Bloomin' Wednesday

A little mid-week recap on what's bloomin' in the strolling garden:

 This lovely asiatic lily is new to the garden. I THINK it was one of 20 mixed lily bulbs my best friend sent me as a surprise gift following my shoulder surgery. Seated and very slowly planting with one hand while trying not to move the wrong way with the recovering shoulder was an interesting experience. It will totally be worth it to see all the different lilies blooming this year.

This very short asiatic lily was planted a month ago. It should come back taller and bigger each year. It was the first one to bloom this spring and the color popped from across the yard.

Three blossoms have opened up on the Bird of Paradise Bush. It'll be covered with blossoms for the next 4 weeks or so. The bees love this plant so if you're allergic to bees don't plant it anywhere near places you occupy often.

 I planted quite a few seeds this year and amazingly many of them took root. Only problem is I can't remember what the heck this plant is. Every day I stop by to see if it's bloomed but no luck so far. It looks a little like a gaillardia but I don't recall planting any of those. Oh well, something fun to look forward to!

And on a sad note, when I left for work this morning this tall stalk held up 7 small flower heads that would have been gorgeous pink daylilies. Bought this fragrant variety of reblooming daylily from Home Depot two years ago and already divided and replanted some this past fall. This clump was one of those divisions. Came home to a headless stalk, thanks to the strong winds today. So that's 7 blooms I won't see this year. As I do not own a wind turbine nor lease out my land for one I can honestly say that the wind sucks and I wish it would bug off... at least for a while. Sheesh! My lawn is covered with rose petals that have been ripped off the plants. You'd think there'd been a wedding under the three-legged gazebo.

The Perfect Bench

When I began the garden I knew I needed seating areas to kick back and enjoy the view. After all, gardening is a heck of a lot of work. You really do need to take time to smell the roses, especially after you've spent the day being stuck by their thorns, lugging over pitchers of water with diluted rose food, and dodging waving stalks that reach out and try to grab you as you walk by. Heck, you might even need a sangria or two after all that.

I've been on the look out for the "perfect" seating area for the strolling garden for quite some time. The main problem with the back yard is that it is hot as blazes when the sun is shining up high. There are very few spots that get some shade in the late afternoon. Whatever bought needed to fit in these areas and blend well with the cottage-styled gardens. Some cheap temporary patio furniture was purchased the first year... which then flew across the yard several times due to the spring winds, taking out a few plants like bowling pins. Plastic or lightweight furniture was definately out of the question.

 In the second summer I bought a very heavy patio table, matching heavy metal chairs and a bright colorful tropical umbrella. Such a cute set. Then the spring winds kicked up and the umbrella bounced around like mad. I still use the set but the umbrella has to stay in the garage and be brought out on days when the wind is not blowing hard.

I have finally found the perfect bench for the strolling garden. World Market had a great sale on the outdoor furniture and this white bench fits well among the roses, irises, and daylilies.

The only thing missing in this picture is me!  The winds this past week have pretty much prevented much appreciation of the bench. I did get to sit on it for a little bit Thursday afternoon during a lull in the wind. Seriously this spring has been yo-yoing like crazy. While other parts of the county are getting hammered with rain and tornados, we're getting hammered with a serious drought, constant strong winds and wildfires.

 The garden fairy agrees the bench is perfect. This little statue was a gift from a cousin and enjoyed reigning over the garden until a neighbor's cat knocked it over while stalking poor birds and broke her head. A little bit of super glue and a new location and the fairy is happily back to peaking out under a rose bush, in this case Iceberg. And the cat gets the sprinkler treatement whenever he gets caught in the backyard.

 Naturally she's reading a book on flowers, she is a garden fairy after all.

And this is the view from the bench looking towards the house. Once the daylilies, yarrow and lilies bloom the view will be even more colorful. Two of the asiatic lilies [the orange spots in this photo] did bloom this week. They were planted 6 weeks ago and are really short.

 A closeup of one of the irises trying to hold its head up in the wind. Love the color combination.

My lovely yellow iris. I forgot I had one and have been mentioning I wanted one to friends, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it blooming this weekend. Had to hold onto the stalk to block the wind in order to shoot the photo.

The temperatures have dropped 30 degrees in two days and there's a possible freeze tomorrow morning [oh joy]. Hopefully by the time we get to the middle of next week the temperatures will be back up, the wind way down, and I will be enjoying this view from my new bench with a nice cold drink in hand. Now that would be perfect!

The Wind does not want to go

One of the best comedy skits ever done was Carol Burnett's "The Wind Done Gone" and boy do we here in West Texas sure wish the wind done gone. But she's still lingering around, refusing to budge for long. Today has been a particularly ugly day throughout Texas as the local news just reported that seven counties were battling wildfires. The weather forecast shows winds through most of the upcoming week. We're suppose to finally catch a break on Friday. Ugh, what a waste of days during which I could be gardening.

During those few times in the day when the wind is catching its breath, I'll wander out into the garden to see what's happening. So much is blooming, it's as if a switch was turned on and everything went into overdrive. The irises have started blooming which is unfortunate as the winds are causing the petals to curl into themselves. I managed to peel back some of them to get a few shots. The three below are passlongs from a friend's garden.

We have no idea of their names, if they had any, so I just call them Lyn's Irises. The first one is the shorter of the three and the most hardy. I have dug up the bulbs for these, replanted them in another bed and still they bloomed three weeks later. A VERY hardy iris, to say the least. And prolific too, as I've divided them each year to spread around the front and back beds.

This one always makes me crave grape jelly on toast. 

This one is a little more blue and taller than the two above. I only have a few of this variety but hopefully they'll live long and prosper so I can spread them around the garden beds. Their height, along with the striking sword-shaped leaves add vertical interest to the beds. 

The main wind damage I've noticed is to the largest and most full of the four Climbing Americas. Several stalks have literally had their leaves and buds completely ripped off in large sections. It's sad to think of all the roses I won't be seeing due to this. I had around a 100 blossoms on this huge plant last year. I probably should prune these down to where the leaves are but I so hate to cut the plant down.