“Is it hot out here or what?” I ask as I fan myself, and sweat drips down my face.
Bill says, “Is a twenty-pound Robin fat?”
It’s hotter than Hades in Oklahoma. Not as hot as 2011, but hot enough.
Good thing daylilies like hot weather. They may melt in the afternoon, but tomorrow is always another day, and another bloom.
Much of June was full on sunshine, but a cold front came through Friday night, and we cooled down to 85F. I’ll take it over last week where the humidity made me feel as if I were living in Houston in August.
My daylily club did a local garden tour on Saturday, and my garden was part of the tour. I worked hard to get things tidied up. Actually, my whole family worked hard, and Kari came out and helped twice too. It takes a village to keep a garden tour ready. Things have never looked better. If I haven’t already enticed you with photos to join the daylily club, what will it take? I’m ready to make house calls if I must.
My visitors seemed taken with Silphium perfoliatum, cup plant which will be covered in yellow, daisy-like flowers in a few weeks. Its sheer size, already over six feet tall, and sturdiness make people stand in awe. The other thing they loved was the monarda, which is pretty spectacular this year. I don’t know the cultivar. I thought it was ‘Pardon My Purple,’ but PMP is a lot shorter than mine. I haven’t a clue, but the photo is below. Do any of you have an idea?
The garden is in full glorious bloom. I added a border, and I put soaker hoses on it with a timer. I can’t keep up with the watering otherwise. Drip irrigation is much more efficient than trying to hand water anyway. I added two Vitex agnus-castus ‘PIIVAC-I’ PPAF Delta Blues™ chaste trees to this new border because of some information from my dear friend, Beth Teel, of Tulsa. Beth uses vitex branches to make small supports for her plants. The limbs of the trees are very pliable and can be bent into various shapes and even made into wattle fencing. Beth also has a new gardening blog, Green Country Gardener, if you want to check out another Oklahoma gardener. Delta Blues™ is beautiful and blue. Blue is so hard to find in the garden.
Gardeners are the original, eternal optimists. As an example, I dug up four more roses this week. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve lost to Rose Rosette Virus, but I think these four bring the current year’s total to twelve. Still, I keep thinking of all the shrubs I want to grow in their places. My garden is ever more diverse, and I must admit that the shrubs I’m choosing are easier to keep than my precious roses. I still miss the roses though.
Not only is it daylily season here, it’s also the beginning of lily season. Just check out the beauty shots of ‘Conca d’Or’ at the top of this post. I have three other lilies blooming too. There is nothing easier to grow than true lilies, and orienpets are dramatic darlings. They grow very, very tall so they will need some support. You can use a stake and twine, or just prop them up with these metal blossom supports
That’s all I have this week. I have harvested two tomatoes. Yay. Please let me know what’s blooming in your garden too. I love to hear.
How lovely! our daylilies here thrive as well. It’s almost like we see a rainbow back at our garden. We found that a little bit of mulching helped their growth. At least, we don’t depend on rain as much as we used to.
I’m sorry Dee, but I’m still in the Non-Daylily Grower club, along with no other gardener that I know! Yes, the flowers are so beautiful, but the strappy foliage always fading to brown was just too much work for me. I was forever trying to clean up the plants. I just generally have a problem with strappy foliage, except of course ornamental grasses, which I love. I have another rose to dig up myself. It’s very discouraging to me, because of the way I devoted a long border to roses only. How odd is it going to look to replace them one by one with other plants?
Hi Robin, I’ve found that drying strappy foliage usually comes from “dormant” types that are tired from blooming and all the heat. They seem to want to go back to dormancy in super hot weather. I can understand why they get on your nerves. They do mine too. Every plant has its problems. That’s for sure.
You don’t have to entice me to join the daylily club, Dee–I’m addicted to them! You have so many beautiful varieties, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a daylily I didn’t like:) After seeing your ‘Ruby Sentinel,’ I wonder if that is one of the daylilies I have. My aunt gave me quite a few divisions of two different daylilies several years ago. One of them is the dark red like this one; since I never knew its name I call it ‘Nettie’s Rubies’ after my aunt. It’s a prolific bloomer, that’s for sure. Not so hot here, thank goodness; we’re all just thankful to see the sun again for a few days–it’s been a very rainy month.
It sure might be Rose, but you know, I think calling it ‘Nettie’s Rubies’ is just as nice. A good remembrance of your aunt. We got rain last night which was a total surprise. Thanks for stopping by Rose. Lovely to see you.~~Dee
Your dayliies are beautiful. We are having good daylily weather here as well, similar to yours. Just when I am ready to hook up the soaker hoses or break out the sprinklers, we get a good downpour.
That’s the best kind of weather Les, simply the best.
