This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see two lovely additions to the blooms opened: Pirate's Promise, and Great Red Dragon! I got P.P. last year, but it didn't bloom, and G.R.D. is a NEW arrival this spring!
PIRATE'S PROMISE, Salter, 1995; MID; SEV/TET; 28" x 6"; re
This one is settling in quite happily in the Pirate-themed garden!
GREAT RED DRAGON, Gossard, 2006; DOR DIP; Early-Mid; 41" x 10" (It has 4-way branching, and a 25 Bud Count!) This thing is going to be HUGE; I may have put it in a less than good spot, down front of a small slope. Nothing behind it will be visible! You can see by the snipped leaves that it's a newcomer, and nowhere close to the size it will get, with time. I think I'm going to love this handsome dragon ... immensely! But I'll have to work out another spot in its garden. It's at the top of what I call, "Dragon Alley," shared by the Harry Potter theme and the Lord of the Rings theme. This is the LOTR end, and its neighbor is called, "Firedrake." Seemed like a good spot at the time, but I didn't have the numbers in front of me.
On another positive note, I believe I have all those spring deliveries either in pots or in the ground, FINALLY! Daylilies aren't supposed to be heeled in, and if done, shouldn't be for more than a day or two. These poor babies have been heeled in for a great deal more than that! But if it means losing them versus saving them, it gets done. I'll check, but I believe they are all settled now, in one way or another! And none have died. They might have been set back, sure -- might not bloom this year. But they're alive.
Yet another positive note: my side yard looks FANTASTIC!!! The yard guys showed up again, for a shorter time, and finished up. I have a yard again!
This may not look terrific, but it's SOOOO much better than it was a few days ago! The large maple to the left is throwing a bit too much shade, so nothing is growing under it. It will need to be trimmed away from the house too, since the branches are extending over the roof of that part you see on the right. The lilac doesn't bloom on the shady side near the tree, either.
A few steps further, and past the maple, turning slightly left... one of the four remaining apple trees, and some black locust saplings. Those were removed today, after these photos were taken. Bit of hard-earned advice: DO NOT PLANT BLACK LOCUST trees in your yard! They are invasive, and horrible to try to remove/ annihilate. They're WEEDS! Yes, for about one week in the spring, when they're in bloom, the air around them smells lovely. But the other 51 weeks of the year, they'll be busy plotting how to make you miserable. And ultimately, how to take over the world! These won't be gone for long, believe me. They will spring up little suckers that will need to be trimmed, faithfully every year, until they finally succumb. But I don't know how many years that will take. I'm not always faithful.
I'm thinking of putting the "Meditation Garden up on the knoll, where I used to have a vegetable garden in the late 90's. The guys can clear that in the future, and I'm sure they'll do a fine job, if we go that route. The above spot is that former "knoll garden". There is still a lot of scruff that has grown in, but not impossible to reclaim. The guys have started dumping the grass clippings up there, and with some manure over the winter, I should have a decent start to lay it out, in the spring! Oh, and the budded plants in the foreground? Hemerocallis fulva -- aka, "Ditch Daylilies," of course! I'd forgotten I had long ago tossed some extras there.
If there are some FFO's tomorrow morning to show, I'll be back then.
Have a great rest of today!
I got three more photos today -- want to see?
First was an FFO for today, Black Eyed Susan. Then I went over to another part of the yard to snap a shot of one that has been blooming for a few days: Patterns. Crossing the yard again, there was Saratoga Springtime just waiting to model for me! All of these either are already involved in my theme gardens, or will be when I get that theme going.
BLACK EYED SUSAN, Stevens, 1983; Dor Tet, Mid, 26"x6" .
This is blooming in a pot, waiting to be planted in a section of garden I'm only just getting clear. Now, I'm afraid it will be longer, as there is a bit of structural work to be done on the house behind where it will go. Plants and snow up against a wooden door that is never used, but is part of the house's history, have rotted away the lower parts. I think it should be fixed before new plants go anywhere near that area. So... the pot will remain, for awhile longer!
PATTERNS, Lambert, 1969; Dor Dip; Early, 26"x5"; re; frag.
Not a great increaser, but it's tenacious. and a welcome change of color from the yellows that predominate the Early bloomers. I had to move the whole clump and plant without dividing it, like so many others. I really need to have more space for lining out divisions!
