Just a Few Flowers

Hello everyone! We are in need of some serious rain here in Prattville. The grass is brown and crunch and the plants look haggard. We have a very effective drip system that waters the beds, but nothing can replace God’s water. Plants always look so much more vibrant after a good rain. Someone once told me rainwater is rich in nitrogen, is that true?

Anyway, I’ve been short for time here lately so I’m a little behind on my blog reading. I usually take my lunch at my desk at work and do my reading then, but the head of the IT department has told everyone no more internet usage. Sooooooo, that’s an hour of the day I don’t get to catch up on my blog reading. Which really sucks. I guess I just have to do what I can on the weekends because there is simply very little time during the week.

Here are a few pictures from the garden. I hope everyone has/had a great Memorial Day.

'Tequila Sunrise'

Variegated Iris

'Becky'

'Double River Wye'

'Darius'

'Daring Deception'

Unknown

'Raspberry Pixie'

'Chorus Line'

'Catalina'

In the Garden 05.22.09

Happy Friday everyone! I’m particularly excited because after today Jamie and I will be on vacation and I don’t have to return to work until June 2nd! Yay! Anyway, I walked around the garden to see what was blooming and decided to post a few pictures for you.

This first picture is daylily ‘Fragrant Treasure’. She was added to our garden last summer. I love the pale yellow color.

‘Champagne Waltz’ is giving us its first bloom this year.

I was looking through photos online and I saw this iris, I said to myself that’s our ‘Pink Lady’! But they weren’t calling it that so I got on line to look it up. Nope, it’s not her and since I don’t remember what page I was visiting I have no idea what her name is.

'Maudie Malcom'

This is a wild Gladiolus that is native to Alabama. We dug it up in the woods at our friend Carol’s House. It’s called ‘African Parrot’.

'Fairytale Pink'

'Pandora's Box'

'Honeycomb'

'Oranges & Lemons' Gailardia...

This is an un-named Daylily that we got at a tiny nursery in the middle of nowhere. Anyone recognize it?

I love Shasta Daisies and we have three different cultivar. This is ‘Becky’ and ‘Crazy Daisy’. I don't think you could have too many Shastas.

I guess we’ll finish up with a vivid ‘Lollypop Yellow’.

For Bloom Day

I didn't have alot of time to prepare for this, but I wanted to post something for bloom day. Enjoy the flowers and I promise to do better on my next 'Bloom Day' post. :-)

'Summer Sky'




'Stargazer'




'Firebird'




'Stephanie'




'Maudie Maclom'




'Futurity Yellow'




'Double Tiger'




'Royal Purple'




'Confederate Jasmine'




'Caradonna'




'Black and Blue Salvia'




'Mystic Spires'




'Red Stripe'

Daylilies Galore!

It had to happen sooner or later, Jamie and I are tapped out on garden funds for the time being. If the rising cost of gas permits we will be on our way to the Keys in August, we need to start putting back a little cash for vacation so our savings account will take less of a beating. That means our beloved little garden fund will take a serious crunch. That’s okay, right now I’m very pleased with the progress we’ve made and before long it will be too hot to do much outside anyway. We do have several projects planned that won’t be that expensive to do. I’m sure I can find things around the house to keep me busy. I’m not going to lie about though. I was Jonesin’ like a junkie needing a heroin fix being away from the garden centers this weekend. I still broke down and spent twenty eight dollars on daylilies, which was nothing compared to what we usually spend.

We haven’t had any rain for quite sometime now and the weather man has been promising it since last Wednesday. Still no sign of it, all around us it’s coming down in buckets and missing us. The garden isn’t suffering any because of our new drip system, Yay! Let me say that again, Yay! I can not express to you enough what a blessing that irrigation system is going to be this summer. The grass is starting to take a beating though and it’s looking a little crunchy. Yesterday I was running back an forth in and out of the house trying to decide what daylilies I had taken pictures of and boy was that a hot dry heat. I took a picture of a daylily yesterday morning and by yesterday afternoon it was dried on the stem. I’ll just have to go around early to get my pictures. Below are some of the things blooming right now and yes, there are more daylilies pictures and there will most definitely be more to come.

I’m still just as tickled as I can be about the Shasta Daisies. These ‘Crazy Daisies’ are pretty flowers but my favorites are the ones with the simple petals. A real sweetheart named Lynn sent me a cultivar named ‘Becky’ and I can’t wait until it blooms. She said it spreads really fast, which is perfect for an impatient person like me.

‘Crazy Daisy’

This daylily is a pretty thing, don’t you think? In the past I haven’t really given much thought to color when planting things. I do good just to keep it alive. There is so much to consider, light conditions, soil PH, water, plant size and color too. When you have to take all that into consideration it seems to become more like a job than a hobby. However, when I took this picture I couldn’t help but notice that the bloom seems to blend really well with the purple fountain grass behind it. In the future I’ll try to take that into account more often.

‘Always Afternoon’

Verbena Bonariensis

I could comment on every one of the photos I’ve posted this time around, but that would make this entry really long. Honestly, I’m not sure with all the blogs out there that anyone actually has the time to do much reading, so why don’t we just enjoy the pictures and I’ll try not to post so many them in the next entry.

‘Stella Supreme’

'Intrigue'

'Tang'

'Sunset'

'Siloam Doodlebug'

'Conestoga'

'Raspberry Pixie'

I don't know what this is, but I'm sure someone out there does. Annie, Philip what is it?

'Strawberry Candy'

This is some type of Tiger Lily, I'd really like to know the name of it as well. I like to know the names of the plants in the garden.

'Gordon Biggs'

'Honeycomb'

'Theresa Hall'

Texa Lilac AKA Vitex. I'm also trying to grow some Texas Mountain Laurel from seed now. I hope they make it.