Daylily Part 2

May 9, 2011 at 6:28 pm (Flowers)
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“Daylily Part 2”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

More daylilies have started blooming here, and many of these are ones that I only bought last year which makes seeing them bloom this year in the garden rather exciting. It is nice to see them settled in and how the flowers look next to other flowers.

One thing I have noticed this year is how the colors of a few of the daylilies are a little different this year than they were in previous years. Some of my old-fashioned red ones that I had in the last post are not as red as last year; they seem to be a little more brown-colored. One daylily bloom that is strikingly different this year is Eye-yi-yi. The past two years it has bloomed orange, but this year it is more of a peach color. Strange, huh?

 

 

One that is blooming with a true color is Misty Mayhaw. This daylily puts out many huge, thick petaled blooms on sturdy stems. This is a vigorous repeat bloomer, too.

 

 

Today’s final daylily is an unknown one which is a gorgeous, frilly peach. This is one of the ones I purchased just last year, and, unfortunately, it did not have a tag.

 

 

There are still more daylilies in the garden that will be blooming shortly. When I look around my garden at all the lovely daylilies, I am so glad I decided a few years ago to start putting in more blooming perennials. That was a decision I wish I would have made when I first started gardening.

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Daylily Season Starts

May 4, 2011 at 8:22 pm (Flowers)
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“Daylily Season Starts”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

 

The warm weather has ushered in daylily season. The first daylilies started blooming almost two weeks ago with the little reliable Stella d’ora being the absolute first to flower. Last year was the first year I needed to divide these, and now there is a nice line of these little gold flowers in the circle garden.

 

 

Next, to start blooming were the old-fashioned red daylilies. These are from my mother’s garden and were very popular in the ’60’s when she received them from one of her gardening friends.

 

 

A ruffled pink daylily that I purchased just last year was the next to show up. It didn’t have a name tag, which is a shame because this is such a pretty flower. I know it must be a tetraploid because the stems are very sturdy and the flower petals are very thick.

 

 

Happy Returns, a lemon yellow version of Stella d’ora, started blooming just about a week ago. I wish I had more of these. Unfortunately, they are not ready to be divided.

 

 

Next to Happy Returns, I planted a daylily with the same lemon-colored flower, but where Happy Returns makes a small flower, this one has a huge flower. This is the largest daylily flower I have ever seen. These flowers have to be about nine inches across.

 

 

Lavender Girl, another one I bought just last year, has also started blooming. There are a lot of buds on this daylily which surprises me since it hasn’t been in the garden long. It must be very vigorous.

 


The last one to bloom so far, has been a yellow daylily which my mother gave me years ago. She got this one about the same time as the red one pictured above.

 

 

I have added many more daylilies to the garden in the last year, so there are still more to bloom. Most have buds in various stages of development, and a few have none yet (I am sure they are late blooming daylilies.) So, it looks like daylily season will be a nice long one this year.

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Gardening Aromatherapy

May 2, 2011 at 6:48 pm (Flowers, Shrubs)
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“Gardening Aromatherapy”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

This past week was just perfect for gardening. Since I had the week off of work, there was finally time to do some planting, transplanting, and weeding. The weather cooperated – warm and sunny. That warm and sunny weather also helped spread the sweet aroma of certain blooming flowers.

The first few days that I was out in the garden, the star jasmine (or confederate jasmine as we call it here) perfumed the air. When you start to get hot and tired, having such a pleasant fragrance around certainly does revitalize you especially when you can sit in the shade with a tall glass of iced tea.

 

 

While I love this vine during springtime flowering, it has become invasive and is going to be pulled down this summer. It is growing all over the north side of the house and up a large pine tree. I have pulled it down once before thinking that it would slowly grow back. No such luck; it came back faster, stronger and bigger than before. Since it is now moving into the front and back garden, it will have to go. I certainly will miss its fragrance during the first warm days of spring.

Just about the time that this jasmine’s flowers started to fade, the gardenias kicked in with their lovely fragrance. I now have gardenia bushes in all areas of our property, so no matter where you are, front or back garden, the sweet aroma of the gardenias is there. In the front gardens, there are the old-fashioned gardenias that have been there since before we moved in.

 

 

 

In the back garden, there is the single or daisy gardenia. This one is special because it was rooted for me by my mother from a tiny sprig. Now, it is a small but nice size bush, and I know it won’t be long before it is as big as the older ones.

 

 

 

While there were a few exhausting days spent gardening, the “aromatherapy” of the jasmine and gardenias certainly did help to keep me going. Gardens should appeal to all our senses (not just the visual), and having strongly scented plants perfuming the air is sometimes forgotten.

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