SARATOGA SPRINGTIME, Saxton, 1976; Dor Tet; EE; 24"x6"; frag.
This is a newer one, having arrived only last spring. I moved it to another section, and it had to wait in a pot for a bit longer than I'm happy about. But it seems to have recovered!
This weekend is mostly about yard work, and I'm getting some long overdue help with the lawn, and the jungle of nasty raspberry bushes that have invaded it. Trust me, they are NOT the lovely, romantic boon people think wild raspberries are! They are bullies to everything around them, and are truly a PAIN to get rid of. Thorns, remember? Learn what they look like and be ever vigilant (birds spread them!) and ever ruthless. I lost a lot of nice daylilies and other plants by letting the raspberries (and bee balm) slide for a few years. I can get big fat raspberries and blackberries at the local grocery store! So... a huge THANK YOU to my weekend warrior helpers out in the yard! They did far more than rescue me from raspberries, but just that is a great improvement. Take a bow, gentlemen!!!
We're getting LOADS of budded scapes here, and a few blooms have made it
to my 2014 FFO list. FFO stands for First Flower Open, and it helps in
getting an idea of what to look for opening in the future, where to
plant things, and so forth. A new one last year that didn't bloom is an
Olallie unregistered flower, "(VT) Ray of Sunshine." It bloomed about
the tenth of June (after all that, I'm guessing, as I don't have the
list nearby). Beating that was "Elfin" by Stout, on June 5th, and as
always, "Elizabeth" on June 3rd. Since then, Patterns, Saratoga
Springtime, Lynn's Delight, Bubbly, and of course, Stella De Oro have
shown their wee faces. The only one of all these that is not some shade
of yellow is "Patterns."
Daylily, ELIZABETH, which I may have shown before, but this photo is special. Due to the extra long winter/late spring, Elizabeth was a bit late blooming. The peonies had pretty much caught up, so for the first time, I had these two blooming together! Why is that special? Because the name of the peony is "Charlie's White." I have these two together because my Mom and Dad were Charlie and Elizabeth! Here they are, together again!
ELFIN, by Stout, 1949; DOR DIP, EE, 20", re, ext
I think I'm going to like this one VERY much!
RAY OF SUNSHINE, by the Darrow family; unregistered. I bought it of course because of the "Ray" reference, and will put it in two different gardens: one dedicated to the good people we bought the house from 18 years ago -- and the other, when I have it going, will be the one where my beloved's cremains will be scattered. I will go there too, when my time comes. I just have not decided where that will be, on our property.
I have been looking for a photo of Patterns, but cannot find any in the computer. I know I had one, last year, but I might have taken it with the iPhone, which I manage to drown recently. I'll have to take another one as soon as I get a good bloom. Maybe tomorrow!
Too, too, TOO BUSY! Too busy to post progress here -- so sorry! Every day that has been good weather (most of them) I'm in the gardens. Today it rained, sometimes only drizzling or misting, but very wet, nonetheless. I still got out there and pulled a few weeds, tried to organize things in my mind. Also, a package arrived with more plants! A lot of 'em..... That had to be opened, unwrapped the bundles of wonderfully healthy daylilies (a big thank you to the Shooters of Marietta Gardens!) and got them starting to hydrate a bit. Tomorrow should be wet also, but I think Friday should be better -- but I haven't watched a weather report in awhile. So... when I'm inside there are chores to be done (the usual housework stuff) and I get to make markers for the new plants (slow going; a little labor intensive, but worth it). I should take photos of some of them, but there's an issue with the computer, and my son intends to figure it out and fix it. Soon, I hope.
Add to all the crazy gardening, there have been some minor crises, like the fridge died, and I got stopped by a cop about a week and a half ago because my taillights were both out. Had flashers and brake lights, and it wasn't bulbs. Took my wonderful mechanic a couple of stabs at the job to get it fixed, but today it's good! A bigger problem was getting my car to him when each of us was free for a few hours. Tonight I won't have to drive the back roads to keep the cop from stopping me again, LOL! And, I have to shut down the computer and get ready for work, now. I just didn't want to let it slide another day without an entry. No photos tonight.
