I love the theme for this week’s photo challenge … fresh!
Fresh flowers on a summer’s day.
Tag Archives: Gardens
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Having been back in town for a few days now, I am beginning to get caught up on my work and on my gardening. Here are a few pictures that I took this morning. By the way, that’s not a smudge on the top photo … it is a cluster of Russian Sage which can be seen in more detail at the far left in the bottom photo. Ok, so now it is back to work for me! Have a great day everyone!
“Double Dream” Daylily
“Double Dream” is one of the daylilies blooming in my garden today. It is somehow both showy (because of it s form) and subtle (because of its peach shade). I just couldn’t help sharing.
Have a wonderful day!
Beautiful for a Day
Hemerocallis – beautiful for a day – is the botanical name for daylilies, so called because each bloom typically lasts for one day. Much of my garden is looking a bit bedraggled from the storm that passed through here last night, but not the daylilies. Since every morning brings all new blooms, they are having their day in the spotlight. This daylily is called Anzac.
Wishing you a lovely weekend …
Happy Echinacea
It is a hot but glorious day here in Manhattan, Kansas and the purple coneflowers are just soaking up the sun. With the Linden tree out front gone, the echinacea which it had partially shaded are looking better than ever. Don’t they just seem to be loving summer? Now if only there were some butterflies out there …
Weekly Photo Challenge: The World Through Your Eyes
This is a picture that I took this morning in between serving breakfasts. The theme for this photo challenge – the world through your eyes – calls for the photographer to use lines and light, etc. to make clear what she had in mind in taking the photo. If you look at this lily and feel like it is right in front of you, then I have succeeded in showing it through my eyes.
By the way, if you read my Wild Daylily Gin & Tonics post, you will want to note that this is an Asiatic lily, not a daylily. Asiatic lilies are not edible!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves
After breakfast this morning, I had fun taking photos in the garden and on our porch for this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge. Since I take so many photographs of my flowers, I decided not to include any blooms in the challenge; but I still think that these are interesting garden shots. I hope that you do too. Have a great day!
Daily Prompt: Singin’ In the Rain
Rarely does the Daily Prompt fit my day quite so well as today. With gentle rain showers on and off this afternoon – the kind that sinks into the soil without beating up the plants – I felt like singin’ in the rain with joy for my plants and with relief that I didn’t have to drag hoses around today. Instead, I walked around in the rain and photographed my garden. I hope that you enjoy the images!
Lovely Kates
Asiatic Lily “Kiss Me Kate” – named, I assume after the Cole Porter musical – is the standout in my garden this week. I planted the “Kate” bulbs in 2000 and they are still producing beautifully every year. This year, however, we had unusually cool weather for early June – that is, until yesterday afternoon when our official temperature was 99 degrees F. As a result, I had the opportunity to observe that the blooms that opened during the cooler temperatures had much darker coloration than those that opened on warmer days. Kiss Me Kate is a bicolor lily often described as being magenta and creamy yellow. Mine are usually a mauvish-pink turning to salmon-pink at the border of the yellow centers; and just this year did I see a few that were close to red on the outer edges. I have 5 groupings of the Kates, standing at about 3 feet tall. In early morning and early evening light, the colors look like those of the sunset.
Goodbye Linden Tree
We used to have a beautiful American Linden Tree in front of our house. That is, it was in front of our house until this morning and it was beautiful until last summer. Even though we watered it regularly last year, it suffered from drought and heat stress as was evident by the fact that it dropped its leaves late in the summer rather than after they had turned golden in the autumn as it had in previous years. That worried me. Then, to my relief, this spring it set leaf buds. Unfortunately, it set them just in time for the buds to get frozen when we had snow in early May. That was it for our Linden tree. Though it tried to come back, it was mostly dead. The city came and cut it down this morning, since it was on the city’s easement. Now part of the front yard will receive much more summer sun than it has in years. I shall have to observe this area in the coming weeks to determine whether any of the perennials need to be moved to a cooler location. I was sad to see the tree go. I had been pruning it for the past 13 years and really liked its shape.
The Linden tree last summer, lush with leaves …
Its leaf buds, killed off by cold temperatures in May …
The tree did manage to produce a few little shoots on the trunk after May’s freeze, but they were not going to be enough to allow it to thrive.
And so it went …
I’m not used to seeing our house without the tree in front. This will take a little getting used to. Luckily, there are still a lot of tall trees around.
Have a great day!
A Taste of Morning 