Butter Side Down

Our drought broke over this weekend and it’s still raining, so you might want to carry an umbrella with you today as we splash our way through the next set of flowers!

One of my favorite flowers that opens in late summer here is the Rudbeckia Goldsturm, or Black-eyed Susan. The blooms stay open for weeks, and they’re virtually carefree, which makes them even more loveable!

We’re getting a second round of blooming from a daylily that is new to my yard this year, the richly colored Wine Delight. I have over twenty different varieties of daylilies, in colors that range from white to palest pink ice, lemon yellow, orange, deep gold, salmon, a number of different shades of red, maroon, and even some shades of lavendar. Because different daylily cultivars bloom at different times, we have a continuous show of daylily blooms from early spring through autumn.

The zinnias are continuing to put on a show, from this speckled Candy Cane Zinna to

this lovely pale yellow State Fair Zinna. New blooms are opening daily, in pinks, whites, reds and purples, making delightful splashes of color.

Portulaca, or moss roses, fell out of favor decades ago in gardening circles, but I usually grow a container or two of them every year.

Moss roses are unabashedly wild in both their colors and foliage, and definitely not for a gardener who wants neat, trim, orderly plants! My grandfather grew an enormous border of moss roses alongside his driveway, and they always remind me of him.

In addition to my climbing rose bush, I also have an entire hedge we’ve grown of Rugosa roses. These aren’t named hybrid rugosas - they are the original native rugosas - and mine flower in shades of pink and white. The bunnies love to eat the young canes these roses send out, even though the canes are covered with thousands of needle-sharp thorns. Go figure!

The rugosas bloom continously, from early summer through fall, and aren’t susceptible to the diseases that attack hybridized roses. Their fragrance is heavenly, and at times the hedge has literally hundreds of roses blooming at a time. Their foliage is quite unique, with beautiful crinkled leaves that open in palest shades of green and gradually darken.

I neglected, when talking about the garden critters, to mention that we have a thriving population of spiders throughout the yard. This gal has spun a web next to our back door, and I’ve come to greatly admire her markings, which are almost irridescent in the light.

There’s still more to come…

One of the bunnies (Stewart) pointed out today, a tad indignantly, that the flowers aren’t the only denizens of “our” yard. Don’t ask how my yard became “our” yard - it just has. T’wasn’t my idea, but bunnies have a way of doing that, without permission, I might add.

Who am I to argue with a bunny? So, at Stewart’s request, we’ll take a little break from the flower tour and show you a sampling of the current regulars.

This is Stewart, sporting his typical indignant, “You almost stepped on me!” expression.

This hawk is one of the reasons we rarely have songbirds at our feeder lately (sorry about the fuzziness - didn’t have enough zoom to get a good shot of him). Stewart isn’t fond of hawks at all, for good reason. This little hawk probably isn’t that much of a threat to him anymore, now that Stewart has grown past his tiny baby bunny stage, but the redtail hawks and eagles are plentiful. A bunny must remain alert at all times to survive here.

A male cardinal comes at dawn and dusk, and brings a bevy of baby cardinals to feed. He leaves them in the surrounding trees, and flies back and forth from the feeder to give them seeds while they madly ‘pip’ for his attention. Sometimes the female comes with him, and he feeds her, too, at the feeder, one seed at a time!

Hoover, our resident chipmunk, cleans up underneath the feeders. We actually have several different chippies that squabble frequently over plundering rights. Hoover is distinct, in that he only has half a tail, thanks to…

Our neighbor’s cat, who is just about to skat as she’s noticed I am carrying my SuperSoaker watergun. I can soak a cat quite nicely with it, even when I’m a goodly distance from my ‘target.’ I’ve little tolerance for hunting felines on our property, and most of them have learned that hunting my yard results in an unexpected bath. I’ve loved many a cat in my life, but we have a leash law in our little village that says cats aren’t supposed to roam. I wish our neighbors would abide by it. Cats like this one are incredible hunters, which is devastating to the native wildlife. Running free isn’t safe for the cats either, between the dangers of getting squashed by a car, fights with our ever-growing problem population of feral cats and our local coyotes, who enjoy a domestic feline snack when they can get it.

