Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Come on, man.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

This blog will pay for itself.

The willow is too close to the house.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Lovely Lilies

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Lovely Lilies

by | 124 Comments

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From commentor & garden devotee Japa21:

It’s been a strange year, garden wise for me and Mrs. Japa. The winter destroyed some of our boxwoods and our Rose of Sharon also had difficulty with the extremes. In addition, we have decided it is time to move on from our home of 35 years or more (I really can’t remember) so we haven’t been as emotionally invested in gardening this year as in years past. In past years I have shared with my fellow jackals our “purple” garden, our roses and our container gardens. The rose and purple gardens are doing the same as they have always done. We cut back greatly on the number of containers this year.

One thing that we have enjoyed are some of our lilies. I’ve included pictures of some of them. At the top is a joint favorite, our star lily. It is always the last to bloom, probably due to its location. As you can tell there are several buds that haven’t even started to open. Because of where it is planted you have to actually walk to it to get a good look. It isn’t that hard but it makes you step away from the busyness of the day and it is well worth it.

The Asiatic lilies are favorites of mine. They are colorful and stand out despite their small size.


My wife has always like calla lilies so this year, in one of our few pots, we did a calla lily, pairing it up with a nice grassy plant. Showing you both the lily alone and then the lily in the pot as a complete planting.


This is of one of the few remaining standard day lilies. The rest have pretty much lost all their blooms.

Finally, as I sometimes do, I am also sending a hummingbird picture. This was actually taken last year when we were visiting Mrs. Japa’s brother and SIL in Wyoming. They get 40-50 hummingbirds at a time. Of course, they are all varieties we don’t get in Illinois. Somehow or other, I was actually able to get a good shot as this one was going in for its feeding.

***********
Spousal Unit & I spent some time yesterday at the Massachusetts Iris Society sale, coming home with some four dozen carefully-labelled little fan divisions. So we’ll be spending our afternoon getting those planted out, mostly into temporary rootpouches until we can dig out & dig up the bed currently overrun by badly crowded feral versions of their generic Monet-painting-style cousins.

When we first moved to Massachusetts some 30 years ago, we rented half of a duplex, with an overcrowded clump of no-longer-blooming iris leaves spiking out of a patch of dirt by the driveway; I dug it up, divided & replanted most of them, and put the excess rhizomes in a couple of plastic trough planters that came with us when we bought our house. Those ‘freebies’ have since multiplied vastly — they’d take over the entire yard if left unchecked.

So at least we know our soil is suitable for the species, and the Spousal Unit has a probably exaggerated idea of our talent for nurturing them. It’s a little terrifying how much interest he’s taking right now; on the one hand, I can really use his help with the heavy work, but on the other, when he gets seized by a new interest he displays the true ADD ‘goes to eleven’ overenthusiasm, which I find rather exhausting…

I need more garden pics, incidentally, if you’ve been thinking about sending some.

What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  1. 1.

    Eclare

    I love lilies! I used to have some gorgeous lilies like your stargazer, but after about three or four years of plenty of blooms, they died off. Also great hummingbird picture!

    Good thoughts to those going through hard times, Scotian, Imm and Immp, Eric and Emma.

  2. 2.

    SectionH

    japa21 – it’s so tough leaving a garden you’ve put your heart into (never mind the aches and worse). I’ve done it 3 times now. I can rank the hurts, but the main things about a real gardener are you must be 1) patient and 2) insanely optimistic. I should add a 3rd one, but

    Nice pix. I was never so insane as to try to grow lilies in LEX like the one in your first photo – they don’t like hot and humid – but the second one with the yellow center – day lily, right? – that one looks familiar. I also noticed what looks like a lovely hosta in another pic (on the right, with a beautiful white border to its leaves). I think I used to have that hosta.

  6. 6.

    Ohio Mom

    @rikyrah: And good morning to you and all the other early birds.

    I am usually not up this early but I am still getting over Friday’s (minor) eye surgery. Tne Percocet kept my asleep for most of yesterday and now my sleep cycle is scrambled

    It’s nice to have company. If I go back to bed, it will be with the image of four dozen hummingbirds buzzing away in the same yard.

  8. 8.

    Charluckles

    As a new gardener I always value the green knowledge shared here. The pictures seem like proof that someone knows what they are doing…

    I have fallen in love with Rose of Sharon, and unfortunately my favorite was absolutely crushed by our winter. It was borderline for our zone anyways, but this past winter was just nuts. Sad day when I finally accepted it wasn’t just late coming out of dormancy. Can you tuck them in with a mound of dirt and mulch like you would with a sensitive rose bush?I

    Thanks

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Nice pics. Every year I look at the Calla lilies with longing and then pass because our winters are too cold, and the locations of potted stuff were never suitable. This year with the Zen garden I built a couple locations that are far more suitable for them. So next year I may finally acquire a couple.

