The Search for a Daylily to Match a Knockout Rose

This is as close as I've come for daylilies to edge Knockout Roses.

Most of my red daylilies look too scarlet or lean toward brown when I place a Knockout beside them. 'Little Business' is short enough to act as an edger and rosy enough to blend with the roses.

There is Knockout, pink Knockout, and Belinda's Dream in the bed. The pinker roses are fine with Little Biz.

Little Business

This red seedling will be fine when the pink Brugmansia behind it blooms.

It took on a brown tone when I held Knockout next to it.

This one looked sallow beside Knockout.

'Olive Bailey Langdon' -- officially a purple.

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Here's a curiosity: when I watered overhead the bed where this Brug

grows, the buds were not open. Later in the evening, they opened WHITE.

This morning they're back to their lovely pink selves.

I'm pacing the transplanting of the rest of my cuttings and seedlings and potted delights.

Today I managed to plant 2 Gerbera Daisies and four pale pink Pentas, after I dug enough liriope from the bed to edge the front of the bed where the red Pentas grow. No wonder progress is slow!

After I cooled a bit, I went back to transplant echinacea seedlings from one of the paths after I dug out grass behind the daylilies where they were to go. I managed to get one moved, went to water where two Purple Datura seedlings are to go and never got back to my first task.

A man in a camper broke down in front of the house. After it cooled down and he added water to the radiator they journeyed on, his significant other following behind in a little car. They had 10 miles to go to get home. She and I talked flowers and I gave her rosemary cuttings, oregano sprouts, and some gardenia cuttings to try to root.

Getting Ready for Cold and Wet

Not really blooming, colorful foliage of Joseph's Coat.

Oh! Look! Up in the left corner just past the Crape Myrtle.

What IS that?

Acidanthera bicolor, or by its new name, Gladiolus callianthus.

I bought the bulbs in the spring and then forgot to timely plant.

They are only hard to 25 degrees. Perhaps the stones will

mediate the temperatures enough that they will survive.

Inexpensive enough to try again next year and plant in time.

Grandma's Yellow Rose, Sunny Knockout and Knockout.

Belinda's Dream is still blooming too, perhaps the sturdiest of all.

Gulf Frits are still about on Lantana.

Skipper on Duranta

Heliconia, my favorite House Plant, outside for a drink and shower.

As the weather cools, everything tender must move inside:

More views of what's in the Greenhouse are in the Greenhouse Here.

Flaunt your flowers with Tootsie

Flowers and text are from the garden of Nell Jean blogged on Dotty Plants Journal in Southwest Georgia where the weather is getting cooler.

A New Diva Every Day

A Poppy bloomed today! I didn't take a picture. Let's wait for a show.

Here's foliage and buds from yesterday. We had rain today.

As spring bulbs finish their season here, foliage of summer bulbs is either dying back or emerging, depending on the habit of the bulb. There are a very few late daffodils still in bud. I think I'll plant more late season daffodils this fall.

Lycoris radiata and lycoris squamigera foliage are beginning their demise. The flowers will appear mid-to late summer on naked stems. Elephant ears, crinums, cannas, gladioli and true lilies are showing up daily, the foliage. We'll see blossoms in a month or two.

Yesterday I divided a single Oxblood lily that divided over a few years into a dozen. Some were as large as a tennis ball. The Oxblood lily blooms late August. Buffy helped; a few may not bloom this summer because they lost their tops which were still bright green. I wanted to move them in the green so I could see where daffodils were located and not dig into them later when I moved the Rhodophiala.

I'm dividing my attention between catalogs of summer bulbs which must be ordered soonest to plant timely and fall-planted bulbs that need ordering before they sell out. Before I order off, I need to see what is here that can be divided and moved about.

Somebody needs to talk me out of ordering tulips just once more to prove I can bring them to bloom. How many tulips for the price of one amaryllis, Tulip for the South? The Hippeastrum that I gave my neighbor who doesn't garden has rebloomed this second year. Mine is sulking.

