Golden hours

Our gumpo azaleas are creeping around the corner of my office. They're the last of the azaleas to bloom in spring. In fact, they are just getting finished when the blossoms of all the others have fallen and been moved or are compost.

What I thought was neat is the fact that they are moving by layering. Layering is something that some garden plants do. They expand to available soil when one of their branches is allowed to rest on the ground. That spot sinks new roots and, if the parent plant is cut away, will continue to grow and bloom on its own.

That is a bright spot in these final days of electioneering in Arkansas. I don't know how it is chez vous, but here, candidates have been invading every aspect of life. They stand on corners waving signs, post on Facebook, button hole people at gatherings and worst of all, have computerized telephone calls at any hour of the day or night. Nuts to them all say I. Maybe I'll just write myself in if there isn't a suitable candidate to elect. Certainly none of the ones who have been advertising all over the TV and invading my life otherwise seem to be people I want in positions of responsibility.

The days are getting hot and humid. That pretty well limits the time I'm able to spend outside cutting grass, pulling weeds or moving rocks. On the other hand, it might just give me the impetus to start writing more. Over the past weeks, I have been sitting around reading "comfort books" instead of researching or writing.

Comfort books are those I've read in the past and enjoyed completely. Authors like Diana Wynne Jones, Eleanor Farjeon, Dorothy Sayers, P.G. Wodehouse and L. Frank Baum are the ones I've picked on for the most part. There is an ease to reading them. I don't have to think much. Am I becoming stodgy?

Short and sweet: Today, I found a toad lily in our garden (several really). It was growing in the partial shade loved by the Japanese anemone and astilbe.

The toad lily is a native plant in Arkansas and found in other places where the great prairie formerly ruled.

late summer in the garden

While my daughters were here, I lamented about the sad state of blooms in late August and early September. They laughed and said the garden looked pretty good to them. So I walked out this afternoon to document some blooms. Alas, I was too late for the magnificent thistle we found, but there were quite a few others.


azaleas

Along with the goldfish above, we found a cute, little garden snake who was sharing the pond with the fish. He/she/it(?) had also staked out a couple of rocks upstream where (pronoun of your choice) could stick its head up and survey all goings on. I haven't been lucky enough to get a picture yet.


knockout roses

Indian blanket flowers

Dahlia

zinnia

love lies bleeding

wild onion

And I have no idea what this one is.

I had been so busy looking for holes in the foliage that I missed the flowers that were there. I guess there's a lesson in that. Treasure what you have.

By the way, if you recognize the above 'wonder what' please leave a note here.

Ah, spring in the garden

Hello again.

    You may note that this is a new potpourri.  My old one is still available at stevespotpourri.blogspot.com.  Alas, I can no longer post to it.  My friends at the Google help forum have yet to come up with a solution.  So here I am.

    The image above is our garden cat.  He/she/it has some advantages in that no birds are chased and there is no frivolous digging.  However that particular pussy tends to rust.

    Our spring flowers are proceeding apace.  Therefore, I shall post a few here.

This is the first calla lily of the season.  It abides in the front of our home so our visitors can see.  There about a dozen sprouting now and we expect them to last most of the summer.





These are some more of the flowers we have this spring.  From left to right, they are:  Stella de oro daylilies, hardy ice plants and one of the last iris we'll have until next year.  

    We live in Arkansas and spring has advanced through the crocus, daffodil and tulip stage.  Even though we've had a cool, wet spring, even the best of things must end.  So, we're looking at the first of our summer flowers.

But wait, there's more!

The flowers that will last all summer have begun to arrive.  These welcome guys are, again from left to right: Indian blanket flower, lavender de Provence and Queen Anne's lace.

   There are some people who consider both the blanket flower and Queen Anne's lace (also called false carrot) to be weeds.  However in my book, these are dependable summer friends.  They may be a little overenthusiastic in the matter of propagation.  But that just gives me more nice plants to pass along to folks who like them.

    We have a number of plants in our garden that are native to Arkansas, and more importantly, able to resist our winters and summer temperatures.

The Oriental lily at the immediate right is a "come back kid."  They die back in winter, then sprout in spring to bloom gloriously in May and June.  The center plant is a hardy orchid.  That's one of the few orchids that thrive here.  Next to it, on the far right is the rainbow orchid, another Arkansas native.

These last flowers are a blend.  The penstamon on the left is of the Jupiter's beard variety.  Although not native, hummingbirds and

butterflies love it.  In the center are wave petunias.  I was pleasantly surprised this year.  I had planted them last summer to replace the pansies that could not stand our summer heat.  They are supposed to be annuals here, but they re-seeded and came back for me.  The final plant is an Indian pink.  Its flowers are short lived, but I love them.  They usually replace the snow drops and daffodils that grow in the same bed.

  My latest experiment is with a transplanted toad wort.  If it thrives, photos will be forthcoming.  I'm hoping to find some larkspur and gather its seeds.  Another lovely thing to grace our rocky slopes.

   You can see the rocks.  My wife and I have been moving them for years, slowly building beds 
where previously, there were only rocks and a few hardy weeds.  As you can see from the date, this photo is a sort of "before".  If we ever finish, I'll show an "after."  But our garden is, as are most, a work in progress.