Daylilies arrive with the summer heat
Hot and muggy sauna days have arrived, and with them, the daylilies. Is it a worthy trade-off? I am not sure, but since we can’t turn back the clock to balmy spring, I resolve to enjoy their sugar-glittery petals and day-in-the-sun beauty.
Here’s sunny ‘Wilson’s Yellow’.
And my favorite, the peach-and-chartreuse ‘Best of Friends’.
Other plants are responding to the heat too, and much more gracefully than I, like native purple skullcap (Scutellaria wrightii), its tidy, mounding form echoed by gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida ‘Winter Blush’) and purple sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’) in a sunny spot along the driveway.
More purples in dappled shade in the back garden: native heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata), with a squid agave (A. bracteosa) in a pot behind it.
There are yellows too, including a new plant in my garden this year: golden butterflyweed (Asclepias curassavica ‘Silky Gold’), an all-yellow version of tropical milkweed.
Yuccas love the heat, and ‘Bright Edge’ (Yucca filamentosa) has sent up a bloom stalk of creamy white bells.
Yucca rostrata ‘Sapphire Skies’ has never flowered, but it’s getting bigger and shaggier than ever. Orange-flowering pomegranate and cigar plant (Cuphea ‘David Verity’) contrast with its cool, blue-green foliage.
On the other side of the garden are more orange and blue, but the color is man-made: a bottle tree, metal ribbon sculpture, and Circle Pot from Potted.
Hugging the fence, sweet-scented star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) glows day and night. It’s finishing up its spring flowering now, and I have enjoyed it while it’s lasted.
Moby, my whale’s tongue agave (A. ovatifolia), is still putting the finishing touches on his amazing bloom stalk. Yellow-green flower buds, like miniature bananas, adorn each “arm” of the stalk, and every day I gaze up to see if any have opened. It won’t be long.
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Your garden is looking great.
Not sure I’m ready for summer quite yet. It’s been really hot and humid here.
Have a good weekend.
Well, the rainstorm broke the heat this evening, didn’t it? I was at a party after the rain stopped, and the temps were lovely again. Yay! —Pam
Your garden is looking so lush Pam. It is a beautiful sight. Can’t wait to see Moby’s blooms all open. What a way to go out. We have been thrown back into the freezer. I had to bring in plants that have been out for a few weeks. Geez.
I can’t believe you’re having a frost warning in mid-May, Lisa! Hope it misses you. —Pam
The smell of Star Jasmine…that’s how I know Spring is here! I inhale deeply and my shoulders drop down away from ears at least an inch! 😉
I love your photos – I always find more things I need to plant!
I feel like you need to have a wake for Moby when the time comes, maybe hire a gospel choir to sing. some hymns.
I was thinking a New Orleans-style funeral, Wendy, but yeah. 🙂 —Pam
I love your color combinations! We’ve started to get warm, but the wind has picked up too. What happened to spring?
It goes so fast! —Pam
I always enjoy seeing what’s new in your world. ? When the jasmine is done, go find some reseda. It smells yummy all summer! Next to Mobys planter, you have terra cotta pots on poles. Why? Thanks again for the tour!
Those are homemade hose guards, Carol. Just rebar spikes, with the little flowerpots on top to provide a measure of safety. —Pam
you know you can eat the day lilies?
Makes a fun salad garnish.
But if I eat them, what will the bugs eat? 😉 —Pam
Love seeing daylilies already, Pam – we have another month to go before first bloom. It’s true, they adore the hot muggy weather – adds some sheen to their petals too. You have so many architectural plants in your garden – I love seeing the patterns. Yucca ‘Sapphire Skies” is spectacular!
That yucca is one of my absolute faves, Lynn! It’s a stunning, shimmering Koosh ball when the wind blows. —Pam
Wow on the yucca, and wowee for Moby! Amazing! And you do really have an eye for color. I love you lawn furniture and cushions and the pool and the plants, it looks wonderful. What on earth will you do when Moby needs to be replaced? Such a spectacular living sculpture!
I love all of my various greens, but I am so happy to see all of your blues all combining and mixing and matching the pool even!
Thanks for the beauty.
Thank you, lwc! I am pretty sure I will replace Moby with a new whale’s tongue agave once he’s gone. I just can’t imagine anything else in his spot. —Pam
Lovely lilies in your garden, Pam. My ‘bright edge’ sent up a stalk, too, but the #$%^ deer ate it off. I was planning to protect it, but since it wasn’t very tall yet, I hadn’t gotten around to it. Guess that’s a teachable moment for me. At least in your pictures I can see what I missed! I’ve never had one bloom before. That’s a great angle to shoot your Moby pics from — it really captures the majesty of it.
Those darn deer. They ate a bloom stalk off one of my paleleaf yuccas recently. Sigh. Back-yard fences are oh-so-valuable, aren’t they? —Pam
Your garden looks cool despite the heat, Pam! I love ‘Best of Friends’ and, of course, Moby, who looks very stately in his dotage. Our marine layer has held off the heat here and, knock wood, that’ll remain the case for several weeks yet despite earlier predictions that El Nino was going to push the usual “May gray” and “June gloom” out of here this year.
I hope you keep your marine layer and coolness for a while yet, Kris. Our marine layer, which comes up from the Gulf of Mexico, is like a hot, wet blanket. 😉 —Pam