Em's Garden

The daylily season is winding down quickly. Peak bloom occurred in my garden shortly after the 4th of July this year which is freakishly early. As I make notes for next year’s garden, one daylily really stands out.

‘Jen Melon’ beat out 450 other cultivars to bloom first in mid-April. What made that particularly unusual is that ‘Jen Melon’ usually blooms in late July.

But just when I thought this yellow beauty couldn’t ingratiate itself any further, it shattered another new record for me…the longest bloomer. Even though the first scape that appeared rotted in wet weather, ‘Jen Melon’ just kept the scapes coming.  It bloomed almost every single day for 74 days—that’s 10-and-a-half weeks! None of my other daylilies have ever come close to blooming for such a long period of time.

After a grand performance this season I wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised or offended if  ‘Jen Melon’ took next year off.

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Tags: A Bevy of Blooms, Annuals // Add Comment »

Our neighbors keep honeybees and every summer the more shallow of my two birdbaths turns into a “beebath.” Bees use honey to cool their hives and dilute food for youngsters. On a hot day, a hive can use over a quart of water.

It’s not unusual to see 3 or 4 bees at my birdbath at a time during the day, but lately it’s been more like a dozen or so. We coexist peacefully, but I have to be very careful where I put my hands when changing the water. And if I don’t hurry they get a little impatient and buzz around my head which might freak out anyone that’s afraid of bees. I’ve stuck my camera in enough flowers over the years that I’m no longer phased by honeybees. For the most part they have a “live-and-let-live” policy.

I usually place flat stones in the bottom of my birdbaths because birds are very cautious about water depth. Bees are too. A bee can easily become waterlogged and drown. I’ve pulled more than a few carcasses from my birdbaths over the years.

This spring at a garden center I purchased a bag of clay rocks called “Bird Bath Fillers.” They are nonporous and easy to clean and I knew they’d be perfect for my thirsty bees. So far they’re a big hit.

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Tags: Daylilies, Up Close and Personal // 1 Comment »

Time: 3:30 p.m.

Conditions: Sunny and 81 degrees

Observed From: the backyard

Notes: Spring arrived very early this year and as a result we are up to our ears in bugs. There are so many earwigs and Japanese Beetles munching on my flowers that I’ve given up fighting them. The cicadas are singing from dusk until dawn (I adore that sound, it screams summer) and I haven’t seen this many butterflies flitting about my yard in years.

Today’s Bird/Animal Count:

• 1 “herd” of 30 or so Common Grackles that arrived to raid my birdfeeders and pelt the roof with acorns

• 2 scolding House Wrens
• 1 birdhouse full of hungry wren babies
• 1 baby bunny that isn’t the slightest bit afraid of me and is hellbent on reducing my rudbeckias to stems

• 1 Downy Woodpecker
• 2 bathing House Sparrows
• 1 Black-capped Chickadee
• 1 moulting American Goldfinch
• 2 squirrels
• 1 pudgy vole that I didn’t see until I almost stepped on it
• 1 female Baltimore Oriole (I’ve never seen one in my yard in mid-summer before)
• 2 chipmunks vacuuming up acorns

Today’s Butterfly Count:

• 5 Monarchs
• 3 Yellow Swallowtails
• 3 Peck’s Skippers

• 1 Clouded Sulphur
• 2 Cabbage Whites
• 1 Gray Hairstreak

And the grand finale:

• 2 Mourning Doves with obnoxiously-bright pink feet (see photo at the top of this post and make sure you notice the honeybees in the background that insist it’s a BEEbath not a birdbath).

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If you want a daylily that will beckon you from across the yard with its cheery blooms, try ‘Yellow Explosion’. The flowers are bright yellow with ruffles and a wonderful thick texture.

‘Yellow Explosion’ has a tendency to produce proliferations. These baby plants grow from the scapes and can be rooted in the ground. They will bloom true to their mother plant. It’s an inexpensive way to add to your daylily collection. This year my plant produced 3 of them on just 2 scapes.

‘Yellow Explosion’ grows 27 inches tall with luscious, 6-inch flowers.

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Tags: Annuals, The View from Back Here, Zinnia // Add Comment »

I only have a handful of double-flowering daylilies in my collection, but there are two that I would easily recommend. The blooms of ‘Peggy Jeffcoat’ are nothing short of spectacular. The creamy flowers appear on plants only 18 inches high, but this small plant is sure to attract attention with it’s 7-inch flowers:

‘Zella Virginia’ is a little taller at 24 inches. It sports 6-inch cantaloupe-colored flowers with a lovely fragrance:

Both cultivars are dormant diploids that bloom in midsummer.

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I just wanted to take one more opportunity to admire my new, dark-red mystery Achillea and how well it blends with my ‘Rozanne’ geranium and ‘Carolyn Criswell’ daylily.

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I usually forget about daylily ‘Space Wars’ until it blooms each year. The flowers are pretty but not particularly flashy; however, this is a very sturdy and dependable daylily with huge flowers.

‘Space Wars’ is supposed to send up 28-inch scapes. Perhaps a very early spring and an abundance of rain might explain the 42-inch-tall scapes that grace my two-year-old plant. There are 7 of them and each holds over a dozen flower buds.

‘Space Wars’ is a mid-season bloomer. The flowers reach 7 inches across and are deliciously fragrant.

Tags: Amaranthus, Daylilies // Add Comment »