  12. 12.

    Raven

    Great pics. I made the mistake of asking how the tomatoes are! Apparently the vegetables got wiped out last week and I didn’t even know it. Lots of flowers but no food.

  13. 13.

    Butch

    Whitetails munched about 3/4 of our lily bed this year, after taking a similar toll on the tulips. They’ve never done it before.

  14. 14.

    satby

    Beautiful pictures Japa21. And the hummingbird is a bonus! Thanks.
    @rikyrah: Good morning ?
    @Charluckles: Rose of Sharon can be maddeningly easy to grow and at the same time fragile. Don’t know how old yours are but the healthiest of mine lasted only about 15 years in Chicago. They’re prolific reseeders, so I’ve often saved new offshoots to plant elsewhere rather than mowing all of them. Mine have all been planted near a fence or foundation so they had some shelter from wind, but I never covered them like the roses.

  15. 15.

    Quinerly

    Beautiful pics!
    Poco will help me get my act together and we will try to send some pics in of our NOLA style city courtyard and his favorite perch.
    Have a great day!

  16. 16.

    Barbara

    @satby: I believe rose of sharon are a kind of hibiscus. In any event, they are nearly indestructible in the South.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    I remember listening to that report, so thanks for the follow up! Maybe public shaming is the way to fix things in this country.

  18. 18.

    eldorado

    wasn’t able to do anything this spring, but planted some fall tomotoes and peppers with seedlings from a reliable grower that is also the only person to offer them around here.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: I know. I refuse to. Down that road lies endless toil, because once you start, where does it end?.

  21. 21.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: @debbie: for my front garden bed I planted both calla lilies and dahlia bulbs in large 6 inch peat pots that I sank into the ground but I left a tiny lip above so that I can locate and pull them out to store over winter. We’ll see how that goes. Most of them are growing well but no flowers yet.
    Edit: I should note the peat pots will have dissolved by fall, the little ring above was just my reassurance I could tell the difference between the bulbs I want to lift and the ones like daffodils that I don’t.

  27. 27.

    satby

    @Betsy: ah, yes! I planted cannas. I have calla lilies in the back planted by the previous owner and I sort of ignore those, but they so far have come back. They’re against the garage and south facing, so in their own microclimate.

  28. 28.

    satby

    @Barbara: they are. But the tree itself usually only lives about 20-25 years anyway according to wherever I looked that up (Purdue extention site?). My longest lived one bit the dust a couple of years ago in Chicago, but it had two daughter shrubs that grew in its place. My mother always brought me one to plant wherever I lived, since it’s my name.

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I saw that. It’s disgusting. This morning they’ve put him through a kitty filter or something (not sure because I couldn’t even look at it). I don’t know what’s happened to them. My last reasonable source of mainstream news has gone nuts.

  33. 33.

    Immanentize

    Beautiful pics, Japa. I only have old fashioned day lollies, but you have inspired me to Branch out!

    Things near Boston are warm with no raining sight for another week or more. Really nice, but I would like some rain. I have neglected amost everything and of course things are thriving. Only have 2 tomato plants because of the as yet no show house painting. Those plants are lush and laden (Rutgers, my current favorite). Not ripe yet, but in a week for sure.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    @satby:

    I pass by a house with a red calla lily on my way to work. I know they’re supposed to be hardier. The homeowner left it in the ground over winter, and it’s come back and is about a foot tall now. Maybe you want to experiment with one of them to see if they’ll last through the winter?

  41. 41.

    Immanentize

    @satby: I was wondering about Eric. I left my email addy on an old thread, but he must have missed it … He is only a building or two away, I think.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Rutgers is my favorite too. It’s the best all around, IMO and I’ve tried maybe 60 different tomato varieties over the years.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: No, first it’s the callas, then the cannas, then the elephant ears and oxalis, followed by the caladiums, which inevitably leads to… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ETA @satby: I DO have an idea.

  46. 46.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    we have decided it is time to move on from our home of 35 years or more

    Japa, as you know, we did that about a year ago. It’s hard, but we have no regrets. It was the right decision. May you wind up feeling the same way

  51. 51.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I hope to hold the line at the cannas and dahlias. Since I’m a lazy gardener who puts in perennials and flowering shrubs for a reason (once and done!!), I think I’ll be able to resist the lure of the other delicate bulbs. Going to blame Quinnerly for the fact that I have double the begonias that I had last year because it never occurred to me to overwinter them in my basement. I always considered them an annual before she shared that secret.

  52. 52.

    Another Scott

    Good morning. Beautiful pictures and very interesting conversation.

    More on the Equivax settlement:

    But the likelihood that you’ll actually get a check for $125 is increasingly slim — because the more people who sign up, the less money each person gets. In fact, there’s only room for 248,000 people to get that amount.

    If 1 million people ask for the money, they’ll be eligible for just $31 each.

    If every single one of the 147 million affected people sign up, they’ll be looking at 21 cents.

    Unsurprising. :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    Hope Immp is healing well and the pain meds are working for him. Thinking of Eric, Emma, and Scotian, too.

    I worked on removing the peeling stain from my deck yesterday and I think I got a little dehydrated. Need to hydrate this morning.

  55. 55.

    chris

    Beautiful lilies!

    Around the beginning of June we stop walking in the woods because… ticks! Ew. That holds until the summer heat sends most of them back under cover so last weekend was the first time up the old “garden” path and the first time I’ve seen these grass pinks when I had my good camera along. This is the best flower shot I’ve ever made and now I’m looking for a small tripod so I can do more of them. Advice welcome.

    (Yes, it’s an orchid. Calopogon tuberosus.)

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Scott: I’m not eligible. Not that I asked or anything, I just know that I am ineligible because if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

  59. 59.

    japa21

    Good morning all. Starting late this morning because I had a hard time falling asleep after the Cubs/Brewers game. Though I am a Chicago area resident, I am a Wisconsin boy at heart.

    Anyway, thanks for the comments.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    I grow a lot of flowers – I like a lot of annuals for cut flowers and bright colors and resistance to summer heat- but it’s a lot of work and there are some areas I just don’t want to fool with anymore, so I’ve been putting in shasta daises – simple white perennial with dark green foliage, they look good anywhere, and they spread. I bought a double shasta daisy just to try it and what a horrible flower. It’s too heavy for the plant so it blooms and then droops and then the frilly top layer (the ‘double’ part) browns out. It always amazes me when they take near-perfect plant and then ruin it.

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @chris:

    Yes, it’s an orchid.

    Indeed it is, I’ll take you word for the species ID ;-) I have a small tripod (6″ legs) I take with me on hikes. There are a lot of times it is insufficient, but it is surprising how often it suffices. 18″ would cover about 90% of my needs.

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    It always amazes me when they take near-perfect plant and then ruin it.

    Good enough is never good enough.

  64. 64.

    debbie

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I’m sure you’re right. But I kind of like what the aggravation factor will be for the CRAs over the 10 years. They deserve it!

    I’m just trying to figure out if I should put security freezes on all of them.

  66. 66.

    Catherine D.

    @debbie: Not if it’s from Equifax’s Lifelock. Fox and henhouse.

    ETA I froze my credit completely when the breach was reported.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s daisy perfection. Cannot be improved :)

    You would think they’d look at it and say “we made…. an inferior white chrysanthemum”

  69. 69.

    JeanneT

    My daylilies have been amazing this year and they’re not only blossoming like crazy, they’re starting to crowd the flower beds. So now I need to figure out when is the best time to split the plants and what to do with the extras: not my usual problem with perennials!

  70. 70.

    MomSense

    Never wash dishes whole listening to Rick Fucking Scott blame President Obama for Russian interference. Of course Chuck Todd is covering impeachment as a horse race.

    We honestly cannot be a modern democracy with the media we have now.

  71. 71.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Better to go with purple coneflower and black eyed Susan’s

    My go to flowers though are nepeta (cat mint) all varieties. They flower all summer long and deal with too much rain and drought. Just cut the spikes off and they start all over again. Same for Monarda (bee balm). They look like flower firecrackers and are so hardy. Both plants are in the mint family and will do their thing no matter how neglectful the gardener.

  72. 72.

    debbie

    @MomSense:

    Be careful. I once needed about 10 stitches after gashing my hand scrubbing a water glass while thinking about my jackass boss.

  73. 73.

    Aleta

    I want to get a countertop oven for the cabin, big enough so I can bake pies that turn out like a normal oven.
    can anybody recommend any?

  74. 74.

    eric

    @Immanentize: i sent an email, must not have gone through! heading to BCH now. today is the day emma is likely to feel uber-terrible..hoping the gods shine goodness upon her….will try sending again

    eric

  75. 75.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Good morning! Today is Spanish Market in Santa Fe, so we’ll head there after imbibing a significant amount of coffee. We’re getting some nice afternoon/evening rain now that the summer monsoons have started. Does anyone have 1001 recipes for squash? We have burgeoning quantities of multiple varieties.

