In and Around the Garden

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: Bright red Asiatic lilies in full bloom

We've been having a run of days that have been in the parlance of my family, "Stupid Hot." I guess there are people out there that like it when the temperatures are in the upper 80s and 90s (26 to 32 C for my international friends,) but I am not at all fond. Most Minnesotans are not currently officially in a drought but the lack of rain and beating hot sun has left a lot of lawns parched and burned off here in St. Paul. 


Image: yellow Asiatic lily, blooming.

The lilies I'm showing you here are all on the side of the house that is "problematic" even in the best of weather conditions.

When we first moved into this house in 1996 or so, the owners had managed to keep a giant shrub of hibiscus alive right at the corner of the house.  Hibiscus, it should be noted, are native to the tropics. I actually have no idea how the previous owner managed this, since the soil close to the house is also dusty, rocky, and generally poor (despite my constant applications of compost.) We also had a lovely stand of bearded irises, all of whom got blighted on a very wet year, and developed root (technically rhizome) rot and died.  It should be noted, too, that when we first moved here in the 90s, the maple tree at the top of the hill was relatively tiny and most of the hillside was in full sun. 

Not so much any more.

So, what I have on the side of the house (Southern exposure, by the way, should be amazing for growing things,) has been years and years of me trying various things in the hopes they will take. To be fair to the plants that are trying to make a go of it, the eaves of our house work very well. It is difficult for rain to get right up to the foundation AS IT SHOULD BE. 

But, I finally figured out that these Asiatic lilies really, really like the terrible conditions, provided that I am fairly diligent about remembering to water them. 


Image: new this year! Bi-colored (brown and yellow) Asiatic lilies.

What I am not showing you is how scraggily things are in between these lovely patches of successful lilies. I do have some tiger lilies (the big orange ones you see everywhere) interspersed among these, but last year's drought even managed to be unkind to those unkillable orange monsters. In fact, I just moved a few of them from another spot in the yard hoping that they could make things look less... bleak, so we'll see if they manage to establish themselves. 

Every year, it seems I pick one of my gardens and try to focus on it. None of them are exactly where I want them to be yet? With the possible exception of the shade garden in the very back. That one is really finally nearly (or as near as one can be) maintenance free and full and gorgeous.  My woodland garden is waiting for me to figure out what else might grow there to fill in, but at least most of the things I'd wanted to flourish there are starting to do so. 

There's not a lot else to report around the garden. We have a house guest until Thursday, Mason's bestie Gray. Gray is someone Mason has known since junior high school through a shared interest (fandom, really) in an e-sport called Overwatch League. It's always fun to see one's grown children's friends, to see the kind of people they chose, and Gray is definitely one of "our people." They brought a board game that I'm hoping we'll all get a chance to play tonight over brie and charcuterie. 

How's things by you? 

Comments

[profiterole_reads]

They look great!

[lydamorehouse]

Thank you so much! The gardens are very slowly coming together!

[pameladean]

The lilies are stunning. I'm not sure mine will bloom this year, so the opportunity to gape at yours is very nice.

I know that spring bulbs generally originated in rocky and arid mountain regions, but I'm less sure about the lilies. It would explain their fondness for your difficult garden patch, though.

P.

[lydamorehouse]

Yes, this is my sense. I mean, I am all for native plants, but there are just some crummy, poor areas around my house (which are necessary so that I don't get water in my basement!) but I don't really want sad, arid-looking dirt there. I'm hoping to find some other fun varieties-of Asiatic lilies to plant over the next few years.

Do you know why yours aren't blooming?

[pameladean]

Yes, exactly. I've done some very disorganized attempts to find native plants that thrive in that kind of environment, but mostly they were desert plants and they didn't seem likely to survive the winter. I'm sure there's something -- aside from ragweed and plantain, which do like those conditions -- but in the meantime lilies are amazing.

It actually looks like one patch of mine will bloom. Amusingly, it's a volunteer. I'd planted the actual bulbs in the back yard, where they throve for a while and then disappeared. But I'd taken all the shredded paper packing for all the bulbs in that box and dumped it in the front as mulch for some crocuses. There must have been a flake -- a clove? -- broken off one of the lily bulbs in with the paper. YEARS later, three lilies sprang up. Recurved white ones. I watered them in time and they have buds. There are five or six individual plants now, and I really should put up some photos of them when they do bloom.

The rest are shaded out, I think, by rampant overgrowth. I expect them to come back if I do some pruning.

P.

[lydamorehouse]

"... if I do some pruning" and rampant overgrowth sounds exactly like my gardening methods. My yard = weird bare spots and TANGLED JUNGLE and nothing in-between.

And if you post pictures I will admire them!

[sabotabby]

I have small lilies happening. I always feel weird because they're poisonous to cats, but the outdoor cats seem to be immune so is it a problem? Should I uproot them? I don't know.

[lydamorehouse]

I have never seen our neighborhood outdoor tom, Mr. McMuffin, even glance at our Asiatic lilies. I don't think they smell yummy? So, unless yours are planted next to catmint or catnip, I wouldn't worry, if I were you.

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Those are beautiful.

All my daylilies are heritage orange ones. And the surviving Asiatic lilies are also all sort of a salmon color, with maybe one yellow.

Elderberries are blooming in the orchard.

Re: Wow!

[lydamorehouse]

Nice! I should try elderberries, honestly. We currently have two mulberry trees which I love, that I suspect our neighbors HATE thanks to the berry detritus.

We have a few of those orange daylilies, too, though they tend to bloom later around here.

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

My elderberry patch is a birdgift. So are the wild grapevines. Elderberry is a great plant because the flowers, fruit, and even the trunks are useful in different ways.