June 26, 2016- Things are happening every day

A new story every day.
I did something different this week. Each day I took pictures and wrote a little about those flowers and that day. It would be exhausting to do this all the time. I wanted to do this because there really are new wonderful flowers every day. 
Here is the week in review.




It is Sunday, June 19  and it is just noon.
Already there are great pictures.
Let's start with a bang. This has got to be a top ten picture.
This particular picture just doesn't look real. This is a Japanese Iris. I have lost the name tag. Oh well.

After that Iris this waterlily seems pedestrian. That was not really fair to the waterlily.

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The Japanese Iris really put on a show this year. I must give them more room...and maybe get some more.

This is a clivia. A lot of my clivia in the past few years got bugs. White fly I think. Once you have bugs I am told that it is very hard to get rid of them. I can now tell people that myself. This yellow blooming variety seems to avoid the bugs better. The plant has 3 bloom stalks at the moment.

Oh you Orchid Cactus. This one was pointed in just the right direction for a good picture.

Unlike Ruby Spider, which is not a real spider daylily, this plant is a true spider daylily. Someone defined them at some point 40 years ago. This one is called Kindly Light.









It is Monday, and it is another hot day.
The rain in the area passed us by this morning. I watch the radar a lot.
I have begun to mulch the daylilies. The signs of stress show up with the lower leaves turning brown. I will not mulch the hosta. That just invites the bugs.
I always had to water the garden over the summers. I have a front yard hose and a back yard hose. I have been spoiled 3 out of the last 4 years as I never had to get the hose out.The ground is getting hard as it gets dry. Maybe it will rain on Wednesday. If not, out comes the hose. Watering will be just one more thing to do.

But the flowers continue.

This plant has Apricot in its name. For the moment that is all I remember. I think it might be Apricot Jade. What wonderful stripes it has.

This is a native wildflower. It is called a Michigan Lily. It did require some limbo work to take the picture looking up.

Ruby Spider bloomed for the first time today. The picture to the immediate left is the clump. I counted about 30 scapes. Each scape has maybe 6-8 buds/ flowers. That will be about 200 flowers spread out over...well, we shall see. I think there will be two flowers tomorrow. Each flower lasts one day. Hence the name.

At one point I may have had 200 varieties of daylilies, all carefully charted and monitored. I still have most of those. The charts and monitoring...not so much.

If I were to write a garden book it might be "Gardening as We Age." One thing to do with daylilies and perhaps with hosta is to find the 50 or so we really like. Then get rid of the rest. Pamper the ones that stay, making big clumps like my Ruby Spider. My problem is that I always want to put stuff in between the clumps of daylilies or hosta. There are spring bulbs. Then there are caladium. There are fall crocuses. Before you know it you are crowded again.

I showed you one of my seedlings last week. On the left there is another flower from that same plant. The picture next to it on the right, is one of its parents. That would be San Ignacio. The plant has class written all over it.

More frills from the backyard.
I believe the name is Sherry Lynn Carr. That was probably some neighbor or mother. I said you needed to get creative. Sometimes creativity is in short supply.

This is Asiatic Lily Kentucky.














Tuesday, is just like yesterday-more heat.
Two blooms today on Ruby Spider. The big yellow orchid cactus hanging in the walnut tree in the front yard should have as many as 5 or 6 flowers tomorrow, judging from the size of the buds.
It does not look its best because I am leaving the spent flowers on the plant. I hope that there will be seed pods.
The red/pink orchid cactus behind it has maybe 47 buds, mostly like this at this point. If you want a sneak preview of what it will look like check out the archive for this blog from July, 2015.

There was a cute little waterlily blooming today, one of two blooms today in the pond. They bloom during the day, when the sun gets to them. They have begun to close up when I get home at 5. The little one did something I have not seen before, perhaps because often there is not open water in the right direction.



If you look with some attention you will see the reflection of the petals, in the water. I do not think I have ever taken a waterlily picture like that.

Here it is with the brightness reduced. The picture is a little better. The reflection is no longer visible.

Here is the second flower, starting to hide behind a leaf. It does have that glow I associate with waterlilies.

Coneflowers have started to bloom. We know about the traditional purple coneflower. Here is one of many variants that have been developed over the last decade. Coneflowers fill several pages of most catalogues these days. You pay for all those test tubes and patents-applied-for. I get what I can from the sales tables in August.
This is a lovely yellow.

The tag was gone from this beauty. Then out of somewhere in my brain came the name Pumpkin Kid. Mr. Internet confirmed my memory.

This is Lavender Memories, developed by Lynn Stoll, over in Atalissa, Iowa. Lynn died in December 2014. Her plants live on.