  76. 76.

    MomSense

    @debbie:

    Ha!! Sometimes the stupid is just too much. I think we need to do a podcast about anger management in the age of corporate media. More of a don’t try this at home thing.

    My kid’s band is playing at one of my favorite craft beer places today. Last time I was there I met some really cool people that I keep running into at all kinds of other events and I hula hoop danced with a bunch of little kids, their parents, and puppies!!! People bring their dogs and sit outside. This place even has a taco truck. It’s the world we should be living in if we were on the correct, Clinton timeline.

  77. 77.

    David C Macdonald

    @satby:

    I hope so too, but it was a bad night in the hospital. Got an oxygen tube up my nose because I had trouble breathing last night to go with the gangrenous foot and toes. I’ve got the docs worried sad to say, because of the high risk factors from my genetic blood mutation. Ah well, such is my life, and in general not great. Sorry, feeling a little bleak at the moment.

  80. 80.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Chris Murphy acted to improve his morning moods. This is me too.

    I’m unfollowing the President of the United States today on Twitter, because his feed is the most hate-filled, racist, and demeaning of the 200+ I follow, and it regularly ruins my day to read it. So I’m just going to stop.I can’t believe I just typed that.— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 28, 2019

  81. 81.

    Aleta

    @JeanneT: Same. Yards all over town have big round flaming patches of the orange daylilies (people call them tiger lilies) instead of the usual 5-10 blossoms scraggling along a foundation. It’s stunning because every yard has some from long ago, so there are huge clumps that look intentionally designed as you go down the street, and along roadsides too.

  84. 84.

    Yarrow

    Gorgeous lilies. Mine finished ages ago except for one confused daylily that put out a flower about ten days ago. It’s dry and hot season here. I planted some blackeyed peas (about the only vegetable that’ll grow now) several weeks ago. The package said they were a bush variety. Ha ha ha ha ha. They’re growing all over everything. I put a tomato cage in the middle of them and they’ve swallowed that and want to climb higher. This is the second time I’ve planted “bush” black-eyed peas only to end up with Jack-and-the-beanstalk plants. Not sure what’s going on with that.

    @Major Major Major Major: Oh, that’s been filtered from the chan sites and probably other fringe sites and then up through the Federalist and then to Fox and then to the MSM. Adam has outlined the pattern several times. It’s how they mainstream fringe ideas.

    There isn’t really a good way to push back on the substance of such claims or whisper accusations. How do you prove someone isn’t sick? Better tactic is to discuss how these sorts of discussions are started in the conspiracy fever swamps like the chans and trust-washed by more respectable conservative sites until mainstream news sites pick them up and they become “people are talking about” points. Attack and disrupt the process because the substance is interchangeable with whatever the next thing is.

  88. 88.

    Gelfling 545

    Lovely lilies indeed. My few oriental lilies are finished but the daylilies are still going strong. The red ones around the pond may be getting a little over enthusiastic, truth be told.

  89. 89.

    Yarrow

    @David C Macdonald: So sorry for your pain and your situation. Sending good thoughts for a better day today. Thank you for sharing your time with us. I’ve always appreciated your insights and your kindness, which is evident in your comments.

    I’ve lost the link to Scotian/David’s GoFundMe. Can someone post. Even better, can it be re-upped on the front page again, maybe not on a Sunday? Some people may have missed it the first time around.

  90. 90.

    Yarrow

    @debbie: No, the Trump presidential library should be like the Holocaust Museum: an education experience and a warning to future generations. General design should be a prison.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    I have a patch of bee balm – I like the mint family and I put it in for the bees – but it’s in the “vegetable area” – of both the yard and my brain.
    I like (more) formal gardens. I don’t know if it’s because I did it for work for a while in my twenties so got into that mindset but for this I need a reliable, long blooming swoop of white/dark green. In the front (north) area I have just oaks, boxwood, hosta, lily of the valley and pachysandra. You know, in that height order :)

  93. 93.

    Immanentize

    @eric:
    Eric, good luck to Emma! And to you. I hate seeing my child in pain. I would do anything to take it on myself — like the empathy in Star Trek original series? Felt that way watching chemo too. Sadly, we aren’t built for that type of support.

    Again if I mistyped: jjpokorak at the Google mail service company.

  97. 97.

