A Visit with Dr. Darrel Apps, and Of Course, Daylilies

High summer is here, and in Wild Rose, as strange as is may seem that the name of the village is not Daylily, that means looking at, thinking about, talking about, and evaluating daylilies.  Last night, I fell asleep thinking about daylilies.  I would bet that is the situation for my neighbor, Dr. Darrel Apps, too.

Dr. Apps, has retired to my village, but the use of the word "retired" is probably not correct.  He has simply changed his venue.  His daylily breeding program is moving along faster now than it probably ever has.  

As If Honey Bees Didn't Have Enough to Worry About

Deadly beauty

The pink and white crab spiders also known as flower spiders spin their webs in flowers catching hapless pollinators.  These beautiful spiders come in a variety of colors and are a bit of the chameleon of the spider world.  This one is duplicating the beauty of the pink lily.  They can also be more yellow, brown, tan, and even shades of red.  I think this is the most beautiful spider I have ever seen.  Needless to say, the bee probably didn't share my enthusiasm.  Reading that they will even attack humans if they perceive them as a threat and will eat mosquitos; this time I am glad I was not first in line.

Eastern Gray Tree Frog

I always think of frogs being near water or near or on the ground.  Thing is, though the frog I see most often is a climbing frog, the Eastern gray tree frog.  These frogs can climb up to 30 feet into trees, or up the side of my house to hide on the window ledge, camouflaging himself by blending in with the peeling paint!  I suppose trying to hide by in the petunias (lilac) or on the side of the house (pink) would have been a bit of a push for these camouflaged experts, but great fun don't you think?

Purple...

Pink...

I think of these frogs as a bit like the amphibiam vampires.  They seem to get caught on the sunny side of buildings at dawn and seek cover in strange places.  The Gardening Twins and Baby Gardener found one between their window and the bird feeder.  (Bird "anything" as part of my hiding place I would also think, not a good choice.

NOTE: No frogs were spray-painted in the course of writing this blog post!

The Beauty of Established Plants and Adapting My Garden

Beebalm 'Jacob Cline', blue ceramic grouper looking on.

 Grouper has been "looking on" for over ten years now.  He has seen plants come and seen plants go.  In the Long Border, a plant really has to be on the top of its game to put on any sort of show.  There is just too much competition from other plants seeking advantageous sunlight and nutrients.  This year, this has also kept the weeds from over-running the garden.

I realize this year many of the plants in my garden are over ten years old.  This is an established garden, with an experienced gardener.  I have some bare patches this years, which I also know is unusual.  And it is time to change it up, and make it an easier garden to care for.

Achillea sibirica 'Love Parade'

Achillea sibirica 'Love Parade' is a nice achillea growing just under two feet tall and about two feet wide.  It prefers full sun where it can develop strong stems and its shiny foliage, unlike other achilleas.  It has nice pastel pink flowers which are larger than achillea millefolium.  Unlike other achilleas, it is clump forming rather than sending rhizamatous roots to and fro.

It is cold hardy to at least zone 4 and prefers well-drained soils.  Bloom time is July in zone 5.

My Idea of Garden Art! Wire Sculpture by Robin Wright

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/07/dramatic-stainless-steel-wire-fairies-by-robin-wight/

My Tiny Pink House

 I usually skip pictures of my house as I move around the yard.  It is tiny, a cottage, and I painted it pink.  What can I say?

Lilies Are Making a Day of It

Annabelle Hydrangeas and My Multitude of Sins

I love Annabelle Hydrangeas.  I have a long stretch of them planted alongside on house.  They hide (as they quickly sprout up in spring) the place where the paint is peeling off my home.  Part of this spot not getting repainted is exactly because they do grow so quickly making it almost impossible to paint it without painting the hydrangea as well.

Annabelle, first patented in 1929, and having the distinction of being the first plant patented in the US, is one of those almost heirloom plants growing in gardens around old homesteads.  There were no Annabelles here when I came, but my cottage style house cries out for them and their buddies, peonies, old-fashioned lilacs, bridal wreath spirea, climbing roses, not to mention lilies of the valley.

This year after our brutal winter I have new appreciation for these study plants.  All did well in my garden this year.

Having these plants as the basic framework of my garden has saved me from the overwhelming effects of the great die-back caused by our brutal winter, which will be remembered as That Winter.  (Although Handsome Son, taking a page from his Opa's Book of Gloom and Doom, has predicted we will have more like it.  I excuse these traditional readings from this book on the part of Opa.  Opa had an aunt who remembers the Year Without a Summer 2 (the year after Krakatoa blew in 1883).  So word of mouth, from Opa's ear to my son, we have living memory of meteorological gloom and doom.)

In my garden, though, it's a whole other thing.  It is a good thing.  Like my forebears, I can not run out and simply replace every plant that succumbs.  It is not an excuse to find another plant.  My budget simply will not allow it.  In many ways, my garden is one of shared plants, and plants collected from seed, grown from seed, and taken from cuttings.  I try to embrace a state of grace and stately-ness, but that is all in the design.  Using these tried and true plants passed along to me hides my lack of cash.

