will have to do a little research there. :)

Should be good for our gardens to be a little on the cool side.

Heh - just watched a baby bunny jump down into my yard from under the fence/retaining wall next door - the culprit!!!

Thanks for the pretties, Froot.

Now for a few Asiatic Lilies.....

Pic 1 Blackout
Pic 2 Dot Com
Pic 3 Fata Morgana
Pic 4 Dimension

That's all from my gardens at the moment.

Anybody wanting to jump in, show us your bloomers!

It's heyday here most of my Daylilies, Manda. Looking especially at last year's photos, most are blooming a good two weeks early. I hope that's right about us having a mild Summer and have really been enjoying the coolish highs this week. Saturday when we went to the festival it was only in the 50's when we left home around 7:30 AM. Hubs and I both headed out wearing shorts and T-shirts but came back in to grab jackets for the road.

Joy, my mail lady was there and we almost bought a male Australian Shepherd~ Border Collie pup from her that had the most beautiful merle coat and ice blue eyes. She gave us a great discounted price, but I told her to try to get full price while she was there. There were eight in the litter. She sold all of them and cried like a baby all the way home and was still teary today when she delivered our mail.

Wow Fruity those blooms are gorgeous!!!! If we get rain the next day or two like is forcast, I will try and get my Tropical Depression planted. It is doing well in a pot but not interested in blooming. At least it is alive.

My wisteria and heirloom marigolds are doing fantastic and some of my coneflowers have really taken off. This is the first year I have been able to keep them alive, they don't seem to like me very much.

Wow Fruity, that pup would have been a handful, I am glad your mail lady got them all sold.

Love the color of Jack Michael! Daylilies are fantastic here too right now and are about two weeks ahead also.
Something else that was early: Japanese Beetles. They started emerging a couple of weeks ago and are really annoying now. It is usually later in June.

Ugh Alana! I have only 1 application of the nematodes down so far, I need to get the other down so we don't have the dreaded JB's...... I wondered if they would be early.

Thanks for the heads up!

Carolyn, I just loved the white columbine with your clematis, brings out the dark color of the clematis.

I loved looking at the rest of the pic's in this post too.

Sharon,

Thank you - that is just how it worked out - I had forgotten that I had scattered Columbine Lime Sorbet seeds until I saw the flowers this past year. I love it when things just happen, dont' you?

Sorry, I've been mia.....Holy cow, this has got to be the strangest garden year yet!!! More things should be blooming and many have already passed. Gosh Fruity, your flowers are just scrumpious. I didn't realize you had that many daylilies, wow!!!

Someone was asking about the lemon lily, it's Hemerocalis flava, my very favorite of all the daylilies. It's one of the few that have fragrance and it does smell lemony, and it is yummy. It is in fact one of the daylilies that all daylilies come from, the other is Hemerocalis fulva, the straight orange that is not fragrant. These are the species daylilies, it's amazing 50, 000 plants later alll the choices we have now days. Just amazing!!!!

I see your a lily lover also. Just another of my favorites, (and those cruddy four legged thingies I depise soooo!!). So far I only have one that has bloomed: Lilium pumilum, up to 18", tag says scarlet-red but is orange to me. Waiting to see if I get some other lilies this year or if the d*** get them, hoping it's me!!!!! I'm thinking my favorites are the Trumpet lilies, just love their fragrance, (Easter lily type). And the asiatics are the best at multipling, I love it when they make a patch. Next favs are the tiger lilies, and the 2nd best at multipling also, they develop bulbils in the leaf axils, fall to the ground and begin their life, pulling themselves down to where they need to be, and the stems (below ground) also have baby bulbs too, just like the Asiatics. I have orientals, love the fragrance but slow to multiply for me. And sooo many new one, the hybrids and crosses they have made over the years is amazing, the Oripets and L.A. Hybbrids are gorgeous.

pix1: Lilium pumilum, got at Denver Botanic Gardens plant sale.
pix2: Lilium formosa 'Lancer', grown from seed gotten from park seed, only 6-8", flowers are large compared to the size of the plant, and oooh soooo fragrant, last summer.
pix3: Lilium, I believe this is a L.A. Hybrid, can't remember which one at the moment, fragrant and a good multiplier, (at my daughter's garden last summer, later dug a few bulbs to bring to my garden, didn't think she would miss them). I got them from Gilbert wild and son, when they first came out.
pix4: Lilium asiatic, unkn variety, from a few years ago, kritters have been getting them for years, not sure where what color is now.
pix5: lilium, will have to look, just got from the Bot. G sale this spring. Hmmm, maybe I should leave them on the porch in their pots so they can bloom .

joy..is that Wisteria fragrant? Such a beautiful color, can't think I've ever seen one like that before, do you know what cultivar it is?

This message was edited Jun 18, 2012 12:48 PM

#4 is my favorite!

I think I'm going w/#2. I'm a sucker for fragrance!

Wow! Susan, and I thought I had a few D'lilys. They are all beautiful and I loved looking at them. Great job you are doing here. So glad I found you.

Kathy,

Sorry for not posting an answer to your question, just saw it the other day and it took this long to rmember the name of the wisteria. It is an Evergreen Wisteria, the leaves die back in really cold weather and come back in the spring but it is evergreen here. Mine have survived all by themselves with little help from me, even in the drought last year. It did take a couple years before it started blooming but now goes crazy. Supposedly sets seed but I haven't seen or to be honest looked for any. Light fragrance which is very nice but my antique climbing roses pretty much overwhelm it for smells. Non invasive and attractive. I planted another on a fence going to the back yard where it is competing for space with my coral vine that is going insane. I expect to not see the fence at all next year but the pink and purple blooms will be awesome.

