"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. Back garden at the end of June, 2015. It's all growing so well. Good thing daylilies like hot weather. They may melt in the afternoon, but tomorrow is always another day, and another bloom. Hemerocallis 'Ruby Sentinel' next to the deck. 'Ruby Sentinel' is an older and inexpensive cultivar. 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. Hemerocallis 'Freewheelin' My daylily club did a local garden tour on Saturday, and my garden was part of the tour. I worked hard to get...

Welcome to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, June 2015, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. If it's June in Oklahoma, then you must know it's all about the daylilies, or hemerocallis, if we're being botanically literate. Here are my bloom day posts for 2014 and 2013. Daylilies are always the stars of my June garden, but sometimes the roses join the party too. Tiered borders with green smoketree. 'Ogon' spirea is on the right. Hemerocallis, as many of you know, means "beauty for a day," so this botanical name makes perfect sense for a flower that only blooms for twenty-four hours and then is gone never to be seen again. Luckily clumps produce many, many flowers so we can enjoy them for two months or so, if we grow cultivars that bloom extra early and late. The latest daylily in my garden every year is 'Autumn Minaret' (Stout 1951.) It's a worthy plant in any...

We just returned from two trips scheduled back-to-back. We didn't do this madness on purpose. Bill had a convention, and the other trip to Kill Devil Hills could only be taken last week. I love vacation, but I'm also glad to be home. The back garden in June. Not as much blooming because we had a lot of rain and no sun. Now, things are dry. The garden missed me. Rain stopped in the second week, and temperatures climbed into the 90s. I also made a couple of rookie mistakes. I didn't turn on the sprinkler system--not that big of a deal really--and I forgot to ask my son to water the pots on the deck. Surprisingly, I came home to only a couple of dead plants in the pots. All were wilted, but are now thriving that they are well watered. I choose drought tolerant stuff for the pots and use...

Perennial gardens love rainy days, but the vegetables, tropicals and annuals, not so much. The tropical plants are shivering in their little holes. I keep telling them to hang on. It will get hot again. My garden has had over sixteen inches of rain in the last few weeks. I started out counting, but I didn't keep up so I don't know the exact amount. The vegetable garden looks nearly drowned, but I know it will be okay. I lost a few plants which I wrote about in a vegetable garden update. I just replaced them. Even the best gardeners kill plants so don't feel bad when it happens to you. Fortunately, since our weather has stayed cool, most nurseries and box stores have plenty of tomatoes, peppers and basil. I also planted basil seeds. I love basil. Back garden draped in green in the early morning. Nature turned on the spigot in...