Our Yard in June

Happy Sunday my friends!

Here at Plum Tree Cottage the gardens are in full bloom with daylilies (mostly), and if you follow this blog you know how very much I love them. So, this post will be heavier with photos than it is with words! Well, maybe not.

In the spring I bought this little stone snail at our

local garden center.

You can't see it on the photo,

but his antennae are made of nails.

In him I have planted some lemon thyme,

and he sits on our table on the deck...

The garden below is in the center of our yard, and you see

the garden shed behind it.

The original garden was a small circle of daylilies

that surrounded the birdbath that you see towards the left.

It gradually expanded to a larger one over the years,

much of which I posted about on this blog.

It is now filled with daylilies and iris,

the latter of which bloomed in the spring...

Since the birdbath breeds nothing more

than mosquitoes, and had a crack in it anyway,

I filled it with dirt and placed a flower

pot on top if it.

The daylily in the pot is one that I

rescued in the fall.

It wasn't doing well in one of the outer

perimeter gardens,

so it wintered over here and is doing

quite well.

I will transfer it to the garden below in

in the fall.

In the birdbath itself I have planted

mint, where it cannot take over the rest

of my garden.

Been there, done that!...

Here is the left side of that same garden,

and you are facing the back of the yard,

including the rear border,

also filled with iris and daylilies...

Here is a view from the back of the area you saw above,

this time facing the back of the house...

And here is a long view of that whole garden...

...which up until last year was actually two gardens.

I was running out of space to plant all of my babies,

so joined the two together,

with Hubby helping me reset the concrete edgers.

There is a path between the two sections,

and we bought a sweet black iron bench to put

at the rear of the path...

The right side of this garden started out as a small herb

garden, and the little cat, mouse and bird whirligig

still resides here.

Towards the front you can see parsley.

Sage grows behind it, and wintered over from last year.

How nice!

Not seen in these photos are other herbs,

including rosemary, basil and thyme.

I love the look of herbs mixed in with flowers,

and the willy-nilly effect it gives...

In front of the whirligig,

notice the bright orange-red

daylilies in front.

These represent the fruit of my labors

back in 2012,

as they were hybridized by moi,

by cross-pollinating "Fooled Me"

with "Red Volunteer".

Five years later it is blooming profusely

and right now the star of this garden!..

Below are cone flowers on the left growing

alongside the sage.

The cone flowers are ones I bough a few

years ago in a pot from Walmart

for fall decorating.

They continued to grow nicely in the pot

in the middle of the garden,

and finally I planted them in the garden

in the fall.

I guess they like it here!...

Because I love the kind of daylilies

(spiders and unusual form) that

you will never find in the big box garden

centers,

I love the one below.

I purchased it from a local hybridizer

about five years ago.

It is called Wiggle Worm...

And what would be a tour without seeing a

couple of hydrangea.

Lacecap...

...and Oakleaf, now at the end of its bloom period

and turning a dusky rose color...

Below is the path that divides the two sections of

the one garden.

In the fall we hope to decide what to pave it with...

Have a peaceful and relaxing day!

Blue Morning Glories

"Morning glory is the best name,

it always refreshes me to see it."

--HENRY DAVID THOREAU

I have always loved morning glories.

Some years back we planted seeds along the lattice

that surrounds the access to our septic system.

Who wants to look at an access point to a septic system, anyway?

They grew really well there,

and re-seeded for several years after that.

However, at the end of the summer we ended up with dead vines

covering the lattice, and they were very hard to remove.

As we changed the focus of our garden spaces,

we did away with the morning glories.

Fast forward to the present.

The arbor that we have on the side of the house needed some attention.

The two climbing roses that grew over it,

seen in this post no longer bloomed,

likely because of the lack of light over the past couple of years.

So, after deliberating for a year, we finally decided to dig them out.

They were loaded with thorns and grew very fast,

so walking under the arbor was a pain in the neck

(or should I say a thorn in my butt!),

and decided to replace them with the morning glories seen above.

I couldn't believe that we found some already grown in pots

(Lowes garden center),

and in such a beautiful shade of blue.

We have planted one on each side of the arbor.

I will let you know if they work out,

since there may not be enough sun for them either,

but if they don't, we'll try something else.

