This picture from the front of the house does not show you how very weedy those beds actually are. We want to remove all the plants from the middle of the driveway and add soil to bring the beds up high enough that they don’t flood when it rains, so we’ve been letting those beds go a bit, taking out plants now and then. It’s a big project that we need to tackle head on at some point.

Daisies and ‘Riseman’s Flame’ daylilies

‘Shell Drake, MI’ on the left and ‘Little Fat Dazzler’ on the right. Both lovely. I am partial to the mini and smaller flowered daylilies, to some extent. ‘Little Fat Dazzler’ is one of my favorites. It’s a red coral color. Very pretty! And it makes proliferations like crazy.

The Russian Sage is putting on blossoms, as well. This is a great plant for fill. Light and airy, lots of bloom, silver foliage. Always beautiful.

More daylilies. I am also partial to the red ones…

‘Sirocco’ and ‘Happy Returns’

You can visit more blooming gardens at Tootsie’s place. Read her post, then scroll down and click on the links.

~~Rhonda

‘Orphan’s Picnic’ is a gorgeous pink double.

With a large blossom, ‘Jolly White Giant’ is a real standout!

It’s easy to see how ‘Pittsburgh Golden Triangle’ got its name…at least the “golden triangle” part!

‘Bridal Moment’ is a soft peachy pink.

‘Serena Dance’ is anything but serene!

The small flower of ‘Siloam June Bug’ is as cute as a button.

‘Janice Brown’ is one we’ve had for quite a few years and still enjoy each time it opens.

‘Old Double Ivory’ is another pretty double daylily.

Surprisingly, we had another polymerous bloom this week. This one is ‘Shady Lady.’

The picture does not do justice to ‘Ming Porcelain.’ This one is more lovely in person.

‘Angel Artistry’

I’m heading out to see what’s blooming today. I’ll report soon! ~~Rhonda

Though the daylily season is on the downhill side, the yard is still full of lovely blossoms.

‘Dragon King’

‘Modern Love’

‘Cherry Cheeks’

‘Swelling Anthem’
I love the subtle blending of colors on this bloom. I’d like to collect more of Brother Charles Reckamp‘s daylilies. ‘Little Rainbow’ and ‘Techny Breeze’ are two of my favorites in our garden.

Tiny blue butterfly.

Someone nearby must have bee hives. We see quite a few honeybees in our yard.

I don’t know which hosta this is, but it’s looking very good this year.

This is the most sun ‘Daybreak’ gets all day, yet it maintains its beautiful pale yellow green color and brightens this dark corner.

We’ve neglected our hostas this year and they seem to be thriving on the neglect. Or they are bouncing back from the hard freeze they
experienced two years ago. Anyway, they’re looking good!

‘Paradigm’

Before you go, click on over to Tootsie’s place and visit other gardens to see what’s blooming there.

Now get out there and enjoy the weekend!! ~~Rhonda

And we had a special garden visitor today. Isn’t he cute?? I know he’s green, but he’s really a gray tree frog. DD would have liked to keep him, but she released him after a short visit.

To see how others spent their Wednesday, visit Outdoor Wednesday and follow the links.

~~Rhonda

I did get some pictures this evening, just as the sun was going down. Thanks to my nice camera and the great lens DH gave me for my birthday.

The purple cone flowers look great right now.

Daylily ‘American Revolution’

Variegated ribbon grass ~ Phalaris arundinacea

We don’t know the real name of this daylily, so call it “Paprika” as it is the color of dark rich paprika.

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’ and the daylily ‘Arctic Snow.’

I don’t know the name of this lovely lily. To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember the plant! It’s one of those “did I plant this here??” plants.

The little daylily ‘Eenie Allegro’ is blooming happily, even though it’s in too much shade. We need to move these this year.

Looking across the east front yard.

The garden is in full flower and so beautiful right now. We enjoy every minute we can be in it. Tomorrow we are having a plant sale and the weather is supposed to be great…high of 84*. Wonderful after the triple digits of the past few weeks.

If you want to enjoy other gardens and their blooms, visit Jean’s Bloomin’ Tuesday. You never know what kind of inspiration you might find!

~~Rhonda

Prior to our trip, I spent some time on their website making a list of daylilies to look for. Oh, my! Such beautiful flowers! Decisions, decisions!

It was 96* and super humid. Hot, hot, hot. But under the big tree in the yard, there was a lovely breeze and it felt much cooler. Very comfy place to sit and relax.

