The Seasonal Page: JULY 1998... Floral Fireworks! Page 2

The above photo is yet another floral "fireworks" display which I almost used at the top of the first page. It was taken in low lighting and didn't turn out as nicely as I'd hoped. The large clump of daylilies is 'Hyperion' (it's actually a bit darker than this picture portrays) and the hot pink shooting off over its head is the Dierama/Fairy's Fishing Rod. The purple spikes in the foreground are Penstemon 'Midnight,' which has faithfully come back for me each spring in this southern exposure in sandy soil.

	A small-flowered daylily named 'Little Missy.' Its darker throats and white petal edges make it quite charming.
This clump has yet to become really well established, but 'Feather Down' is the most soft blending pastel for the garden. The soft whitish primrose flowers have a dusting of pink on them...very subtle and beautiful. The baby's breath is a pink flowered variety and I've forgotten the exact name. It might be 'Viette's Dwarf' or something like that. There's probably still an old tag buried somewhere behind where it's planted! The fat buds behind are now open and are a beautiful oriental lily called 'Egypt' which I believe is shown on the main garden tour page.
'Fairy Tale Pink' used to be quite pricey, but now you can pick it up for something closer to $10. It is gorgeous and the color varies depending on how much heat and sun it's received during the day. The hotter it is, the frostier and pinker the flower becomes. In lower temperatures and light it's more of a peach shade. The ruffles and substance are renowned.

Since we left off with pink, it's a good time for Lavatera thuringiaca. This was originally a L. 'Barnsley' but it reverted to the species during the past couple of seasons. 'Barnsley' is a soft blush with a darker center and is beautiful...but this isn't bad either! The tree behind is a Mt. Atlas Cedar (in the far back bed) and I find interesting signs of wildlife deposited under it when I work there. Can't tell if they belong to deer or raccoons, but they sure did eat a TON of cherries!	Just a bit in front and north of the lavatera is this Buddleia 'Pink Delight' with a small Acanthus spinosus in front. I really love the subtle colors in the Acanthus spikes. The foliage is rather prickly and the whole plant is much smaller than the usual Bear's Breech (Acanthus mollis).
	The unusual color of Daylily 'Summer Wine' makes it extremely popular. If you are going to place it...be sure to put it toward the front. It's really not very tall.
I enjoy having a few dahlias in the garden and this one is great for blending with both sides of the color spectrum. It is named 'Alfred Grill' and was purchased from Dutch Gardens by mail order. Our soil is so sandy that I don't lift my dahlias and they come back fine. It is a good idea to dig them every few years though because they get quite congested. I had to lift some of these when I weeded and they sure rewarded me for improving their situation. I don't think they've bloomed this early before.
	Another dahlia, only this one was bought at a local hardware and garden store. I think it was called something like 'My Romance' but I can't recall for certain.
This was taken from another angle a week or so after the flowers started opening. What a riot of color!

Can you see the little Swallowtail Butterfly on this Buddleia? I got as close as I could without totally scaring him off. He'd already had some trauma, as indicated by a piece missing from the back of one of his wings. More than likely, a bird was trying to catch him for lunch. The hooded flowers on the spike nearby are from the Acanthus spinosus that was shown earlier.
Here's a closer look at the huge flower spikes on Buddleia 'Pink Delight.' They are some of the largest Buddleia flowers that I've seen and are just as fragrant as you would expect!

I keep trying to show this but it's so subtle and tends to be too contrasty in sunlight. It's Phygelius aequalis 'Moonraker' and it is a beautiful subshrub with glossy semi-evergreen leaves. The hummingbirds like its tubular flowers which look like a soft primrose waterfall.
	Another popular old variety that lends itself well to cool color schemes. This is Daylily 'Ice Carnival.' It has a nice fragrance as well. It is situated just down the path from the Phygelius we just saw.
Looking across the same alley bed path and near the dogwood tree is a Fuchsia magellanica 'Maiden's Blush' with this Daylily 'Cherry Cheeks' in front. Isn't that an eye popping color? It's a tetraploid and as such has some pretty big deadheads to be removed, but I don't mind since it's such a great color!

	I still haven't decided how I feel about this accidental combination near the carport, but since Alstroemeria can be pretty hard to remove and doesn't bloom for too long, I've left it. When it got planted here I thought it was a baby hosta...in peat pellets they didn't look all that different! When I realized it was an Alstroemeria, I hoped it would be a soft primrose color like it's parent, but of course, I got the species color! Robert thinks the clashiness of this is kind of stimulating...I'm ambivalent! The Astilbe sharing its space is A. 'Amethyst.'
This is not a beautiful photo by any stretch and is just here for reference. If you crawl back through the grassy path to the arbor bench, this is what you see when you look toward the back of the house and the oak bed. That big grassy clump to the near right is Miscanthus sinensis. I hate having the cars in the background, but the shade of the oak tree is a popular place to park during the summer!
	Since the theme for this month is "floral fireworks" I thought this was a fitting tribute. Looks like someone just lit the fuse! This is a flowerhead of Centaurea macrocephala just beginning to open. It was recently planted in a weeded out spot in back. The poor thing has been surviving (barely) in a gallon pot for two to three seasons. I thought it had died, but there was still life there this spring. It would be fitting now for it to take off and become a nuisance, since plants in this family are known for their generous seeding tendencies (Bachelor Button)! At the time of this writing, this flower is fully open and the bumblebees seem to relish it.
The name of this Daylily cultivar is 'Precious One.' It's a very smooth melon pink that just glows. The foliage to the left is a Daphne odora 'Aureo-marginata' and the leaves to the bottom and right are of Hosta fortunei 'Marginato-alba'.