Some clear yellow iris (without any brown or shading of any sort on any part of the iris) passed along to my neighbor, pictured by him in his yard.  His favorite color is this clear yellow.   I don't know the name of it, which he bemoans loudly to me any chance he gets.  I keep thinking the provenance is "dug from a site by an old abandoned homestead", because I, too, appreciate a good clear, clean, yellow iris.  It seems to be unpalatable to borer, as well, which further leads me to think it might be that iris, dug from the side of a road.

They hide the weeds, do not complain too much when I can't water, and am slow to paint.  They provide armfuls of blooms.  

They forgive my sins.

A Monday in July

Clematis texensis 'Diana'

This is the 21st year for this rose.  Propagated from a bunch "given" to me by my son and his dad on my son's "first" Valentine's Day.

Lilium 'Algarve'

Rose 'Belinda's Dream'

Asarina, standing in for rose 'Eden' which while alive, will not bloom this year.

Overheard: "Mother Nature Choose Well, Her Caretaker..."

These are all small glimpses of plants in my front yard.  Pretty much,I let them duke it out all summer.  I spend a few hours trying to keep the slugs at bay and the grass from growing in the hostas, but that's about it.  The daylilies are about ready to send up their scapes.  When they are, the front yard looks like a three ring circus.  Have at.  Stella is already in bloom.

Cherry bells campanula is taking over where the lily of the valley left off.

John Cabot rose

Big Daddy or some similar, Blue Angel type hosta, over five feet across.

Annabelle does as she pleases.

Dutchman's pipe and 'Quickfire' hydrangea, code name BULK, in their death match over control of my garden gate.  

Clematis 'Alionushka' so dainty, people probably miss her.

All this and a weeping crabapple and a privet hedge in about 450 square feet.

I was in the back reading, when I heard the title comment.  Caretaker?  More like the referee!

Lady's Mantle in the Rain, and Other Garden Notes

I don't think you can get enough Lady's Mantle in a garden.  I have only a couple tiny clumps of it.  I realize this year I need to encourage a lot more.  It is like clematis, they need a year or so to establish themselves, but are probably worth the wait.

I am going to have to dig for the tag on this clematis.  It is a pale pink mauve with deep purple stamens.  It is pumping out the blooms in this, it's second year.

Clematis 'Blue Dancer' with its seed heads and very decorative maroon stems, both are added benefits long after the petals have dropped on this one.

Don't you love how the moisture beads up on these leaves.

This is rose 'Belinda's Dream', the only rose I have seen in my garden with a couple of rose chaffers.  I have it planted in a large pot and placed it in my box planter, which I moved to full sun.  I bought it as an own root, bare root rose before the ground was unfrozen here  (something that did not happen until May 5 here).  (I may need to move it to a special spot by the house.  The fragrance is very charming and very sweet.  

This is the corner everything was hastily heeled into after my fall late last summer.  Now that my commitment to summer school is over, I seriously can think over what this spot should contain.  I haven't been able to put my left foot on a shovel and apply any sort of force, yet, nor support myself on the left and dig with my right foot.  Moving plants has been problematic.  Handsome Son transplants like a person using a chainsaw to carve a turkey.  If I simply want something big and dead removed, he's the man...

After cutting this to the ground last year, and our bad winter, the smoke and size on my smokebush is remarkable and very dramatic.

This is a cute veronica, I think 'Sonja'.

Clematis texensis, 'Diana' always seems to hide its few blooms behind the honeysuckle.  The vine is enormous, the ratio of flowers not so much.

I have not been able to capture how pretty this really is.  The native blue spiderwort couple with the very tame 'Concord Grape' and Stella is nice.  I have  a large drift of native pale lilac beebalm preparing to flower here as well.  Maybe that will add the photogenic tough this spot craves.  A peculiar note, I typically pinch my beebalms.  I pinched the native, too, and the result was no flowers.  This is a first for me and beebalm.  I can't imagine there might be a dramatic cultural difference between it and the cultivars, but I can't discount that.

This annual iberis has been about the best and nicest surprise in my garden this year.  I grew it from seed quite late, in late April.

Cinnamon is back from her nearly year-long stay in Illinois when I could not care for her.  Having her on a lead is still problematic for me, but I can attach her to an overhead guide wire now, so she can't pull me down stairs.

Now that the yews have been removed from behind the 'Crimson Frost' birch I am quite liking there absence.  I had a pink Knockout rose die here this winter.  This is another spot needing some serious redesign.

Heartbreaking, my privet hedge died to the ground this spring.  I waited until mid-June and noticed growth coming (finally).  It will be a year at least until it regains its glory, but replacing it and waiting would have taken much longer and I liked how it looked, shown here in front of the dappled willow.

So, on this 4th of July, I am finally ready to attempt to get my garden ship-shape...So glad it is not on a garden walk this year!