When Life Gives You Orange

When life gives you orange, well... you have orange!

Orange is not my favorite color, but it's sort of interesting because there aren't very many flowers, and very few wildflowers, that are orange. Most of the ones that are orange are lilies.

The common "Ditch Lily" is always orange. It is not native, and a lot of people are trying to get us all to get rid of it, but it's so naturalized, I don't see that happening. All the day lilies are imports from Asia.

However, there are a lot of orange butterflies. This is a Northern Crescent. Google tried to tell me it was a Pearl Crescent, but my good butterfly book says Northern. They don't look THAT much alike. It's enjoying some Joe-Pye Weed.

Did you know that some kinds of baby carrots grow on tall stems?

You know I'm kidding, right? But I've never had Tiger Lilies before, so watching them color up and take days to open was sort of mysterious. These are also ornamental plants, imported from Asia about 200 years ago for gardens. There are some native orange lilies.

Here's a view looking up into the flower.

For one of the native orange flowers, here is Spotted Jewelweed or Touch-me-not. It likes to have damp feet.

I tried to make today be more calm. I did a good amount of editing, finished my LDN column for the month, started the third weed-through of the season on the rock garden, dug a little dirt in the moon garden where it was shadier- but there were biting gnats. If I can get my butt in gear to go get gas, I think I'll mow a little yet this evening.

See PFS 2019- Orange

Let the Day Lilies Begin!

There is still one of my day lily varieties yet to bloom, but I'm going ahead with sharing these because I'm not sure they are all going to be in bloom at the same time this year. The deer nibbled some buds, but then I sprinkled repellant around and so far they have stayed away since then.

First up is the lemon lily, perhaps my favorite! The yellow is so pure.

This is the 'Monterey Jack' I bought last year for $3!

Next up is the very old (registered in 1941) 'Black Falcon.' It's supposed to be one of the darkest day lilies ever developed.

And the similarly dark 'American Revolution,' registered inn 1972. They look quite different in these two pictures, but in the same light they are very much alike.

Today the air was very bad. It was even bothering me (official range "very unhealthy"). The only thing I did outside was to hang up and take down laundry. Mostly I did computer work, editing, volunteer stuff.

This does not bode well for the walking goals. If it wasn't making my eyes smart, I'd take a walk yet tonight, but I've conceded that this is bad- any exertion at all is problematic. The AQI here is 312, but I understand it is over 600 in some places in Minnesota. That is a lethal level for some people. It's literally off the scale. They say one more bad day here, and then maybe some relief.

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Lily Lane

The day lilies are in full glory. Every variety I have is in bloom, although not all are in this line. This is looking down the driveway, and can give you an inkling of what I think that strip could look like.

I think this is the first time ever they've all been blooming in the same year. A couple of years, the deer cleared all the buds.

The far left one is 'Young Love.' The yellow color is too golden (which you can really see in the group photo), but it's basically the maroon/yellow combo.

Next down is the big clump of Lemon Lilies. These are always the most robust, and the color is perfect.

And my newest one, 'Monterey Jack.' (Although I think it looks more like Muenster.) This one has just the right colors. You can compare with the other blooms and see that this one has been developed for the three petals to be larger than the sepals. I was wondering if I was really happy I bought it (but how could I go wrong at $3 eh?), but now that I see it with the others, I like it.

Now for the dark ones. The lighting was different when I took these pictures, so I can't definitively say which one is darker. This is 'Revolution.' This patch is in the front flower bed. There is a small clump along the driveway, but it didn't bloom this year.

And the old-fashioned one, 'Black Falcon.' I literally dug this out of a ditch some time in the past. But it suffers badly if it gets crowded by grass. So, that gives 'Revolution' an extra point since it spreads much more easily. Do you have a preference? I thought maybe seeing the pictures together would help me choose one, but they really are very similar.

And finally, no day lily display would be complete without "Ditch Lilies." These are the common variety Hemerocallis fulva although mine have all degenerated/evolved (not sure which is correct) to the double version. These are not my favorite, but I wouldn't mind if they would grow along the driveway farther down. They are all non-native, and the orange ones are considered invasive. They are just coming up in our edges, wherever.

In other news. Hmmm. The smoke from the Canadian wildfires was so strong last night it was giving me a sore throat. I kept fitfully waking up with bad dreams. Finally got some real sleep after 4 am and slept late. It was SO hot today that I just wasn't going to do any weeding. I did finish mowing the final space of lawn. It's dry enough now that it won't grow back very quickly. Spent most of the time inside, and a lot of that planning the next trip in my future. Stay tuned.

Also, tomorrow will have a nice event, ending a 35-year hiatus in my life!

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Now and Future Blooming

 I'm going to miss a ton of good stuff in my garden, but at least the lemon lily graced me with one flower before I leave. I really love these. The old fashioned maroon one hasn't bloomed for years (because I haven't weeded well), but it has two buds this year. You can see it in a previous year at the link at the end. Also, 'Revolution,' the solid maroon one has lots of buds. The other yellow one, 'Young Love,' does not have buds, but it's alive, so maybe next year. I'm sure these would recover if they got weeded two years in a row.

