Sunday, June 28, 2009

Mears Garden news- Summer week 2- June 28, 2009

Summer continues. The caladium are thriving. The time of the daylilies has begun. It is also so very busy.
There are several reasons why it is busy. First daylily season really requires deadheading. I know you should deadhead lots of things, like daffodils and iris and peonies. But somehow with daylilies you just really have to do it. I think it is because the flowers really only last one day. There are then many other buds that will be there on each stalk, blooming over a several week period. One plant can have 150 buds, given the correct conditions. In order to have the plant look good, you do not want the spent flowers in the picture. In fact some old blossoms look downright bad. Slimy is one word that can come to mind with certain varieties. I once heard that hybridizers were trying to make daylilies where the old bloom would just fall right off. It hasn’t happened. So each day I tour the garden with a bucket and deadhead. I wasn’t doing this a month ago. I wasn’t doing this a week ago.

There are also so many picture opportunities. There are all those daylilies and lilium and caladium. The caladium themselves will create pictures for several months. Sometimes they positively glow with the light from some new angle.

Did I mention that it was hot? It has been hot this past week, even though it is to cool off this week. That does mean that I have to water a few things. Impatiens are nice and they have been on sale. But they do take a lot of water, as does almost anything in a pot.

And there are the plant sales. Annuals are on sale at this point at the farmer’s market. I do have to plant this week’s purchases in order to get any next week.

So there you go. I am deadheading and photographing and watering and planting and buying those last few things.

How about some pictures. I have a few.

First there is the daylily close-up. You could just take 25 of these each day. Here is one of the first of the season. We could have a vote about whether light is more important than color. What if I suggested that light is a color?










This is a little tiny lilium called Tinkerbell. I got it two years ago and it is slowly getting bigger.













This is the white caladium called White Queen that I got this year. Caladium are so big that in the morning they can catch the sunlight so easily.











Speaking of sunlight here is an Asiatic lily out in the front parkway catching the morning sun.













I hope you will like these pictures.

Last week you liked the Michigan lily. That was a good choice.


In the bonus pictures this week you will see what else is going on. There are Japanese iris including the big pink one called Fourfold Pink. There are lilies and daylilies and one of the first coneflower pictures. My, they are nice with the other colors in the garden this time of year. And that doesn’t even count the wonderful patterns you can get in the center of the flower.























































































I hope you have a good week.
Philip

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Philip, this weeks contest choices were really hard. I went for the close up of the daylily, but the cladium is outstanding too! :)

Diann