    David C Macdonald

    @satby:

    Sadly not to be, rough night in the hospital with a oxygen tube up my nose. Things have not been going well this past week. Trying my best, but it has been challenging. They’ve used my pain killers as well which is never a good sign either. Things sadly are are what they are…SIGH

  98. 98.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense: I got two beautiful heuchera a couple weeks back. One has chartreuse leaves with a blood red middle and the other is dark purple almost black. I planted them next to a “blue” hosta. Great combination

  100. 100.

    Gelfling 545

    @OzarkHillbilly: A word about callas. Several years ago, at least 7, maybe more, I was given a pot of callas for Easter. In the fall, because I was lazy and the pot was ceramic & pretty, I pulled it off the stoop and stuffed it under the tablecloth in my unheated front hall solely with the protection of the pot in mind. No watering, no light, no nothing. The following spring when I pulled the pot put with the idea of emptying it I was surprised, shocked actually, to see green shoots. I watered & fertilized them and voilá, the callas were back. Ive done the same every year since. Sooner or later my luck will run out but so far I’ve had good results with no effort.

  101. 101.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I had bee balm, but I ripped it out because it spread like a weed. Then it came back immediately. I have it almost corralled to a small area now….

    The Battle continues.

  105. 105.

    Yarrow

    @Immanentize: Anything in the mint family will spread like a weed and take over. I keep those things in pots. Can still spill over and root but makes it easier to keep it contained.

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    @David C Macdonald:
    Scotian, I am so sorry especially about any pain. I really hope they get you the relief you need now. I’ll tell a little story about my wife when she was where you are. At one point, after we changed her code status from “full code” to DNR, the oncologist asked what she was now thinking about the change (and obvious admission that the end was nigh). She said, “I don’t know if it is the drugs, but I am really not worried about that anymore.” I hope they are giving you whatever she got which helped her to some ease and peace.

  110. 110.

    Immanentize

    @Yarrow: I actually worried it was too good of a pollinator. It certainly attracted bees, but then they had no interest in my veggies. Why drink well whiskey when top shelf is free?

  111. 111.

    zhena gogolia

    So now Vanity Fair is telling me “Trump Sizzles, Mueller Fizzles,” so do I have to cancel my subscription to them too?

    I subscribe to get the latest news in Louis Vuitton handbags. I have no interest in their political analysis, but they insist on e-mailing it to me.

    ETA: At least I unsubscribed from their stupid newsletter. As I did from Leonhardt. Feels good.

  112. 112.

    Yarrow

    @zhena gogolia: The media is so set on making Mueller a big fat fail. It’s not going to work because the House committees are doing their jobs. The cases he farmed out are still ongoing. The real work is happening. The media wanted the reality show and they’re whining because they didn’t get the episode where people flip over tables and throw drinks on each other.

  113. 113.

    opiejeanne

    Pretty flowers! We are lily-deficient here.

    @O. Felix Culpa: I’ve learned to only plant one, ONE, single zucchini plant and we still can’t keep up with production. It’s started already, almost missed one yesterday that would have become a monster. I was looking for a couple to sauté for lunch yesterday at lunchtime and I know I’m already in trouble because the plant is so big and blooming so profusely. My niece told me she has a lemon-zucchini bread recipe that’s to die for. I’ll share it with the jackals if it’s any good.

  117. 117.

    StringOnAStick

    @debbie: It’s such bullshit they are pushing about Mueller. I listened to the second hearing and had two conclusions: (1) like me, Mueller has some hearing loss and noisy environment drops comprehension aside from the fact he was being super careful with his answers, and (2) any R who claims to Respect Your Service or Support the Troops should have been so disgusted by the R congress men behavior towards a decorated combat veteran that they changed their party affiliation within 24 hours.

    The TV media is chasing the only demographic that still watches Tv news, so that means angry old white people, AKA the FOX News demographic. If you look at it that way, their behavior makes sense. I

    Tom Steyer could do a whole lot more with his money than set it on fire chasing a Presidential dream, like building/buying something to compete with Sinclair. It doesn’t have to be lefty TV, it just needs to be fair, non- conspiracy Tv! Just emulate TV when the Fairness doctrine was in place.

  119. 119.

    J R in WV

    We had a big bed of bee balm down at the old farmhouse, and tried to move some up here, but they never took off. Not sure why, all the neighbors have nice beds, the hummers love bee balm.

    Lilies — at least many varieties — are quite poisonous, IIRC. So we don’t have any. I had a tiny constrained bed of lilies of the valley but when they started to fade I let them go. Some of our cats are inclined to nibble plants. Strange but there it is.

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