Have a great day, friends!

An Almost-Black Tall Bearded Iris, and an Oddity!

Happy Sunday my friends!

This weekend finds us having some unseasonably cool weather, but since I am trying to cut back all the spent Iris plants in the garden to free up airspace for the getting-ready-to-bud daylilies, I won't knock the cool air that Mother Nature has provided!

I wanted to share this beautiful Iris that I purchased from Schreiner's (you can find them here) and planted in the fall. I am so attracted to almost-black flowers, and this is such a dark purple that it is almost black, even the insides. I did actually buy a few that were labelled as really being black, but they did not bloom yet. Perhaps they will not even bloom until next year, but that is OK.

 I took these photos earlier this morning

when the blooms were still covered

with droplets from the sprinkler...

It was pretty bright outside when I took these,

so you can see just how dark they are.

At a slightly different angle,

in this photo is takes on a bluish cast...

Another close-up, looking dark purple

again...

Sadly, my identifier stake states it is something

that I don't think it is.

Not sure if I mislabeled it, as there were 20

in my order (yes, 20!), including some freebies,

 so anything might have happened.

Who cares? I still love it!

************************************************

An speaking of something that is not what I thought it would be, the photos below are of something that has leaves that look like a daylily, but blooms that certainly don't.

This was a new daylily that I ordered last spring (2016).

The label is currently hiding underneath somewhere,

but I know that I planted it as a daylily.

It has such pretty flowers but I have no idea what it is.

Perhaps something was mixed in with the daylily

start when it arrived.

Again, a very pleasant surprise,

whatever it is!...

Here is a close-up.

It has been blooming for more than a week...

So, here's to the beauty of unknown and beautiful oddities.

May you flourish wherever you are!

*******************************

Thanks for coming by!

Beautiful Iris: What's In a Name Anyway?

Hello friends!

If you follow this blog, you know that I am pretty diligent about keeping up with tags that identify each plant in my gardens, particularly my daylilies and iris plants. However, every once in a while, I purchase a pretty addition to my garden that is a cutting from someone else's garden, sold to our local garden center, and was not identified. I can't resist buying these any more than one would refuse to adopt a cute puppy just because she didn't know his heritage. And sometimes the tags just disappear altogether.

This one was blooming at The Nest while we

were up there last week.

It wasn't doing well in our garden at home

last year,

so I divided it, left half home,

and moved a section to The Nest in

the fall.

How beautiful it turned out to be,

a pretty shade of yellow...

...with such pretty markings that are a

brownish plum...

I took this photo up close just because

the inside was so beautiful...

I bought the one below yesterday at the garden

center. It only had one bloom one it,

with a couple of buds,

but is just beautiful and very mature

with several fans on it...

...so I will likely divide it before putting it

in the ground this week,

and give a section to my sister-in-law

for her garden...

It is similar to the one below which

is already growing in the garden...

And, since I am partial to the blues,

I must share the one below,

also blooming in the garden here.

The identifier stake is somewhere

underneath it.

Iris tend to send their new growth outward

so often the markers tend to disappear,

and then resurface when I dig them out

to divide every three years or so...

With this kind of beauty,

unless you plan on hybridizing iris

it doesn't really matter what their names are,

now does it?!!

Have a beautiful day.

Easter 2017

Wishing you and yours a wonderful day.

************************

The beautiful tulip above was blooming in our garden last week.

XO

Sue

Signs of Spring at Plum Tree Cottage

Good morning my friends!

Yesterday we had some really pretty weather, being in the high 60s, with today expected to be more of the same. So, while walking around the yard I snapped a few photos of the promise of spring.

The first pretty white blossoms on the Plum Tree.

Yes, this house is named after her!...

One of the Hellebores (Lenten Rose) blooming in our fountain

garden in front of the deck.

She actually has been in bloom for almost a month now,

and will continue to do so until the really hot weather begins

in the summer...

Seen against the Carolina sky is the beginning of

the buds leafing out on one of our Crabapple trees...

And of course, always early are the daffodils

poking through the debris still in the garden

from its winter rest...

I don't imagine that I am looking forward to spring

and time spent in the garden!

Are you seeing any signs of spring where you live?

