Somehow these lilies have evaded the deer this season. I’m not sure how or why, but they did. They tempted me for days with their buds, slowly swelling and then opening up to the beauty that they are. My mom was visiting over the weekend and commented that they looked like Stargazer lilies to which I replied that I didn’t really know. You know how it is with plant tags, they end up next to the plant right when you get the plant in the ground and then before long the tag is missing and you have no idea what the plant is. But Mom was right. I Googled ‘Stargazer…

Ok, so the main gladiolus season really was about two weeks ago however there was one plant that just finished blooming and another is about to be my late bloomer in the garden. Like usual though, I’m a little slow in getting around to documenting what’s occurring most currently in the garden. First up is the species plant, the Gladiolus dalenii (you can see last year’s bloom here): Next was a lovely lavender-pink bloomer: And most recently this brilliant red bloomer: One thing I need to do is relocate the gladiolus that I have currently planted near our front porch. They aren’t deep enough for one, and really they should…

The foxglove blooms peaked back in April but I have sat on the photos for a month now. I meant to write about the wonderful blossoms that dotted the flower garden several weeks ago but time passed and other posts went up instead. It really was glorious there for awhile. We would pull up in the driveway to purple, pink, and white spires of flowers poking up from around the garden. There was definitely a cottage garden feel about the landscape. Now most of them are in seed, the stalks flopped over and the leaves slowly rotting away. The last several photos document a strange foxglove we had growing. We…

Patiently waiting for dreamy delightfulness of ripe tomatoes. -ML

Another one of my favorite garden plants is the ‘Lauren’s Grape’ Poppy. Last year I wrote about them over on Sprout Dispatch and they bloomed at about the same time last year as this year, maybe a little bit earlier last year, though, since we got them in later this year. I swore I saved seeds last year but couldn’t find them and we ended up buying a new packet of seeds from our local nursery instead. We had a mix of some coming up on their own from last year and then Chris sprinkled the seeds about in various places in the garden. I’m hoping a few of the…

We planted several bulbs (tubers?) of Spigelia marilandica, or Indian pinks, last spring. They came up last year but were chomped on by the deer and then went dormant. They returned this year and most of them have been chomped on by the deer but somehow this one escaped long enough to bloom. Of course the following day when I went back to check on the bloom and top part of the plant was gone. The deer waited long enough for me to get a photo before greedily feeding on the plant. Maybe we’ll have more next year?? This photo is a little blurry as it was nearly dusk and…

The Louisiana irises above are planted in the ditch in our right-of-way. They are putting on a stunning show for the next few weeks. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the tags to identify them, they are either buried under the grass and debris below the irises or have floated away when water was in the ditch. I’m pretty sure I wrote about them last year either here or on Sprout Dispatch, so somewhere there’s names for them. Down at the pond are several species Iris virginica that we planted. I found a couple plants that were hiding in overgrown grass that we need to thin out to make room for the…

Watch out, we bite! These variegated milk thistles, Silybum marianum, have been an interesting addition to our garden. I know, I know, y’all are going, “You are growing thistle?? Isn’t that a weed?” Well, yes, lots of plants are weeds until you decide to make them part of your garden! And, it’s variegated. If you’ve known us, especially Chris, for any length of time in the garden you know that variegation is a plant trait that we are highly drawn to. If it is variegated and isn’t ugly (there’s some ugly variegation out there folks!), the plant usually ends up on our cart at a plant nursery. I think they…

Scarlet creeping thyme…but not very scarlet flowers. Could be mislabeled… Calendula Gaillardia Woodland painted petals While I love walking through our yard and garden at all times of the day, there’s always something different blooming, I think the evening walk throughs are my favorite. Particularly those when the sun is just down in a particular manner to the west, casting the right light through the trees. The birds are still active and the frogs are beginning to sing just a little bit. It’s soothing to go through and see new plants sprouting or growing and others blooming. I keep waiting for a few areas to fill in, to create the…

We’re lucky that the area where we live is packed with frogs and toads. As dusk settles in the frog song escalates to new heights and sometime deep in the summertime it’ll be a cacophony of noise that we can hear inside the house. Someday I need to record it to share with y’all. Some of the frogs we see most often are green tree frogs, Hyla cinerea, like this one here. They love to tuck themselves around in between various plants and it is always a treat to find one. Do you have any frogs or toads in your garden?