We filled the trunk…I think we brought home 19 new daylilies! Happy Anniversary to us!!

Tomorrow we plant.

~~Rhonda

I like the way the centers of the purple cone flowers pick up the color of the ‘Baja’ daylily blossoms.

We have clumps of daylilies that haven’t bloomed yet.

Can’t get enough of the garden when it’s daylily season.

There are other things to see in the yard besides the daylilies, though. Queen of the Prairie is blooming by the garage.

And hostas are blossoming.

Don’t the hydrangeas look great?

The butterfly bushes are attracting butterflies and all kinds of other insects.

A gaggle of gooseneck loosestrife…they are wonderful in bouquets, lasting weeks.

We had a little rain shower this afternoon. I took these pictures from under the carport.

Come by. We’ll sit in the swing and watch the butterflies flutter by. Iced tea or lemonade?

Enjoy others outdoor activities at Outdoor Wednesday. Check it out!

~~Rhonda

Here are a few pics I took while mowing today. I love my “big” camera (takes wonderful pics!), but DH’s little Canon is great for tucking in my pocket for times when I don’t want to lug the heavier camera around. Like when I’m mowing in the heat/humidity. In case you’re wondering, the building in the background is an office building across the street from our house.

You can click on these pictures to see them on my flickr site, where they can be viewed larger for more detail. When you get to flickr, there should be an “All Sizes” button above the picture. These smaller pics don’t do the flowers much justice!

This shot looks toward the north west corner of our front yard. The red car is on the street in front of our house. People often tell us they drive by our house just to look at the flowers. And a lot of joggers/walkers in town tell us their routes are planned so they can come by the yard when the flowers are blooming.

We have some UNK (unknown) daylilies around the yard and this is one of them. Not our fault for losing a label or failing to map the flower bed this time. The lady from whom we bought this daylily couldn’t remember the name of it. We stopped by her house when we saw the “plants for sale” sign in the yard. She was 80 some years old and the yard was a mass of daylilies tangled with grass. She insisted on digging them herself. It was hot and I felt guilty about that, but she said “no one digs in my garden but me.” We brought six daylilies home from her place and three of them were “unknowns.”

The flower is large, must be 6 or 7 inches across. And a beautiful melon-y orange blending into a bright yellow throat. Gorgeous!

Another one of those orange daylilies I had to have, even though I swore “no more orange ones.” Ha. Can’t resist!!

~~Rhonda

‘Mary Todd’ is one of my favorite golden yellow daylilies.

The Russian sage is beginning to bloom. I love the light and airy look of this plant. Did you know you can lay a branch of this (still attached to the main plant) on the ground and cover it with a brick to get a new plant? In a couple of months there will be roots on the branch where it contacts the ground. Cut it from the parent plant and you’ve got another Russian sage. You can do the same thing with hydrangeas.

In the fenced garden, some of my favorite daylilies are beginning to bloom.

Between the back yard and the little woods at the back of our property, the “ditch lilies” are blooming…in the ditch.

At the back door, the ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis blossoms look like stars sprinkled around the bird bath.

Currently, we have 337 different daylilies in our yard. Tomorrow, when we check the garden, there will probably be 25 or 30 more “first flower out” blossoms to document. I’ll keep you posted.

In the mean time, take a look at the Outdoor Wednesday posts to view what others are doing outside this week.

~~Rhonda

The front yard looks so lush. Must be all that rain we’ve been having. Every one of DD’s softball games has been cancelled so far, due to all the rain. The field is just too wet for games.

I like this clump of zebra grass. We’ve sold quite a bit of it at plant sales, so I guess others like it, too.

The purple coneflowers are starting to show up well.

The Southern Magnolia makes a great screen between us and the parking lot next door. At least the school buses are quiet neighbors. And now that the magnolia is blooming, the sweet lemony scent of the blossoms makes that side of the yard smell SO good!

Here’s a rundown of the first flowers out (FFO) on our daylilies yesterday.

‘Wine Delight’

Dee Dee [GN] was sold to us as ‘Daring Deception.’ Not.

‘Yellow Lollipop’ was a Wal-Mart purchase that actually seems to have been labeled correctly!

‘Children’s Laughter’

Sold to us as ‘La Cucuracha,’ I have never been able to find any references to this plant.

‘Rose Mark, TN’

‘Siloam Double Classic’

‘Dominic’

It’s been a long day and I haven’t been able to get outside yet. Am looking forward to seeing what’s in bloom today! I’ll let you know…

~~Rhonda