Also in the driveway bed is that globe thistle that was determined to live. Sure enough, it is going to bloom. I'll miss it too, but you can see it's starting to get blue. Either later this year or in the spring, I'll bring it some friends for company.

In that same flower bed are some viper's bugloss (blue). This is a plain old alien weed, but I love them. In fact, I planted some here on purpose at some point. They are a biennial, so you have to watch for babies in the spring and put them where you are going to want them the following year. These are not where I want them, and they are small, but they bloomed, and they look nice with the meadow sage (purple). The really nice ones grow in my yard where they get about two feet tall over the septic tank.

Speaking of alien weeds, I let the silvery cinquefoil grow where it pops up in the rock garden unless it's crowding out something else. It's nothing special, but it's pretty enough. And it stays low to the ground, so that fits the rock garden.

I have no idea if the full blossoms on this will last until I get home. I hope so, because it's going to be amazing. The largest rosette of the 'Red Heart' sempervivum is going to bloom. I've been taking pictures of it for almost 2 weeks, and the development has been slow enough that I'm hopeful it will last. You can see it will be the pink, daisy-like flowers. I really want to know how big they will get!

Moving to the front bed, those astilbe I got for almost free last year are alive. Two of them are blooming. Not much, but it's a start. The two bloomers are both white, 'Bridal Veil.'

We'll end with two hostas. This is 'Tiny Tears' again. They are just making me happy with how profusely they bloomed this year.

And this is one of my small unknown hosta. One flower stalk, but I'll take it.

I will leave at about 11 am tomorrow, so I think the only other thing that might bloom is another lemon lily. But I'm sure there will be other gardens to share while I'm on my adventure. When I get home, the rock garden will need another complete weed-through. I hope some of the new sedums that are getting buds now will also still be blooming when I get back. THe sedum flowers do tend to last well, so I think so.

Almost, almost done with How to Hike the North Country Trail. I should be able to finish the details while on the road with no big issues. It has to go to be printed by July 15.

Got the Sampler Patches for NCTA designed and ordered. Got a few more Long Distance Hiker awards sent out (these take forever to process, so I'm still behind), and I picked up another editing job.

Just a few more tasks to finish before I leave.

See Yellow and Maroon

Making Like a Tourist at Home

 
Loretta and I had a leisurely day in Ludington. We did a bunch of touristy stuff, and as a result I got updated on some things I hadn't yet seen.

For starters, I hadn't been to the local children's hands-on museum called Sand Castles since the early days when they were just getting started. All I can say is WoW! I've seen articles in the paper as they added a number of different things, and it's really an impressive destination now. I won't even try to tell you all the different kinds of play and exploration stations they have. In general, there are various rooms or divisions to play at various "roles." This is the farm room.



There was a grocery store, post office, doctor's office, veterinary clinic, pizza place, and bank in the "village."

Here's the earth-mover's area.



There are all kinds of science displays- a water play table, a gear wall, wildlife identification, big "Lite Brite" game board, building toys, a walk-in eye, etc.

On the main floor there are trucks, ships (including the S.S. Badger, of course), cars, and a real airplane.



This doesn't even begin to list all the little cubbies with various things to do.

We did a lot of non-shopping. As in, we looked at a lot of stuff but didn't really buy anything. We went to the Art Center and looked at the current display.

Loretta had a gyro for lunch. She pronounced it very good.



We thought we'd go to the Maritime Museum, but decided it was a little pricey. So, then we just walked around the waterfront walkway loop. I discovered there are two more sculptures that have been added to the Mason County Sculpture Trail. This one is "Sport Fishing."



And I snapped a picture of these day lilies with alternating yellow and maroon petals.



We looked at the possibility of going to a play or something similar in the area, but didn't find anything that grabbed our attention, so we are just chilling. That's OK too.

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Yellow Memories

 
Not enough snow left today to be pretty. How about some yellow beauties that never got on the blog for one reason or another?

Blue and yellow are my favorite colors. Some days it's blue, some days yellow. Yellow seems good today.

One yellow maple leaf (Norway maple) conquering the early snow.



A field of goldenrod with some Joe-pye weed mixed in from September.



Coreopsis and a little worm!



Some member of the Oenothera family- evening primrose, but this is a garden one, probably under the common name of "sundrop" because it's not necessarily an evening bloomer. Taken in June at the Cherry Point labyrinth garden.



Day lilies, always a favorite of mine.



Birdfoot trefoil, a common and alien roadside bloomer. I love its clear yellow color even though it's alien.



And finally, I'll come back (from two years ago) to the green striped aspen leaves. I found out what causes this. I was seeing it way too often to be a fluke. There is a tiny moth caterpillar that burrows into the leaf tissue near the midvein, and excretes a chemical that keeps the leaf cells in that one section alive so the caterpillar can have something to eat. In the spring a little gray and happy moth will emerge.



Have a happy sunny yellow day!

In other news: I participated in a l-o-n-g meeting, and wrote part of a chapter. