Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day for July 2011
Abundant Lilies
It is Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day again and time to share what is happening around the garden. I think there are two themes to note in the garden right now. The lilies have been absolutely spectacular. The wonderful scent of the big orientals is evident both inside and outside the house at the moment. You can’t help but notice them as you walk by. A few years ago we had our best lilies disappear, apparently to some vole-like critter. We tried to fight back by establishing lilies in other parts of the yard. And now left-over pieces of those original plantings are coming back and all the other new ones are flourishing as well. Some of the lilies would be 7 or 8 feet tall if we had managed to stake them and instead they are leaning and interwoven with other plants. Some of my favorites are these.
Lilium oriental 'Casa Blanca' plant
Lilium Oriental Hybrid 'Casa Blanca'
Lilium Oriental-Triumph hybrid 'Scheherazade' with Joe Pye Weed
Scheherazade backlit
Lilium Oriental Hybrid 'Salmon Star'
Lilium Oriental Hybrid 'Muscadet'
The other gardening element that just shines this time of year is the front rock garden where the mix of perennials is in constant flux but seems to be especially floriferous right now.
Front Rock Garden
It’s hard not to share it from different angles
Front Rock Garden 2nd view
Or to want to point out the different elements that make up this garden like the Shasta Daisies
Shasta Daisies 'Becky'
or the Agastache ‘Tutti-Frutti’ returning for it’s 4th season.
Agastache 'Tutti-frutti'
The color of this agastache is very close to the persian cornflower that is so happy that I’ve now given it a place in the sunshine instead of the semi-shade where it persisted but hardly flowered.
Persian Cornflower 'Centaurea dealbata'
Another piece of that front bed is the yarrow surrounded by ponytail grass.
Yarrow surrounded by ponytail grass (Nassella tenuissima)
And rising in the midst of the yarrow and ponytail grass is a nice stand of alstroemeria ‘Sweet Laura’ which is taller than almost anything else in the bed.
Alstroemeria 'Sweet Laura'
In the back camellia garden there is a nice combination of echinacea and geranium.
Echinacea purpea 'White Swan' and Geranium 'Rozanne'
This is right next to what I thought was some 3 foot high late iris. It turns out that it is blackberry lily that has self-seeded to a very inappropriate place at the front of the bed.
Blackberry Lily (Belamcanda chinensis)
Let me close with a view of the peaches out in the orchard (life is not about flowers alone, though one can make a good argument for that proposition).
Red Haven Peaches
Your flowers are lovely, but those peaches are luscious.
Oh My, your Lilies are simply gorgeous! I hope mine look as good when they flower!
Happy GBBD
lovely lovely lilies! happy GBBD!