Another flower that goes over the top showing off is the Stargazer lily.
Its colors demand attention.
Its fragrance lures you over to it.
The plant is poisonous if ingested.
Its pollen stains you with it’s deep rust if you touch it.
The faces are head high and look up bravely into yours.
This lily is a diva.
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Gladioli are show-offs in July.
They are like flower fireworks in the garden.
I love how they shoot upward and bloom for weeks.
My two types in the Glad Circle are Pricilla (pink) and a Mardi Gras mix.
The Mardi Gras have the extra feature of interest in their purple pollen.
I am always Glad it’s July because of my Glads.
FLOW
I am being taught a thing or two by my tiger babies which were grown from bulbils.
I wanted to make sure they all survived as I experimented on how to raise them.
I thought the ones in the pot needed to be brought in for the winter, but I forgot.
I assumed that the ones in partial shade would need to be moved in order to bloom.
They are blooming just fine where they lay.
I wanted to protect mama ‘Tiger Splendens’ with a fence, but took it off and forgot to put it back.
That one is fine as well.
I babied them when they were babies. Now that they are grown, they do fine on their own.
Mama FLOW standing down.
Sometimes I make the mistake of thinking myself clever.
I post chairs around the garden to get the wildlife used to the chairs.
Then I quietly slip in the chairs to spy and take photographs without being noticed.
Last week I hunkered down in an Adirondak chair near the alstroemeria.
The female hummingbird zoomed in and spent time perusing the entire patch.
She moved so quickly that I aimed and snapped without focusing.
Before she flew away, she hovered right smack dab in front of my startled face.
She was letting me know that she saw me all along.
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I have put the brakes on acquiring new plants this summer.
But sometimes I cannot help myself.
I have this fascination with variegation.
When I spotted this ‘Spider’s Web’ Fatsia japonica, I snatched it up.
Despite the fact it will get much larger and need protection if planted outside in Zone 7.
All I could see was those leaves! Each is a different work of art.
The variegation changes as the leaves age.
It is evergreen, produces white ball blooms in the fall and makes black berries.
How could I resist?
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My world is small and quiet. I need it like that right now.
But I must make myself leave my haven on occasion.
My outing this week was to the farm of my friends.
Years ago it was a dairy farm. Later it was a daylily farm.
Now it is just home to some of my favorite people and their dogs.
The highlight of my visit was watching Raney, Bailey, Wally, Murphy and Skid.
They provided a lot of action and entertainment.
Wally was the star of the show. He constantly flushed rabbits out of the flower beds.
We laughed as we watched the rabbits skitter hither and yon without Wally ever seeing them.
It was hard to take my eyes away from the action to photograph the beautiful plantings and artwork.
If I ever have a farm, it will be full of flowers
and goats and a donkey and some rabbits and lots of chickens and maybe an alpaca or llama and an emu…
and of course dogs.
A girl can dream can’t she?
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FLOW
June is a colorful month in my garden.
There seems to be a recurring purple theme.
I do love all purples.
I guess I did this accidently on purpose.
It seems the bees like purple as well.
My giant Cardoon has four babies. Need one?
Lightning bugs and ants love purple, too.
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The blooms of the hoya do not look real.
They are complex and shiny.
They emerge from the stems that hang down below the main part of the plant.
They are best viewed from below, which means the plant must be hung high.
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floweralley 