We are finally seeing more chickadees again, now that they’ve adapted to the West Nile Virus. WNV hit the bluejays, crows and chickadees particularly hard, and only this last year are we seeing the populations rebound.

And finally, let me introduce Goose, who defies description or explanation!

More to come…

Have your wide-brimmed hat on and iced tea in hand? Yes? Then let’s continue touring…

Candy Cane Zinnia: I don’t understand why gardeners call zinnias ‘common,’ and so few gardens include them. What’s common about this glorious bloom? It’s one of my favorites!

Red Runner Bean: I’ve grown these on our fence for many years, harvesting the beans each autumn for planting the next spring. These are a nice plant for children to grow. The beans are huge and easy for a child to hold and plant, plus they grow quickly ala “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

Yarrow: These grow like weeds for me, which is a blessing and a curse. I love the foliage, but there’s something about the flower’s color that just screams “baby poop yellow” to me. If you don’t know what I mean, then you may not have changed enough diapers in your life to fully appreciate what I’m suggesting! To add insult to injury, I have yet to take a photograph of the flowers that I like - they reflect light in an odd fashion that somehow drives my camera buggy. Bah!

Black Knight Butterfly Bush: I’ve never grown butterfly bushes before this year, and I’m delighted with the flowers. We’re in a drought, so butterflies are scarce, but the blooms on these are just gorgeous. We’ll see if I can winter these over, as we’re a tad too cold for their tastes.

American Highbush Cranberry: Some things I grow have it all: nice foliage, lovely flowers and wildlife-friendly fruit. The robins in particular love the berries on this bush, as do the chipmunks. And me? Heck, I even like this shrub’s name!

Frans Hal Daylily I am a sucker for daylilies. The rabbits don’t eat them, they grow on their own with minimal fuss, you can yank them out and move them any time of the growing season, and they make more of themselves without any fussing or bother. Plus - they come in all sorts of colors and flowering periods, from early spring to late autumn. This is my kind of plant!

More again tomorrow… but before I forget…

Obligatory Bunny Photo: look who volunteered to keep an eye on the yummy flower garden for me!

I love flowers. Not hothouse or florist flowers, mind you - those are usually quite lovely, but a tad too perfect and somehow aloof in their beauty. No, my heart is taken by the ordinary garden variety of flowers and plants that mysteriously flourish throughout cold, heat, drought and the ravages of hungry bunnies in our sun-baked clay.

Over the next several days, I’d like you to walk with me, Oh Best Beloved, on a tour of our little yard, and view the wonders it contains.

Hibiscus: this has been the year of the hardy perennial hibiscus. Soup-plate sized blossoms in shades of white and pink cover plants that are over six feet tall. The seeds that I used to start these are from Monticello, and were harvested from the ancestors of hibiscus plants that Thomas Jefferson himself originally planted.

Morning Glories: the bees love these as much as I do! I started growing Morning Glories seventeen years ago, and harvest the seeds each fall for the next year’s garden.

Climbing Rose: the sweetly-scented flowers on this rose are a delight, slowing changing from a deep red to a candy lipstick pink as a bud progresses to full bloom. The bush is as tough as can be, withstanding winters of -40F and summers that have reached 100F - and is over 50 years old.

Cosmos: my delightful annual cosmos are as bright and cheery as can be, in shades of yellow and orange. These are just starting to bloom, as I only started the seeds outside in June - after our last frost - but they’ll bloom until the first heavy frost (or snow) in October.

Ferns: the entire side and back of our house is smothered in ferns, all grown from a single fern plant Michael’s grandmother gave us from her garden over 24 years ago. I love their cool greenness. The bunnies, too, love them as a hiding place.

And speaking of which…

Bunny: pretending to be a patch of grass and dandelions!

More tomorrow…