	I keep showing the ash bed, but you can see how it's changed in the past couple of weeks since June. Obviously, the blood meal has kept the deer away from the Geranium psilostemon (on the right) long enough for it to have more flowers!
This is the same bed a little further to the left of the upper photo. I'm showing what happens when you plant bulbs on good faith that they are going to be the color shown on the label. These lilies are nice but were supposed to be a short white variety with yellow rays on the petals. I have been threatening to move them for three years...maybe this fall?
It was hard to scan this photo and not lose the mountains completely. It's a shot taken behind the oak bed just before sunset and looking at it was restful to me...thought you might enjoy it also.

You've already seen some of this...but there are MORE daylilies and shots from the Oak Bed. Sorry...it's JULY!

This is another photo of one of the daylily crosses ('Wally Nance III' with 'Prairie Moonlight') taken in 1997. I just liked the way it looked with the Lychnis coronaria nearby...kind of clashy and interesting.	Quite a long time ago I got some seeds from a friend off one of her daylilies. They were open pollinated and I haven't a clue as to what the mother plant looked like in bloom. These flowers are kind of cute, but the stems want to sprawl. I wonder if I moved it to the front and it got more light if it would be neater or not?
You're probably sick of this spot, but the picture turned out so nice, I couldn't resist. From the left are Daylily 'Bonanza,' D. 'Frans Hals,' and in the back and to the right D. 'Autumn Red.' There are a couple of close-ups below.
	I have loved the Buddleia 'Petite Indigo' for years but think it might be almost time to strike some cuttings and renew this plant. Buddleia are totally easy to root from stem cuttings. Just put a few into a pot of potting mix (just leave a few leaves on top and about two nodes under the soil with leaves removed) and keep them moist and protected from hot sun for a month or two. Before you know it you will have growing plants that will bloom in one season. Some people have even just rooted stems by shoving them into the ground. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that the red flowers belong to Crocosmia 'Lucifer.'
This is a closer view of Daylily 'Autumn Red.' It's an old variety that is very attractive and has small deadheads that don't detract from its appearance if you fail to remove them. I got it in a daylily grab-bag from Lamb Nurseries in Spokane, WA (mail order...good stuff).
	Already showed this on the June page but it's going to be taken off soon and this photo was better. This is Daylily 'Bonanza' and I am cheered by its showy contrasting red throats!

I could figure out the name of this Asiatic lily cultivar if I poured through a few books. I used to have quite a few of them behind the blue evergreen in the rose frontal, but many of them were gone this year. I suspect mice probably ate the bulbs over the winter since there are mole runs there that would provide easy access for them. I found lots of little tiny lily bulbs while weeding here, so I hope that the two varieties I once loved will come back in another couple of years.

I'm probably getting senile, but I don't know where I got this. I think it was another proliferation I got from working at the nursery (grooming has its perks). It's very distinctive in shape and I can't remember which variety it is. Actually, I must have known at some point because I planted it next to another gold variety...maybe I got it from Oakes? It looks a little like 'Condilla' but is not as ruffly. The plant is still pretty small. If anyone recognizes it, please email me with the name.
	Another repeat from a different angle. This is a better head-on shot of Daylily 'Kwanso Flore Plena.' It's pretty flamboyant, don't you think?
I just loved this when I discovered all these daylily flowers next to the gaillardia. They were a softer echo of the gaillardia color. The daylily is 'Pink Damask' (another good old variety) and the gaillardia is 'Burgundy.' The blue flowers are Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant.'

	This is a rather bland shot, but I was startled to see these perennials (Malva alcea 'Fastigiata' and Knautia macedonica) growing on the other side of the fence toward the top of our lower pasture. I don't know if they sprouted from roots of stuff I'd dug up and pitched, or from seeds. Anyway...they kind of spice things up out there. The "road" is actually an access our oldest son, Michael, mowed in order to drive his truck to the back shed for various projects. The shed used to be for animals to get protection from the sun, but we haven't had livestock for years.
The price you pay for unfinished eaves is that swallows will try to build their nests there. This is over our front porch. Except for the droppings, I don't mind them at all, but fear for their lives because it gets too hot here. We've been putting the fan out lately from late morning until dinnertime so that they don't succumb to the heat that comes through the roof. In a few more days (it's the 23rd of July as of this writing), they should be fledging from the nest during the daytime. The father bird is certainly giving me the evil eye!
	This was as close as I dared get without scaring this little guy away. They really love the Verbena 'Homestead Purple' and I might have gotten a closer shot, but didn't want to risk it. You can't have too many butterflies like this in your yard, and I've certainly seen more since we put the many perennials in back.

For more of July...go to Page 3.

This page last updated on July 26, 1998.

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