Sunday, July 27, 2008

Summer- week 6- July 27

Greetings. I was going to write about the glories of daylilies this week. I will still do that a little later. I have decided to relate what happened Saturday morning first. I got up and it was a very nice morning. I started on my morning garden chores, deadheading daylilies, sprucing up the garden for the day. (I would say weekend but you have to deadhead every day.) As I walked back by the crabapples I noticed that the two blooming orchids were gone. They had not fallen on the ground. I checked to make sure that I had not moved them someplace else and forgot that. But no. They were just gone. Bummer. You saw the yellow phalanopsis last week in the blog and the little pink catlaya had just opened a few days before. They were hung just 6 feet in from the curb. I hung them there for people to see. Well someone saw them and decided to give them a new home. The person was careful. They did not particularly trample things under foot.
I think I have had theft from the garden maybe 2 times in 25 years. Sometimes you just get a challenge and then go on.

Unfortunately I am not done with the story. So I puttered around getting my head together. I was just about ready to move on and have this be a growth experience.
Then I walked by the walnut tree in the front yard and noticed this.


This was the plant hook where the wonderful pink orchid cactus had been hanging since I moved it there when we came home form Colorado. I moved it there so people could see it. It had over 40 blossoms this year. It had never had that kind of display before. The big plant, that must have weighed 50 pounds, was and is gone. Again the person was careful. The person did not knock anything over or particularly trample other plants. This action however was not as easy as taking the orchids. The plant was heavy and there is a little shelf that probably had to be navigated.
That’s my story.
So what do you do? First of all, I am now 36 hours into the discovery. Whatever thoughts I have at this point are tempered with time. I will not be building fences. I intend to still invite people to visit the garden, like always. I intend to hang my plants in many of the same places. I will find some more pink orchid cactus, and orange and purple.
But gosh, sometimes it is difficult.

So let me tell you about daylilies. I have been growing them for probably 20 years at this point. I have filled up all the sunny places in the garden with daylilies and for the first time in a decade I will not be shopping for more. This week the season is fading away. Each day when I deadhead I finish off another entire stalk (there will sometimes be up to 10-15 per stalk), which can be the last one of that plant to bloom this year.
They have been blooming for a month now. The late ones are just starting. Flames of Hades is still a week away. Don’t you love the names?
But here are a few for you to review and tell me which you like. Then there are bonus pictures as you see.

The first picture is Scarlet Pansy, this wonderful red one with a yellow center. This one, I think, came from Fred McDowell’s place over on Court Street in Iowa City. Mr. McDowell had a nationally know daylily garden and would sell plants since they always need dividing. As a family we would sometimes go over there and each one of us could pick one.












The second one is a great big yellow one called Anna Mae Hager. Sometimes they are just named for some person, maybe somebody’s mom.










The third one is a great orange one called Krakatoa.










This one is the pink representative this week, and also is a double. It is called Siloam Olin Frazer. The Siloam series were all developed in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. There are a ton of them.










Finally I have included this spider daylily, called that since it has long leggy petals. One the other hand there are only 6 petals but if they could make one with 8 I am sure they would.













So vote away. You really haven't had a real chance to vote for daylilies, what with the lilium show these last few weeks.
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Last week you preference in the poll, by a whisker, was the first picture, Pizzazz. Every picture drew support from some people, which always makes me fell like I picked my pictures well.

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For bonus pictures there are the following yellow daylilies; Ram, Annalesia, and Ed Brown(so maybe this one is peach with a yellow edge).





































Then there are the following doubles; Double Bold One, Condilla and Savannah Knockout.



















For lilium pictures this week there is Casa Blanca, that’s the white one, Anastasia, My Precious, and Pink Paramount.









































Then there are close-ups of lilies, just for fun.


































As a final picture I show you again the wonderful pink orchid cactus. If you see this plant, in this pot, in the near future, call me. (It's no longer blooming.)






Philip Mears

1 comment:

IBOY said...

It just blows my mind that someone would steal plants, then look at them everyday and "enjoy" the beauty. They might show up at a garage sale, too.
Don