Red Dirt Ramblings®

Firmly rooted in the Oklahoma soil

Favorite June views and daylily hues

By writing about my favorite June views and daylily hues, I get you to look at my daylilies again. See how sneaky I am?

Hemerocallis ‘Sunny Monster’ (Arsenault 2006) daylily
Hemerocallis ‘Stacked to the Sky’ (Harry-P., 2017) daylily. This one has been very pretty this year.
‘Sing the Wondrous Story’ (Carpenter 2008) with a dark-leaved canna.
‘Pink Lemonade Party’ (Salter 2006) look great against the ornamental grass.
‘Red O’Kelley’s Fate (Niswonger 2012.) I’ve always been a huge fan of Niswonger’s red daylilies. He did a lot for those of us who like red because his could handle our intense sun and heat. This one also has large flowers on strong scape (stems) and is just about perfect.
‘Peach Treat’ (Niswonger 1996) daylilies up close. It’s that peach self with the wine eyezone for me.

What? No daylilies in your gardens?

What do you do for color in the in-between season of late spring/early summer when all of the ugly daffodil foliage is dying back?

If you live in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, or northern Texas, you need daylilies. They are easy to grow, and no plant gives so much bang for the buck unless you’re buying brand-new $200 cultivars.

‘Ninja Storm’ Gossard, 2005) has been flowering all month and shows no sign of stopping for another two weeks.
Mayor of Cornatzer (Elliott-S., 2016) daylily is a double form. It usually doubles, but not always. See the one bloom down in front.
‘King Kahuna’ (Crochet 1994) daylily. An older double, but it has great substance.
Backseat Debutante (Davisson-J., 2008) daylily. The name makes me laugh.
‘Foolish Whim’ (Selman 2015) finally settled down midseason and began putting on a show.

If you’re buying those, you’re a connoisseur and don’t need me to enable you. You may need an intervention, but I’m not here to judge. I understand the love of a pretty face.

It’s how I ended up married to Bill. Oh yeah, he’s smart too.

A nice view of the tiered borders next to the deck steps. I love working in these.

Because I want to help people understand good daylilies, I recorded a series of posts on Instagram. Here are a couple of them for flavor. This one is about two of James Hall’s cultivars, and this one is on tall ‘Ivory Titan,‘ with height being one important thing I look for in daylilies. If that doesn’t bore you, there are even more videos.

You might think daylilies are my favorite flowers. Actually, they’re not. I love roses more, but I’m always too busy during spring rose season to write or video about them much.

Favorite June views coming up.

The garden isn’t all daylilies. I have other favorite June views. There are trees, roses, hydrangeas, other shrubs, perennials, and prairie plants. There’s also a vegetable garden, a potager (soup garden), several shade gardens, and a pond.

June views
These are the shade borders next to the little green she shed.
June views
Caladium in my lower shade garden. I have a lot more in my front border. I don’t remember the variety, but there are so many new ones.
The lower shade garden looks inviting on a hot day.
‘Victorian Lace’ (Stamile P. 1999) and ‘Red Volunteer’ (Oakes 1984) with Viburnum dentatum ‘All that Glows’ in the lower part of the back garden. I love this shot with all the vibrant greens on a cloudy day.

And, people ask me what I do with my time. Ha!

Phlox paniculata, aka tall garden phlox, are just starting to come on. They are an integral part of my summer garden and the June views. I’m very excited about two new cultivars, Luminary® ‘Ultraviolet’ which I found in Texas last spring when we went to look at wildflowers, and Garden Girls™ Cover Girl which I bought locally from Bob Scott’s Nursery last spring. I bet he still has some unless it was flowering. Then, it will be gone.

You can find both of these online. I linked to them for you.

I shared this on the Gardenangelists podcast, but when we visited England last time, we were fortunate to visit King Charles’ garden. He had a tall ultraviolet phlox in his garden. Of course, they have different plants than we do, but this phlox cultivar was the closest one I could find to his.

This week, Carol Michel and I took a virtual stroll around our gardens on the Gardenangelists’ podcast. If you’d like to hear more about our garden histories, here’s Summer Solstice Garden Strolls.

Click on the images in the galleries to see larger photos.

The lower shade garden looks inviting on a hot day.
Two of my lavenders, one is 'Phenomenal.' The other is the unnamed Bonnie sold at Lowe's. I'm not sure they still sell the same variety.
Two of my lavenders, one is ‘Phenomenal.’ The other is the unnamed Bonnie sold at Lowe’s. I’m not sure they still sell the same variety.
Everyone’s favorite view of the back garden with the purple chairs.
I think these new garden beds are a nice impovement over Smart Pots.
Vego garden beds with African marigolds, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.
‘Becky’ shasta daisies with ‘Peach Treat’ (Niswonger 1996) daylilies.
Origanum ‘Rotkugel’ ornamental oregano is a spreader, but I’m thinking about putting it all down the front of the kitchen border because it is beautiful and performs so well. I could just divide my plant.
Spring garden chores include cutting back the boxwood hedge twice a year.
The potager, my boxwood hedge and the greenhouse. This is the most formal part of my garden.

Next week, we will explore garden magazines, some of which are no longer with us

So, that’s it for June views this week. I’m over on Instagram nearly daily at least in my stories. I’m also on our weekly podcast which drops every Wednesday at Midnight, but you can listen a day earlier if you subscribe to our free Substack newsletter.

The garage border. I don’t know that phlox variety, but it’s been a good shorter one.
This June view is pretty as a picture.
An overview of the back garden this morning.
How this for June views?
My American wisteria and back garden from the deck stairs.

Speaking of newsletters, I’ve been thinking about writing one about my journey with Alpha-gal syndrome and MCAS. I wonder if that would be of any interest to anyone? I don’t want to load up my blog with Alpha-gal posts, like this one about gardening with AGS, but it’s a journey I should probably write about since it’s changed my entire life.

Have a beautiful, if hot, day everyone. I hope you get to garden. Stay cool.

zinnia plan