July 3, 2010 at 4:46 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: daylilies, hybridization, spiders, ufo forms
Ida's Magic
Fooled Me
Apollodorus
Here are some of the daylilies that are blooming this month. The top one is one of my earliest purchases, Ida’s Magic, and it remains a favorite of mine today. Going out to see what new daylilies have opened is a little like finding Easter eggs, a surprise every morning. The middle photo is of Fooled Me, a new cultivar for me this season. The bottom photo is the lovely Apollodorus, which I’ve had for many years. Daylilies are fun, they bloom a long time (mine began flowering in May), they are easy care, and their myriad colors and shapes are a thrill to experience everyday.
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June 15, 2010 at 11:28 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: St. John Wort
garden bench with St. John's Wort shrub
We all have our favorite places in our gardens: a view that charms us, a special spot to sit and survey our work or a pleasant stroll through beloved plants. This old bench was a favorite of mine before the ice storm. I could sit under the big elm in the shade, relax and look at the beauty around me. It is still a special place but without the elm, the sun has done amazing things. All the plants, hellebores, asters, daylilies, and shrubs, have grown bigger than ever. Now I view it from a distance because the flowers have claimed my special place. I’ve decided that’s not such a bad thing. See you in the garden.
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June 8, 2010 at 6:35 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Black-eyed Susan, daylilies, Gloriosa Daisy, Spider daylily form, UFO daylily form
Today’s garden pix show off nature’s and daylily hybridizers’ work in new forms. The Gloriosa Daisy (Rudbeckia hirta var. angustifolius) in my butterfly garden produced a rare double-decker bloom. These are the blooms that horticulturists like to clone and introduce to the market. It seems everything double is popular. The second picture is of a daylily of unknown name that has the UFO form. It is more irregular than a spider. I really like UFOs. Their flowers are huge, some are 10-12 inches across.
The bright red daylily is a new spider form unknown. Its rich red color is so striking next to the yellow throat. Even the backs of the petals are bright yellow, so it was a surprise when it bloomed red. I like surprises. See you in the garden.
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June 1, 2010 at 2:40 am (Containers)
In the largest pot I combined a perennial heuchera ‘Citronelle’ with purple wave petunias for contrast. Single plants were used in the smaller pots: Peek-a-boo, Spilanthes and green Oxalis. These will look good all summer. The heuchera may be planted in the ground in the fall. The oxalis is a house plant. Petunias and Spilanthes are annuals.
Grouping ceramic pots that are glazed on the inside and outside is attractive and the pots can be reused season after season.
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May 27, 2010 at 3:14 pm (Uncategorized)
Hippeastrum andersoni Clematis ‘Patricia Ann Fretwell’
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May 24, 2010 at 9:22 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: garden tours, native irises, Species Iris Group of North America
seed-grown Iris fulva, red form
To see interesting flowers like the iris above, sculptures, water features, fountains, rose arbors etc., make plans to attend the June 5th Through the Garden Gate Tour, sponsored by Flower, Garden and Nature Society of Northwest Arkansas. Proceeds benefit the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks and the Laurin Wheeler program series of FGNS.
Tickets are sold at each garden. You can start at our house, 2468 N. Crossover Rd. in Fayetteville, then you’ll have a map to follow to the next gardens. Hope to see you in the garden.
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April 2, 2010 at 5:18 pm (Old House Gardens, heirloom bulbs, wildflowers)
Tags: daffodils
"And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils." Wordsworth
March and April are deliriously happy days for me because there is something new blooming everyday. I get to say Hello to some old flower friends and have happy surprises when new flowers bloom. I love collecting all types of daffodils. I plant bags and bags every fall, waiting for the first blooms in March. This daffodil is a big, robust fellow, ‘Mount Hood.’ Its trumpet blooms cream, but quickly fades to a creamy white.
Every other day I make a bouquet of all of the daffodils I have blooming. Their names are often historic and sometimes descriptive: Dick Wellband, Professor Einstein, Peaches and Cream, Conspicuous, Quail, Thalia, Mint Julep, Rosy Cloud, Las Vegas, Campernelle, Hawera, Golden Echo, Empress, Silent Valley, Suada and many, many others. I highly recommend becoming a daffodil collector. They will repay you with, as Wordsworth wrote, “a crowd, a host of golden daffodils. . . Ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance.” Come join the dance!
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March 23, 2010 at 2:40 am (wildflowers)
Tags: spring ephemerals
More Prairie Trout Lily photos from the woods.
These delightful harbingers of spring bloom earlier than the White Trout Lily, E. albidum and the Yellow Dog-tooth Violet, E. americanum. Native American women used the leaves for preventing pregnancy and they also were thought to have antibacterial properties.
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March 22, 2010 at 10:52 pm (1)
This was the view from our southwest deck on the second day of Spring. Snow dissolves more nitrogen from the air, so it always gives plants a little added growth boost, especially this late and so much of it!
Neither the blooming apricot, nor the daffodils seemed to be too affected by the snow because the temperatures weren’t extreme. The hellebores just came right up through the snow too.
I hope Mother Nature is ready for us to have a really beautiful Spring, now, after her parting shot of Winter. Enjoy!
Grandma’s Jonquils
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March 22, 2010 at 10:35 pm (wildflowers)
An earlier species of white trout lily is blooming now in our woods. It is called the Prairie Trout Lily, Erythronium mesochoreum. Since our property is set up to be developed soon, these lilies will be moved to three area prairies by Joe Woolbright and other volunteers. These little beauties have a clever way to disperse their seeds, through myrmecochory, that is, ants are attracted to tasty bumps on the seeds, so the ants carry them to their underground passages. The seeds remain behind to develop into new plants, having been dispersed by the ants.
Lilies also have contractile roots that allow them to adjust their level in the soil until they are at the perfect level for growing. Pretty smart little flowers, huh?
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