The days of lilies and roses


… are passing quickly. Almost every lily I’ve got in the garden is either out of bloom, in bloom, or starting to bloom (except the speciosum rubrum). And Garden Walk is still over a week away. There are still plenty of buds, however, and I know I’ll have Black Beauty, tigrinum “Flore Pleno,” henryi, and maybe a few oriental hybrids persisting when the walkers come. Still, I can see an emergency trip to the nursery in my future.


I’m not really worried. The Garden Walk visitors are easy to please; they don’t seem nearly as fussy as, say, a group of 70 garden bloggers/writers might be. Good thing I won’t have any of those!


Some flower observations:


-A red climbing rose I remember cutting back nearly to the ground due to winterkill a few years back is slowly crawling to the top of the house, and blooming better than it ever did. The clematis near it seems somewhat troubled; maybe a similar treatment for different reasons next spring would help it. You can see both of them in one of these shots.

-This is the year of the hydrangea. I have dozens more blooms on every bush. Annabelle and ES Blushing Bride are kind of floppy but I’ll take that in exchange for the 4 months of flowers both give. The Alpenglow and Forever Pink are nearly florescent.


-Hostas are early as well. My unnamed purple variety will need to be deadheaded in a week or so.

-Strange anomalies include my rodgersia, which has great foliage but no flowers this year. What gives? And my rudbeckia hirta Herbstsomme is doing nothing. But it may be too early. Actually I am looking forward to the various rudbeckias, which come into their prime when the lilies are done.

And to close this Bloom Day post, I should mention that I am listening to an NPR On Point show right now that indicates the hot summer we’re getting in Buffalo and across the NE and MW this summer may just mean “summer as we now know it.” According to a new study. !!!

Comments

Joseph said…
Did you just call us fussy? If so, your garden blew away even the fussiest of us -- though certainly the fact that we viewed it while intoxicated didn't hurt :)
Thanks again for being such an amazing hostess!
It doesn't appear that the heat has hurt any of the gardens I have been seeing from the Fling. Beautiful. Happy GBBD.
Those lilies astounded me so I'd say, no I'm not fussy. :-) I know your garden will be beautiful on the walk. Although I can also understand wanting to keep it in ship-shape. Good luck with the walk and thanks again (can't say it enough!).
It looked wonderful to me. Your Hydrangeas really are impressive. I refused to post a photo of mine, they look so puny & pathetic by comparison. Do you fertilize your Clematis after it blooms? Cutting it back by half at that time may help it also.
Unknown said…
Yikes--I'm going to have to rethink a few garden areas if this is going to be the new "summer as we know it," that's for sure!

I adore that orange lily, and your clematis certainly looks relatively happy to me. Not much there for a bunch of us fussy garden bloggers NOT to like, EAL. :)
Gail said…
Your garden was filled with love when I was there! We loved the party, plants and people~especially our delightful hostess! I do want to add more of lilies and hope the garden can support some of the beauties you shared. Speaking of love~I prefer the pink hydrangeas and don't they look like they are leaning over to whisper in the hosta's ear! Extreme weather events are supposed to be the new normal for the SE~Not good news. gail
Queer by Choice said…
I just love the orange lilies!
Carol Michel said…
Fussy? Us bloggers? No way. We were in awe of the flowers and enjoying one another's company.

Your garden is amazing with all that you have blooming. (But I do remember you mentioning that garden centers around Buffalo stock blooming plants for gardeners to use to fill in bare spots for Garden Walk. Interesting...)
commonweeder said…
Yikes! I hadn't heard about Summer as we now know it! I loved your lilies, especially henryi. I am planting as many Henry plants as I can find (my husband's name is Henry, a newly popular boy's name) but my henryi, planted last year, is about half the size of yours. I'm going to work on my soil in that new garden area.
Layanee said…
I have tazettas because of you and now I have a list of lilies which I can blame on you. I can't thank you enough. LOL
Sylvana said…
Ugh, "summer as we now know it"? I'd rather not.
Love your pink hydrangea. It really grabs the attention and fills in that area with color. I don't have any and I'm starting to rethink that.
Kylee Baumle said…
Fussy? Us? Just let me visit again and I'll do fussy. LOL
Helen said…
Fussy. I think not. We were awestruck by the lilies and hydrangeas we could see through the crowds, and too much enjoying the crowds to look further.

If it weren't for the lily leaf beetles, I'd be planting lilies left and right. "More lilies" is my constant mantra come July. But I want to wait till the red plague dies down a little bit before I give myself more cause for heartbreak.
It all looks gorgeous from here and from the comments of the folks who just visited, I know it is in person, too.
everything looks simply gorgeous! so lush too. i'm sure the garden walk will be a hit!
Andrew said…
Hi,

I really loved this post; there is some beautiful photography.

I’ve written an article titled ‘Poisonous plants found near you’ which I thought you might be interested in:

http://www.dobbies.co.uk/blog/poisonous-plants

If you know of any poisonous plants that we haven’t listed here then we’d love to hear back form you.


All the best

Andrew
--
(for) Ian Daniels

http://www.dobbies.co.uk/blog/
http://twitter.com/dobbiesdotcom

Dobbies Garden Centres Plc
Melville Nursery
Lasswade
Midlothian
EH18 1AZ
Tel: 0131 663 6778
Hey Eliz,

Thanks again for Buffa10!!!!!


I just wanted you to know I added your blog and Garden Rant to the soon to be launched North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association blog roll for NC Blogs!

http://www.tarheelgardening.com/wordpress/

I also wanted to make sure you received my new link for Gardening With Confidence's blog

www.gardeningwithconfidence.com/blog.

Thanks!

I hope you are doing well!

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