Sunday, July 13, 2008

Deja Vu, All Over Again ......

This week's post, as the title suggests, is quite similar to the previous one. I felt it was pretty good so I thought I'd stick with a winning format.
Mid-July is the "bloomingest" time of the year and with all of the good (sometimes not so good!) rain and moderate temps we've had, the gardens are especially lovely this season. The Main Garden is rather carnival-like with all sorts of colors and textures vying for attention. I love it that way!
Here you can get the feeling of celebration and fun of a carnival in our yard.
********


No fun here !
I'm getting disgusted with those Kinsman window box planters! They are starting to look shabby and watering them isn't working the way I was led to believe. The directions said that the roots of the side planted plants would quickly fill in and the soil would not fall out. Well, truthfully the soil doesn't fall out - the water does! I feel the holes are too large and there is no way that you could get around the watering problem. Next year I'm going to cover the side holes with extra coco fibre and just plant from the top. The planters are a nice depth but I think the capacity and capability of these planters was way overstated. Or, possibly I've done something wrong - I just don't know. But I do know that in another week or so these planters are going to look hideous!
******
The rest of the flower photos look great and I've got nothing to complain about.
What's a carnival without balloons??? Balloon Flowers, that is...
Gooseneck Loosestrife is such a graceful flower.
An Unwin Dahlia that I started from seed. This is in one of the petunia barrels.
These Dianthus (I also grew these from seed.) are under the Willow Tree Garden and are super hardy!
Isn't this just the most beautiful Hollyhock?! It's called "Queenie Purple" and is also in one of the petunia barrels. The plant is miniature, about 2 - 3 feet, but the flowers are extra-large.
******
Tomato Tree Update !
Well, the tomato tree is hangin' in there - all legs in tact. The foliage is hanging farther down and the tomatoes are getting bigger and bigger! I just can't wait to taste the first one. They are no where near turning red, but I can dream ...
*******
Lily Pics
***
This lavender Trumpet Lily looks great paired with the Cone Flowers.
I must have been really taken with yellow Trumpet Lilies a few years ago, because I planted all kinds of them. I don't remember doing that, but it's a nice surprise.
All the Trumpets smell terrific!
These orangy-apricot Trumpets are my favorite. The camera picked up the color very well which is not always the case.

An un-named Asiatic and an LA Hybrid Lily. The LA Hybrid are a special and very hardy version of the Easter Lily - there are various colors, too. It looks as if it were made of wax. Very neat!
There are tons of these blooming in the Willow Tree Garden as we speak! I have their name. It's "Connecticut Yankee".
********
I promise that these Daylily pictures are NOT repeats from last week.
Look really hard at the center of this beauty and you'll see the back end of an earwig snuggled up for his daily sleep. Daylilies are a convenient place for them to hide from the sunlight.
"Prairie Blue Eyes". Isn't that a wonderful name....

"Hall's Pink" Sort of a bland name ...but a sweet, blooming- mad flower!
This flower is fairly small...
..but this is smaller (it's called "Pardon Me!") and ...
and this is even smaller! "Siloam Lady Bug" is her name.
These are also bloomin' fools - to bad I don't know their name.

These two different yellow daylilies are huge - at least 6" across.
This is also a big red flower, but on a tiny plant. I think there is actually something wrong with it - it may be a mutant or something because that doesn't seem normal.
These next two are from the Siloam daylily farms. They breed some wonderfully beautiful daylilies.
******
Begonias in the three-tiered planter near the entrance. They remind me of old-time delicate ladies!
**********
Visitors, Again!
The turkeys have made our backyard one of their open-air restaurants down our street. They visit at least twice a day. Now there are two Moms with their babies. One Mom has 3 small ones and the other has 8 larger ones (about the size of a small chicken).

First they all run to the birdfeeders and eat what's been dropped by their smaller cousins.
Then it's time for Mom #1 and the 3 young ones to relax on the swing. We are completely surprised that the very little ones can fly that high.
Mom #2 and the bigger babies keep chowing down!
Then Mom #1 and Mom #2 eat mulberries while the kids watch from the park bench and the frame of the gazebo. (We've been waiting to put the fabric top on the gazebo until the mulberries have all dropped. Steve was concerned about berry stains. I surely hope the turkeys don't decide to perch on the gazebo after we put the top up! Ugh!!)
******
See, I told you this would be a "deja vu" moment! I promise you my next blog will be quite different. I can say that because next Saturday I'm leaving for a week's vacation in Crivitz with my sister and her family. So I'll have all kinds of non-flower type pictures to post. I won't be posting next week but I will see you all on the 27th. (I may even try a little gambling for the 1st time! Wish me luck!!)
****
I am sorry I have not learned to play at
cards. It is very useful in life: it generates
kindness and consolidates society.
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 84)
*****
Bye for now,
Alyssa
********

9 comments:

Mary said...

Hi Alyssa,

When you are worried about more daylilies, I've been worried about posting the same things from last summer! LOL! Same stuff - different year :o)

I never tire of YOUR gardens. Now I'm all excited to see my daylilies in bloom. If I could I'd arrive at your house in the middle of the night and pick and choose bits and pieces of your garden and run home.

The turkeys! LOL!

I've missed being here. I'm trying to get back into some sort of blogging routine. Really, I'm trying!

Hugs,
Mary

alicesg said...

Wow, you are so successful in your gardening even the turkeys would love to visit. You should join some Garden Festival and be awarded a prize. :) Always a joy to look at your gardening photos. Thanks for sharing.

Alyssa said...

Hi Mary, Yes doesn't it seem like our lives don't change a whole lot from year to year. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing! You can sneak over any time (though I'm up pretty late at night and would probably see you !!) and take what ever you'd like. There is so much here to keep track of, I probably wouldn't even miss it!

Alice - I wish there was some sort of garden festival to enter. It would be neat to see other peoples gardens too. I like having all kinds of animal visitors here. I'm glad you enjoyed the walk- through.

Pam said...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would love to hang out in your garden, your flowers are exquisite! Your photographs are so lovely, would you mind if I wanted to play around with them in Photoshop?

Alyssa said...

Hi Pam - Thank you very much. Yes, when ever you want to use any of my photos you are more than welcome to any and all of them! I don't have a problem with that. I'd be thrilled to see what you would do! You are such a multi-media talented person that it is bound to be cool and unique!

Lizzie A said...

wow!
Your flowers are beautiful, and those turkeys are incredible! It is funny that they are just hanging out in your yard!
I know, it's been a while since I've done any blogging but things have gotten crazy around here.
I was my birthday on Saturday!! Yay me!
Hope that you are well!
Lizzie~

Alyssa said...

Happy Birthday Lizzie!! I hope you had a really great day. Can I ask how old you are? Or are you going to keep it a secret? I would guess 18 - am I right? Let me know what fun things you did....

Lizzie A said...

I went to see Wall-E, if you haven't see it, even if you aren't young you will love it! It is an amazingly cute and touching movie, that has humor, suspense, a good lesson, and in the center of it all is the most romantic love story about two robots you could ever hope to see!
Then my whole family and I went out to Maggianos for dinner, it was lovely!
Lizzie~
P.S. I am 251, duh! (**wink**)

DeeMom said...

Beautiful photos