Joy

Wow, joy, sounds nice....One day I will try wisteria, need to get things under control here.....Yup, it will be on my want list FRAGRANT, lol......

Fruity....want to say your garden pix are absolutely wonderful...... my garden has kinda fizzled out with the heat and need of cutting things back. How big is your garden, must be HUGE, with all those daylilies , lillies and the goodies you've been getting, lol......PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY!!! Thanks for sharing, Kathy.

Ameria maritima, Bee's Hybrids..18", all season.

Fruit of the vine..please if you know, tell me the variety of those beautiful purple columbines in some of the first pictures. How long ago did you say you started your flowerbeds? Wow! you've really made a lot of progress in such a short time. I have a lot of columbines but you know since they reseed, you never know what color or variety it is until it blooms..I still have some that I bought and didn't get planted this past year..They is a blue variety; also a yellow. Love all the flowers you posted pictures of. I've just started growing daylilies a year ago also was gifted with a few Iris plants but they didn't bloom this year since I just received them in May. I expect they will bloom in Spring of 2013.

The darn thistles were so numerous in my front flowerbed and I feel like there are more of them than the other annuals/perennials..Their tap roots are so long too ; I wished I knew how you could get rid of them completely. Anybody have this problem or have a permanent solution to killing the spores? Have any of you purchased that tool called Speedy Weedy? Supposed to be able to pull up dandalions and thistle with it. I thought we had a discussion on one of the garden websites one year about this very tool...Does it work like it is advertised? AMLeonard has it for like $26.95 but I thought I remember seeing it somewhere on tv advertised for $19.95..Will check Amazon or some other company.


I seem to have this Wild ageratum show up each summer about this time and it seems to be only in one flowerbed..I wonder if I could dig some of them up now and transplant them in another bed..since the weather has been staying in the low 80's recently? Is there a real name for them?. Somewhere I thought somebody called them Ageratum Houstonian or something like that. I don't recall planting them so assume the birds dropped the seeds for me. They are a pretty shade of blue and I don't have any blue in other flowerbed, so thought I could try transplanting them.
Watered all the front/side flowerbeds; washed out all of my coolers my daughter borrowed after the June 29th. storm left her without power for 5 days .Packed away the suitcases her kids had borrowed to take to Greece this summer to visit their Greek grandparents. It's been a wonderful day to work outside..beautiful weather.

I'm done working for the day..waiting for a man to come and dig up a hydrangea that I'm getting rid of.. I cut all the foliage off yesterday to make it easier for him today. If he doesn't make it today, he will be here tomorrow.

Susan this is the second time I've looked at and read this thread...don't stop now. Your flowers are "prettier than beautiful"

Pippi - there are a few native varieties of the ageratum. The common native to the east is the blue mistflower - conoclineum colestineum. It used to be in the eupatorium family but those crazy taxonomists changed it a few years ago. It spreads easily and can take over a good sized area. Transplants easily. Mine bloomed and are spent.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=coco13

A friend from Texas sent me the "west Texas mistflower" last year. The foliage and growth habit are very different. It continues to bloom, and I still have monarchs hanging out on it. I didn't want the plants to cross pollinate so I planted them pretty far apart. W. TX is not exactly a native here in NC, but she's doing very well!

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53449/

These are related to boneset, eupatorium, joe pye. Crazy taxonomists really did a number on this one:

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=EUFI2

Enjoy! :)

A.

Oh wow, I think I found my favorite forum. Fruitofthevine, I am very envious of what all you can grow. Being in AZ, we are not known for our lush cottage gardens. LOL. We can grow lots of cactus, but that's not my cup of tea. I guess the positive thing is, October, November kicks off the gardening season here. I am about half way through planting my garden for the winter, known as spring elsewhere. I frequent the nurseries looking for all sorts of flowers (when do your trucks deliver???) . My latest hunt is for delphiniums. They seem to be elusive this year. On the positive side, the foxgloves look really good this year and the sweet pea vines are already coming up from the seed I planted last year.
I will post pictures this weekend. :-)

Evening everyone!

Pippi, same here with the Columbines, many were gifted or started from seeds, and yes they do love to reseed. It'll be four years this Spring when I started over.

Please do, Val. We'd all love to see them. October and November here kick off the put 'em to bed month. Not really complaining though since it was so miserably hot and humid this Summer. But I guess the heat you know well. Most nurseries in our area usually close for the season October 31st and reopen around April 1st. Our last frost date is traditionally around mid-May but it's still easy to go crazy opening week. There are always lots of Spring pansies along with tender veggies and the greenhouses are open for visitors to get a taste of the tropics. And naturally perennials galore.

Wow, my apologies folks, not realizing there had been activity here. I'm way behind adding any new photos and have lots. Might be a good Winter project to catch up the chronicles.
Here's an Amaryllis 'Lemon Lime' that recently opened. My modest collection is inside now with many starting to shoot up stalks or form buds.

Keep those good thoughts, garden comments and photos coming!



PS Manda, have I seen that photo somewhere, recently? It's a stunner :)

Here are a few pictures of my gardens last week. I planted some more yesterday and have a few more to plant today.

I'm having zone envy, we just had a hard frost and my remaining flowers look pretty awful!

Looking good, Val. Mum time for us too.
These are some of ours growing in the side garden where the Columbines are planted.

In the main bed, Aster 'Lady in Black' has just about finished putting on her show.
New England Aster, I think it is, started from a cutting two years ago, is on the fade as well, but was glorious last month.

you all's plants look so good! I think I might need some asters......

Agree, those are my only two.