Maybe I can distract myself with finding a new spot for some true lilies that were crowded underneath some shrubs. Neglected lilies tend to get smaller. Renewed in some potting soil and then planted with lots of compost they will bloom again next year. Remember Mrs. Greenthumbs' story about the lilies and compost? She gave hers all the compost she had and they still weren't happy.

Roses are blooming as if it were June. Reine des Violettes here. Peppery fragrance, upright habit.

A Rose by Any Other Name

Spring arrived and suddenly roses are blooming. From upper left: Pink Knockout; Rose des Violettes with a Swallowtail butterfly in silhouette above the blossoms; Gene Boerner.

2nd row: Livin' Easy, Julia Child and Sunny Knockout after the yellow faded to near white.

I don't think of my roses by the patent names like Radsunny -- just the familiar name.

Julia Child has a marvelous fragrance, kind of 'fresh baked bread with honey.'

Butterflies are visiting Roses, Bath's Pinks and Azaleas.

I've seen Tiger Swallowtails, dark Swallowtails and big Yellow Sulphurs.

Earlier this season I've seen a few Buckeyes and a brief glimpse of a Zebra Swallowtail.

I did get some quick pics of Tigers on Azaleas which I'll post soon on Seedscatterer.

Heading toward Hydrangeas

Hydrangea macrophylla var. normalis 'Mariesii Variegata'

 Blue-gray leaves of 'Halcyon' hostas echo the same color in hydrangea leaves.

I can hardly wait until the blue blooms open.

The oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia) is one of two Hydrangea species native to the U.S.

Oakleaf hydrangeas here are about to bloom.

Big blue mophead hydrangeas are getting ready as well,

 but not quite ready for photographing.

Since my hydrangeas are all blue or white,

many of my roses are pink.

Pink Roses of 'Gene Boerner' floribunda against loropetalum.

I like floribundas that make a big shrub. Gene Boerner is one of the biggest.

I didn't know the history of this rose and its hybridizer when I bought these.

Gene Boerner died before he named this rose.  It was posthumously given his name.

White Eschscholzia

I was afraid they would not thrive planted so late so I held back half the seeds that Carolyn of Rose Notes sent. I will use the saved seeds for fall planting. What an exciting surprise when the first one showed up!

That looks like pure sunshine in the center, and it is.

All Poppies are beautiful this year. Corn poppies are just starting, no pics yet.

Roses are starting -- did I say that yesterday?

Reine des Violettes is one of those you can smell before you see it, a peppery rose scent that

carries on the breeze. It has few thorns and long canes.

I have to get the purple alternathera planted beside it and around the end.

I hoped the purple would sprout out from the roots but I think it is dead.

It was really a strong grower. I'm glad I kept cuttings.

I have some chartreuse alternanthera cuttings to plant out and some bits of red.

They do better in sun. The best show comes in the fall.

I Never Expected a Rose Garden

We stopped by the Rose Garden in Thomasville, GA on our way elsewhere.

The Rose Show is in two weeks. The Gardens look great, even with only a few open blooms.

I have Pentas and Porterweed to plant, inspired by Gardens I saw today.

Roses in December

It's supposed to freeze tonight. Today it's misting rain, very dreary. I picked the last rose buds: 2 'Peace' and one bud each of 'Queen Elizabeth' 'Sombreuil' 'Gene Boerner' and 'Knockout' to fill a vase on the kitchen windowsill.

Today is the 70th Anniversary of Daddy Senior's parents. We have a cigar box full of letters they wrote during their courtship, when there were no telephones in the country. Postage stamps went from 2 cents to 3 cents sometime during 1937.

Roses in December

Sombreuil on a cedar post.
If the brave little buds are tight when a freeze comes, they can survive to open after the next couple of warm days. If they're open, they're freeze dried and usually limp. This one made it to a warm day.