Wednesday, RAIN AND MORE RAIN
We needed rain. Starting about 2 am we got 4 inches, counting the rain in the morning. I had put out some mulch around the daylilies. I was worried that the mulch might stop the rain from getting down to the roots. Not a problem. My main regret was that I had to leave prime weeding conditions to go to work this morning. There are opportunities for great rain pictures, particularly with daylilies. Not today. Ruby Spider had four flowers today. This flower picture, when taken at noon, had sparkles of water. Sparkles are difficult to capture on film (or whatever we have now.)

This first pink waterlily looked up at me over the noon hour.

How about this for an almost perfect Asiatic Lily.

Thursday- cooler- almost nice, if I did not have to work.
At the office today I am helping one of the clients I got out of prison a few weeks ago. He needs a lawyer to navigate the Department of Transportation. Of course he had dug himself a real hole. Working with holes is something I do.

Ruby Spider had 11 flowers today.

The pink waterlily came all the way out today.

Sometimes there are plant jokes. Here is a hosta with a flower like a daylily. Well, maybe not. Some of the daylily stalks were bent over with the rain. If you put this picture in the slideshow of all these pictures (you should be able to do that by clicking on a picture) the form of the picture is much like the waterlily emerging from the lily pads.




Some of these little daylilies are so perfect. Here is Butterfly Charm. I just had to make the picture bigger. Smooth is the word that comes to mind. Imagine that this is such a wonderful picture with no color variation.

This little guy is called Indy Charmer.

There are so many opportunities for great closeups.













Friday- a great day to pull weeds.
I woke up early this morning. I was able to get out to the garden by about 5:20. It was really nice this morning. I actually wore a jacket...for about ten minutes. Before work I tackled this one bed that has these very very tall lilium. It was time to stake them, after I first pulled out the weeds and cut out the vine. If the lilies (not the daylilies) can grow to 7-8 feet tall, I can find them a stake.

I do keep waiting for someone to produce colorful stakes. I suppose I should just have a painting party some afternoon on a weekend in July. I should get lots of different color paints and paint all my poles and stakes.

Tomorrow I will go after a different bed where more lilium need stakes.
By the way it was a quiet day for Ruby Spider.  Only 8 flowers today.

This picture doesn't give you an appreciation for the size of this trumpet lily. I will try tomorrow. It is the first one of these lilies to bloom.








Here is that wonderful yellow clivia.

This is one of the last Japanese Iris to bloom. What a great color.

The waterlilies continue their display. There is almost one every day.










This hibiscus has such a wonderful thing sticking out. I had to make the picture big.

It was a good year for Jack in the Pulpits. The seed head has begun to form. It will eventually turn bright red.









This is one of my favorite daylilies. It prompted me, at the height of my daylily obsession, to buy a second plant. It is Margaret Seawright.

Saturday, has been a real scorcher
I do not know how hot it is. I suppose it is in the mid 90's. I got out again this morning before 5:30. The birds were really loud. particularly one cardinal. (I am not real good on the bird identification-I know a cardinal call and a wren scolding.) Sometimes I get in the middle of some wren conversation or dispute. They chatter, very loudly given their size.

I went to a garden walk today in Iowa City. The people had nicely landscaped yards. They did not have much color. Hosta were everywhere. Having all hosta is not that interesting after a while. One way to get color is impatients. We know that and did that 20 years ago. I still will do that in places. I also do caladium. Because of a cool spring I am just getting the caladium sprinkled throughout the garden. They are spectacular when backlit by the sun in the morning.

Here are those tall lilium I staked yesterday.

This red/pink orchid cactus is going to bloom very soon I think. Maybe by mid week.

Another hubiscus.

Here is Ruby Spider with its 9 flowers today. The color really fades on this kind of hot day. This picture was taken in the morning.

Did I mention deadheading daylilies? Each morning, if you want the best display, you need to go around and clip off yesterday's spent flowers. This is one more thing on the gardener's to-do list.

A coneflower? Yes it is. They have made a red one. It might be called Tomato Soup. When it comes to naming the varieties those people developing the coneflowers are not boring.












Here are the three waterlilies today. This white one could compete with almost anything, and may this  coming winter. The background colors just work well with it.

My goodness. That's it. The week is over. I hope it has been a treat for you. I have enjoyed it.
You should think about which would be your favorites in this bunch. The opening Japanese Iris is certainly an A+. But so is the white waterlily at the end. I also really like the pure yellow little daylily, Butterfly Charm.
The fact that simple can be so good, says a lot.
Stay cool. Find the breeze. Maybe find some simple.
Philip