For most of us who are intimidated by theories of garden design,
the cottage garden provides immediate appeal, since it is a
horticultural rather than an architectural solution to a limited area.
~ Patricia Thorpe

Yesterday Tina at IN THE GARDEN mentioned how handy these blogs are for looking back at last year's photos and plant lists to help us remember what was where and what was new.

Last year I planted six new daylilies and this year, couldn't remember the names of four. Luckily, I did a post about them and so was able to look back and see what I ordered.

So far only two of my newest daylilies have bloomed. The fans were pretty small when I planted them so there aren't a lot of blooms this season, but enough to get some idea of how they look. The first is Sabine Bauer, very striking with a dark eye and well defined edging around the petals. Sabine has several awards plus I found her on a couple growers "Top Picks" list. Here is her first bloom in my garden.




Not as crazy about the second new daylily to bloom. Sixth Sense is cream and gold with a cherry eye and an unusual reddish wired edge. There's just something about this one .... the colors don't look well together. (I should have brushed off the pollen before taking the photo.) SS fades out in strong sunlight and may do better in partial shade.

This year I ordered Calico Jack a bright yellow with a plum eye and edging.

(All photos are from Gilbert Wild 's catalog where I placed my order and Stardreamer Daylilies.)

Spacecoast Scramble, sunny yellow with a heavy texture and a delicious scrambled edge.

Spiritual Corridor, lovely lavender with a lighter eye and edge. I love this one and think it will fit with almost all the colors in my garden.

I can entertain myself for hours just reading the descriptions in the daylily catalogs. Looking at some of the newer ones I could almost, almost justify spending $200.00 for one daylily.
Listen to this:

Glamoureyez "Dramatic, gaudy, and stunning are some of the words that come to mind when you see this flower. The deepest burgundy purple fills the overpowering eye and hugely ruffled edge with a butter cream base." You can have it for $175.00

I especially like the daylilies with teeth: Twice the Bites - "This cutting edge (no pun intended) daylily sets the new standard for doubles with teeth . This daylily has the largest teeth on a beautifully clean rose violet background, that I have yet to see. TWICE THE BITES is a complex flower with many beautiful traits such as the large green throat, excellent substance, and gold teeth everywhere." $150.00

I'm waiting for these to go on sale, but you can see them and others at the Auction.

Wishing everyone a great forth of July Weekend!

"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.

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions

... so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect. ~Adabella Radici

(Cherry red and very tall)

Plant of the month. Thank you Tina at In the Garden for suggesting this topic. Usually it would be impossible for me to choose only one plant for an entire month. Not so this year. The daylilies are really outdoing themselves in this unusually wet July. I may regret this choice in a week. My volcano phlox is about to bloom and I can't say enough good things about this phlox. Toward the end of July another phlox, David, should be covered in snowy blooms. If at the end of July you see another plant or two spotlighted as the plant of the month, don't be surprised--I'm fickle;)

(One of my favorites this deep wine colored small plant.)

June has fled, but this year the weather remains relatively cool and wet. Record rainfalls recorded for the month of June and we experienced a record low temperature on July 7 when the thermometer stalled in the mid sixties. Unusual weather for a prairie state but beloved by almost every plant in my garden.


Many years ago I ordered a 'collection' of daylilies from Gilbert Wild. It contained about 15 varieties, pinks, peachy blends, purples, yellows, deep burgundies and cherry reds. Over the years they have been moved around and divided and their names are lost in the mists and the mud and the winter snows. These are all older varieties that don't rebloom. Even so, for a few weeks in July they take center stage.

(Kwanso with its triple tiered bloom)

Occasionally I'll give away daylily plant or division. Usually I just dig up another patch of grass and plant the surplus daylilies that have become too crowded. They are much less trouble to tend than grass, they have no serious pests or disease here. Breaking off the hundreds of spent blooms is the extent of the care they require.



The daylily season really starts in June with golden Stella outshining the summer sun and continuing well into July. Siloam Double Classic follows in mid June and it too blooms on into July.

(Siloam Double Classic)

(Prairie Blue Eyes)

In the last five years, I've begun to lust after the newer doubles and pie curst edged types, all rebloomers. First I added Siloam Double Classic, which is a fantastic bloomer. Night Embers and Moses' Fire came three years ago. The last two are red doubles and disappointing in my garden. Neither has a high bud count and the flower color is muddy on both.

I just placed my 2009 order with Wild for three new plants:

An almost white
single, Joan Senior,

(Gilbert Wild photos)




a bright yellow
double, Siloam Peony Display,

and Sabine Baur, a gorgeous peachy cream with a deep purple eye and heavy purple pie crust edging. Isn't she pretty. (Gilbert H. Wild Photos)


I'll have to wait until next July to see these bloom in my garden.

Last and certainly least, is my very own daylily born and bred on my farm. I'm not a daylily hybridizer, never even thought about trying to create a new variety. This was just one of those things that happen in the garden. In the midst of my Kwanza patch, where no hybrid daylily has ever been planted--up popped a creamy white single bloom (similar to Joan Senior which I ordered last week and never grew before). This has to be a daylily that started here from seed and wasn't noticed until it bloomed. So, since it's my very own, original daylily I'm going to name it Plain Jane;)

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: Matthew 6:28

I haven't done a Skywatch for a long, long time. (Click on the link above to be transported to some of the world's lovliest skies.)

Last week our skies were dark and ominous but there is a lot of color and movement in skies like these. Gray skies make for good photographs. Not just cloud photos, the colors on any photo are truer and detail isn't washed out by the bright sunlight.

For two weeks I have been assigned the task of medicating my sister's cat while she and her family vacation. Kitty has to have a daily dose of Prosac and she doesn't like it. Since I'm the bringer of the nasty stuff, she doesn't like me either;)

Driving the 15 miles to Monroe Center everyday might have been a tedious chore, but in fact I've really enjoyed these trips. The countryside is lush and green, beautiful houses, scenic views and wild flowers everywhere. Who knew there are so many pretty back roads all going to tiny Monroe Center?


As far as I could see down this little country road, tawny daylilies blanketed the fence row. What a lovely sight. Some folks call them ditch lilies, but whatever you call them it was a pleasure to see them there. I always wonder how they came to be in the fields. Perhaps some farmer's bride brought them from her mother's garden. A dependable flower to begin her own garden in a new home.

When I first moved into my farmhouse there were patches of daylilies dotting the hedgerows and fencelines. The ones on my farm were a little unique. The flowers were doubles and triples, amazingly beautiful. I dug clumps and brought them home to start my gardens.

(Kwanso from 2006 photo)

Siloam Double Classic is one of the daylilies I grow in my own garden today. Hybridizers have made some wonderful strides with daylilies. Almost every imaginable color, diamond dusted, doubles, spiders, and ruffled edges like old fashioned crinoline petticoats.

Double Classic is one of my early bloomers right behind Stella d'oro and Hyperion. The display goes on for weeks well into the heat of July. No pests or diseases and SDC increases fairly quickly. The flowers are variable and some of the first few are singles. Delicious peachy color, ruffled edges and a glowing yellow throat are some of the things I love about SDC. If the beauty alone isn't enough, she has a sweet fragrance.

Have a great weekend. Heres hoping everyone of you turn a corner and come upon a field of wild flowers to brighten your day.