My Pink Princess House

My deck catching the dappled morning sun filtered by the 'Crimson Frost' birch. A great place to be until about noon. It gets full unrelenting sun the rest of the day. In about five years though, there will be shade from the then 20 year old sugar maple.

Yesterday, I was weeding in my front yard, a perilous place to weed as the sidewalk is a well-traveled path and engaging in conversation hazardous to my goal-- weeding. A mother and her young daughters, probably five and seven years old trailing along behind. She was explaining how they would be spending more time here and maybe even living here in the future.

Seeing me, she commented that they loved walking by my house. It was their favorite house in the whole village, the pink chairs, the flowers, its being pink itself...

Her daughters chimed in at this point, and almost to her embarrassment, as she continued toward the library I could hear hear daughters chattering about all its tiny cuteness.

Yes, I live in the Pink Princess House, and maybe, even faeries live there with me-- according to those girls who seemed to know...

That would explain a lot!

It could explain the weeds! It could explain the unprecedented overgrowth of nearly everything this year. Are the faeries attracting deer as well? I have never had deer tasting this hosta or that tomato before!

It would explain these flowers which are annuals and have "self-seeded" two years now.

Maybe balloon flowers popping open bring more faeries from whatever realm they normally inhabit. 

It would certainly explain the 6' tall cultivated and species beebalm and other plants whose heights have far surpassed typical years, putting my garden design into a perilous realm.

This is from 2013. Those little girls have not even imaged the climbing rose which these past two years has taken a couple bad hits from weather and pest and not achieved its former glory.

The house is tiny. I figured I just had to go with that... maybe too much?

Fringe Event

Daylily 'Arthur Kroll'...and not...

When deadheading yesterday, I noticed this bud that didn't look quite right. It sort of looked like two, but not...quite. It has anthers and and a pistil (I think). And there seemed to be pollen on the anthers, so fertile... but oddly shaped.  I would say fastigated. And there are three more buds that look plumper than they should. 

Hmmm...

Almost like an episode of Fringe or The X-files, where something happened at a quantum level and two universes vibrated a slightly different harmonics and the poor soul morphed into being with a rock or the floor, or another daylily.

Lilium

Lilium 'Satisfaction', an Orienpet

 The Asiatic are passing full bloom, the hybrids and regales are blooming. The Orientals are forming buds. It id lily season in central Wisconsin. I cage 'Satisfaction', but with the heavy rain of the other night, I realized a lot of my tall Asiatics should be caged next year,

Lilium 'Algarve' has a wonderful southern exposure here. Other places I have this lily, not so much, and I paid the price in bud count and a tendency to tip over.

Lilium 'Negrita'

Lilium 'Elodie' nestled in with the self-seeded petunias and alyssum

Lilies seen on the Waushara County Master Gardeners' Garden Walk

This was an interesting combination.  An orange lily with a peachy pink flushed with yellow; it worked.

I have dozens of medium yellow lilies and a clump of pale cream yellow. Lilies will bloom with considerable shade, but stems are strongest and bud count highest where they get the most sun.

Seen!

Planting at the Farm Credit Services building in Stevens Point, WI

Almost equally unseen around here, a well done planting of something other than shrubs on a commercial property and a male peacock by the side of the road!

Peacock by the side of the road; yes, I did a U-turn!

Bloom Day, July

Daylily 'Happy Days Are Here Again' blooming in my garden. Introduced this year, this plant was given to me last summer by its hybridizer Darrel Apps. It has been blooming since July 5 and has a soft green throat.

Nasty Habits!

A picture (of the public garden in Plainfield, WI) taken using the pano setting on my phone

The Digital Age has chained some of us to our technology. We are connected to our devices. I am not sure that makes us more or less connected to everyone around us. My mother hates Siri, computers, and the internet... until it solves some small dilemma for her.

My father thinks I have become a Wizard with the knowledge of the universe at my fingertips. HAL, in the form of Siri is at my command. I can find anyone or anything in the universe. My brother, nearly a generation younger than me, disdains this connectiveness because we as a people don't have to "know" anything. We can find "it" out using our phones.

Wednesday in the Garden

Lily 'Algarve'

I have started and stopped a half dozen blog entries about my garden recently just so I could go be in it. So, today...just pictures.

A Garden Gamble: Calycanthus 'Venus'

I am trying one of the new hybrid calycanthus 'Venus'. Not sure it is hardy to my zone. I did not think it would flower this year, but it appears it does flower on new growth. It has four buds. It has a nice sweet fragrance.

This is my form of gambling. If it proves root hardy here and as it has proven it blooms on new growth, this sweet shrub is possibly not a gamble. Having four blooms this years is almost like a $2.00 pay out on a scratch card, right?