Hi Dee, You have some amazing Daylilies! No more tears is incredible…..and I will have to look up that Scripture reference when I’m done here….I’ve been scouring the internet for daylily garden centers. They are one of my favorites and they’re getting ready to bloom here. Happy Gardening!
Hi Sally, thank you so much. Daylily season is the most exciting time of the year. Enjoy!
It looks like I’m digging up my entire 30 foot rose hedge because of rose rosette. It’s been here at least 30 years & has been glorious. I cried when I realised it had to go but like you, I’m getting past the grief & thinking of an evergreen hedge instead. I don’t have many evergreens so I think it will be a mixed hedge. I’m hesitant to plant just a sweep of one plant after losing the hedge.
I’m in northwest Arkansas, just across the border from you & rose rosette is rampant here as well. 🙁
Jen, I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve lost your rose hedge. Yes, it’s a good idea to plant a mixed hedge of different evergreens. I didn’t realize RRV was rampant in Arkansas too, but it was only a matter of time. I hope, one day, it will move through the roses and on out of the U.S. We can hope anyway.
The yellow lilies in your first photo are breathtaking. Daylilies are a garden anchor for me. I love the arching foliage as well as the blooms. Most of mine were bought many years ago and divided many times. Oriental lilies are short lived here but the asiatics do well and form nice clumps.
Mama, so glad to hear from you. I bet your garden is beautiful with all of those daylily clumps. Thank you so much for telling me what’s blooming in your garden today too.
Very beautiful!! I wanted to say last week we were in Tulsa and went by Lowe’s. They were having a special that wasn’t advertised. You could load one of the big flat carts with as much as you wanted or could get for $10.00. It had to be from a selected area but there was a lot of good stuff. 5 really nice trees about 7-8 feet tall. Unfortunately we couldn’t get them because our vehicle was too small. It is over 80 miles or we would have got out truck and went back. The next day we went to a Lowe’s that’s only about 20 miles away. We asked the lady in the garden dept and she said that sounded like a great idea as she was needing to get rid of a lot of stuff too She said the corporate Lowe’s just keeps sending stuff
And it’s getting too hot for a lot of it. Anyway I think this is a good way to pick up on perennials and trees if you have enough water and time to baby them. Lots of dailies. We picked up several miniature tiger lilies in lots of colors too.
Wow Peggy, you hit the jackpot! Too bad you didn’t have the truck, but I’m glad you found some nice things at Lowe’s. Our stores do some of that too where they just try to mark down what they have. It is really hot out there today. I’m glad I’m not planting.
Just beautiful Dee – I don’t see any wilting. It sounds hot, hot, hot. We have had a bout of cooler weather and rain – rain for over 24 hours straight. That’s North Country for you, though. I always feel bad for the campers and vacationers when we have weather like that. Beautiful lilies. Sorry about your roses but you are like me – always thinking ahead of what to plant in its place. The chaste tree sounds great – blue! – and boy, would I love to use those branches!
Hey Kathy, sounds like things are beautiful where you live too. We had one cooler day, but then back to our regularly scheduled sunshine and heat. Oh well, it is summer. 😉
This is one of those summers (so far) when a person can actually escape the heat by visiting the Northern Midwest. It has been very pleasant here in S. Wisconsin, except for the occasional tornado warning and the pesky mosquitoes. Your Lilies are gorgeous! Thanks for the idea of the plant support. We just had a strong windstorm tonight, so I’ll be curious to see how all the unstaked plants fared.
Hey Beth, watch out, you’re enticing me to come to Wisconsin. 😉 I’m so surprised you’re getting tornado warnings. Take care and thank you.
What do you do with your Monarda when the blooms finish?
Annie, I chop it back by about half. Sometimes, it blooms a little bit again. Depends upon how much rain we receive.
Love that Conca d’Or. Daylilies bloom later here. The only ones that have bloomed for me are lemon lily, ditch lily, and Stella d’Oro. Plenty of buds, so there will soon be a party of flowers. Can’t wait!
I’m so glad you’ll have lots of blooms Kathy.
I am happy to tell you we are having a cool spell here. Only supposed to get to 80 today. Whahoo… Love this kind of weather. My garden is doing just about the same thing as your garden. It is lily time. I hate that you are losing all of those roses. It must hit you in the gut to have to pull them out. Bummer. Roses don’t like it here in my garden. Too much shade and I don’t like to mess with them. They are too bitey. I do so admire them in other peoples gardens. Go find some shade…
Hey Lisa, one of the true bright spots about the roses is that their demise has opened me up to all kinds of plants that don’t try to hurt me with their prickles and thorns. So, that’s a highlight. I’ve found some very interesting plants too. I’m okay. I just need to decide what to do with the latest border that lost everything.