Most awesome bloom of the day.

H. "Awesome Artist" (Lambertson '02)

This has to be my favorite daylily bloom of the season. This daylily is stunning, especially today.

Here is a photo of Fiona taking the time to smell the roses. Well, their not roses but she sure likes them anyway. Shh don't tell her they aren't blooming.

If she could only get her little nose on these flowers I'm sure she would like them much better...

H. "Paper Butterfly"

H. "Cat Dancer"

H. "Jan's Twister"

H. "Spacecoast Dixie Chick"

This is one of my sisters seedlings. It is not registered but what a beautiful daylily. I took this picture in my mom's garden. This daylily gets very tall scapes with large blooms in a deep burgundy color and it has a bright yellow throat. She made this cross when she was only eight years old.

Here is a R. Kann Seedling with the garden name "Bob's Melanie Frost" ( Becky Lynn X Joan Senior). This is the second year it bloomed in my garden and it has such a beautiful melon color bloom with slight ruffle and a stunning green throat.

Praying Mantis and Sunshine All Day

FFO H. "Sunshine All Day" (Frank Smith ’07) and a Praying Mantis

On my way home from work today, I noticed a praying mantis hanging on for dear life to my windshield. I decided to pull over and try to save him. I didn't want to leave him on the side of the road to be squished and I didn't want him to fly off my car on the expressway. So I grabbed my lunch container and coaxed him inside. I figured he'd be safer there for the trip home. He made it safe and sound and was hanging out in my daylilies. He even found a snack.

Nature at its best...

Here is a picture of a mysterious cone flower that appeared in my garden last summer. I didn't plant it and figured it was from a seed the birds missed. This year it bloomed and it's neither purple or white (which are the the colors of the surrounding coneflowers) but a very pale pink. So the birds and the bees played a large part in creating a new coneflower right here in my garden. The picture doesn't seem to show the pink very well but in person it's such a sweet pretty pink.

Nature at its best!

No Words...

Seedlings and Protecting My Scapes

This past weekend was a busy one. I had written a blog a while back about dogs in the garden. This however was before the arrival of Oakley. He is the sweetest dog ever but boy does he like to play. Our other two dogs now have a second wind and together they all tear around the back yard. I really love to see them play but cringe and yell every time they run through the daylily beds.

Me and my husband worked on a solution. He fenced in a section of the yard and I made new beds and moved about 30 daylilies into our new garden. It's definately a work in progress. So far, I like it. Searching for some new plants to fill the area will be fun and moving some others from the yard into our garden will definately make it look as if it's always been there.

The next project is a gate and an arbor to finish it off.

I also planted 31 seedlings in their very own bed inside the new garden. They got a topsoil, manure and compost mix topped with some mulch. So far they are looking very pleased.

Here is a picture of one of the seedlings.

Here are just a few new blooms in the gardens.

H. 'Chicago Queen'

Hydrangea 'Annabelle'

H. 'Custard Candy'

H. 'Grape Ice'

Hydrangea 'Nikko Blue'

H. ' Rosy Returns'

H. 'Stella De Oro'

Newer and better blooms

Here is a newer and much better bloom of H. Baby Blue Eyes taken during our heat wave.

H. Lavender Blue Baby is blooming today. It's my very first bloom on Lavender Blue Baby. It is an Early to Mid season bloomer yet I still think it won't be quite this early next year. It had a head start in the south.

Nikko Blue Hydrangea Bloom

I just love Hydrangeas.

Okra blooms

Having a husband who's roots are in the south, I have gotten to experience some foods that we just don't eat here in New York. Okra being one of them. I had my first taste of Okra when I visited Texas several years ago. It was sliced, breaded, deep fried and delicious.

I have tried to grow Okra before with success but not as far as seeing it bloom or reaping the benefits of the delicious okra. Just keeping the plant alive through the summer.

This year, I started the plants inside and had two surviving seedlings. One of the two had a bud and it's starting to bloom today. I had no idea how beautiful an Okra bloom was. I actually thought the bud was the start of an Okra. Turns out it wasn't.

So I googled 'Clemson Spinless Okra' and discovered that it is part of the Mallow family and is closely related to the Hibiscus plant. No wonder this bloom is starting to look so pretty. It is even recommended as a back border plant for this reason. Back Border because it can reach about 6 feet tall.

Here a picture of the Okra bloom beginning to open.