"I have looked out and seen the summer grow." ~ Howard Nemerov

The first week in August and my garden is winding down. The daylilies are almost finished with their dramatic display.

This golden daylily performed exceptionally this season. Fully eight inches across with a wonderfully rich color. One of the first to bloom and still many buds left to guarantee it will be one of the last to finally finish.

Double red, Moses' Fire, began blooming late so it still has buds left to bloom.

This yellow was a free gift from Wilds when I ordered Mose's Fire. A buttery color and a heavy, crinkled texture. It was late to began blooming and still has a weeks worth of buds to spend.

Late season clematis looking down from their bird house crook.

Mrs Wren brings home the bacon. Constant screams of "Feed me" echo from the house.

Mr Wren sits on his shepherds crook and sings. Occasionally he pauses and scolds me for trespassing in his garden. His life seems less strenuous than his wife's.


Stargazers in full bloom. Sweet lily fragrance hanging in the still evening air as I snap photos.


Coneflowers finally doing what nature intended. The first monarch to visit the garden this season.


A small daylily with a lemony, translucent flower and a very long bloom time rivaling the Stellas.


Another Moses' Fire. The reds are unpredictable. Wonderful, fiery color some days but dull and drab others. Today Moses was having a good day.


Sunflowers pop up in unlikely places. Who doesn't smile when passing a sunflower?


This ruinous garden an old woman made
And fertilized with tea leaves and coffee grounds,
Is wild grass mostly, climbed up to the thigh;
The multitude of dandelion surrounds
Enclaves of iris and peony;
While at the wall, the handle of a spade
Is thoroughly fastened in a climbing vine
That has crawled among blue flowers serpentine.
~Howard Nemerov

Hoping you all have a sunny weekend and I"ll be back Monday.

But all my life--sofar-- I have loved best how the flowers rise and open, ~ Mary Oliver

Thou didst not know, who tottered, wandering on high,
That fate had made thee for the pleasure of the wind,
With those great careless wings,
Nor yet did I.
~ Robert Frost

There is so much blooming now. I want to record it all but not in just one posting.

A couple years ago I purchased a few small clematis at Home Depot for a ridiculously low price--something like $3.50 each. It was a whim, I wanted to try growing them on roses. Unfortunately that doesn't work well in northern Illinois. In the spring, when the super hardy clematis is up and blooming, northern roses are only about two feet tall. Not a good paring. This poor blue climber puddles at the feet of Austin rose Abe Darby. It looks well enough just winding along the ground among the other plants. Every now and then a blue patch appears at the feet of a lily or a foxglove.

I was really taken with photos of a tall bearded iris named GnusFlash. It's a black and white striped iris, very striking. Anyway I purchased Gnusflash and got this. It's lavender where the real GF is white and white where it should be black. Oh well;)

This is iris time, yellow, powder blue, lavender, pink, white and black. The view from any window features their fluttering silken petticoats.

I can't walk out of a garden center empty handed. Another whim and something I didn't need--but it was so pretty. How could anyone turn away from a silver leaved, pink flowered little charmer like this lamium Pink Pewter? (Funny, those were almost exactly the same words I used on my mother as a child when I came home with another stray dog.)


Below old faithful Superstition iris and a pink self seeded columbine. Superstition was the first iris I added to my garden almost 20-years ago when I moved here.

Too green the springing April grass,
Too blue the silver-speckled sky,
For me to linger here, alas,
While happy winds go laughing by,
Wasting the golden hours indoors,
Washing windows and scrubbing floors.
Too wonderful the April night,
Too faintly sweet the first May flowers,
The stars too gloriously bright,
For me to spend the evening hours,
When fields are fresh and streams are leaping,
Wearied, exhausted, dully sleeping.

~ Claude McKay

Playing with combinations

I try to make groupings of plants that look especially well together. Sometimes the effect is very pleasing and sometimes not.

One of my favorite combinations. Lots of color and texture, each complimenting the others.

An interesting combination, but not my favorite. The Dr Rupel clematis and Eglantyne rose are both in one large pot set amongst other perennials. A darker clematis would probably have looked better with this pale rose. (All the associated hassle of keeping perennials in a container summer and winter wasn't worth it anymore, so I gave the pot and plants to my sister. )

I like this combination of shape and color.

I showed this pair earlier in the spring. It was a happy accident that the iris picked up the chive color and that they bloomed at the same time. A photo from June. Clematis look good with roses. I bought several to plant beside roses and let the vine trail around and through the rose and nearby perennials. In some cases it was too messy, but this pair looks good together. Keeping the vine where you want it is a challenge. Both these flowered haevily through June.I wasn't thinking when I put yellow yarrow beside a pink rose. It turned out better than I could have ever hoped for. The yarrow compliments the yellow center in Peace and they look good side by side. The yarrow's ferny silver foliage helps by makeing a nice contrasty texture. Lambs ear (at the bottom) is great with pink.

This isn't my favorite combo but it's not horrible. It needs something more, but what? Maybe it would look better if I added another daylily the same wine color as the eyes.

Silver lambs ear and May Night just don't make a pleasant combination. Both the colors and the shapes just aren't complimentary. It needs something added to make this pair look their best.

This looks even worse in the garden than in the photo. In my defense, I didn't expect them to bloom at the same time. Thought the sea holly would bloom later. If I replaced the liatris with some darker oriental lilies might work better.

I like these two daylilies together. The deep wine color is perfect with the yellow and gold . The dark daylily is almost black when it first opens and fades to a pleasant red/purple later in the day.

Give us pleasure in the flowers to-day

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

...Robert Frost

Above Shirley Temple peony.

Left unknown silvery-blue clematis.

Below Goldfinch on a thistle sock.











Tiny splashes of sunlight flying about the garden.


They seem to prefer this sock to any other of the thistle feeders I've tried.