I'm back! Who can figure? And with a pretty Zygote cactus!

Hello dear friends! I know that it has been awhile, but lately things have been keeping me busy (please refer to my last post), and I simply have not had the time to post to this blog. I have missed you all.

Aside from other issues, one of the biggest hurdles to my posting has been that right before we were told that Mr. Perch would need surgery, I ordered a new computer. Since my last one was a Dell laptop that was probably almost 12 years old (it ran on Windows XP, if that tells you anything!), and served me quite well, I decided that I would buy another one. Though I have gotten used to Apple with my iPad and iPhone, I did not purchase a Mac mainly due to the cost factor. I probably would have kept my trusty old laptop till death, but Windows XP is no longer supported by many of the programs that I use, so I decided to quit while I was ahead and before my computer crashed altogether. So of course, the new laptop arrived about three days before Hubby went into the hospital and I have had about as much time to connect it, never mind get used to it, as I have had to each chocolate covered bon-bons while watching soap operas all day. So, I've been picking away at it slowly and now feel a little bit of a comfort level. Windows 10 is nice but it is so very much different than XP was. It was almost like having to learn how to work a computer all over again. Then, it wouldn't recognize the scanner on my printer, so I am now going to be using a scanning app. I'll see how it shakes out.

I got a little stressed out when it wouldn't accept my Canon Rebel camera's software either, but then realized that Microsoft 10 recognizes most cameras anyway, and the editing software, though basic, is nicer than what I had before. I don't get that involved with editing anyway on this simple little blog.

But the best part is that it appears that I can just hook up my iPhone to it and upload the photos just as I would my regular camera. I started to do this yesterday, but canceled out when I realized that I have over 3300 photos on my phone, and certainly didn't want them all on my new hard drive. I guess it's time to weed them out!

So here I am, finally able to take some photos, upload them to my sweet new computer and put them on my blog. What a joy this finally is!

Because the gardening season is well behind us, I needed some flower power and my first foray into this new endeavor had to be with a few photos of a new Zygote Cactus that I bought in our little grocery store the other day. You may recall photos in previous posts of the big coral-colored one that I have had for many years, but this is such a pretty little white one.

These were taken with my Rebel,

lazily taken in the auto-focus mode.

It was just beginning to bloom when I bought it.

I love the shocking pink center...

The nice thing (or difficult thing to get used to, depending on how you look at it) about Windows 10 is that there are many apps available that will help you with photo editing.

I edited the photo below by washing out the color a bit

 with the Windows 10

photo app built into the system,

but framed it with a free app that I downloaded

called KVADPhoto+.

I did quite a bit of research before I chose

this one as it seemed quite good.

Framing is only a small portion of

what this app is able to do.

Time will tell as I play around with it

a little more...

As to an update on the Mister, we are in the middle of his being fitted for his prosthesis. It is quite a process, but he should be "up on two legs" again just after Thanksgiving! It would be fair to say that we are both really looking forward to the day!!!

The Zingaro Dahlia

"What grows in the garden,

so lovely and rare?

Roses and Dahlias

and people grow there."

--From the TV show A Gardener's Diary

A while back I started some dahlias in pots.

I know that I had previously written about 

some others that I started and later transplanted into the garden.

But I never have much luck with them out there,

as some of our local critters seem to munch on my babies before they ever amount to much.

So, I purchased some more dahlia starts when it was getting late in the season 

when they were at a substantially reduced cost, 

and decided to try my luck with them in the porch.

One of them just started to bloom.

 How pretty is this?!

When they get near the end of their season, I will transplant them into 

one of the gardens that is a little more sheltered from the "wild things".

In the meantime, though, I think that I'll just enjoy them on the porch!

I hope your week is going well.

The Mums at The Wren's Nest

Hello to all!

Last fall I planted two little mums in the little garden in front of our little mountain getaway. When we got up here on Saturday, we happily discovered that they were in full bloom, and actually bigger than the bushes. Who can figure!

In April I had put in a couple of white petunias, one of which you can see in the photo below, along with one of the daylilies that is just starting to bloom...

I must say, "gardening" here is a lot easier than back home. Not only because it is such a small space, but also because the soil is so much better.

Have a great day!

Sue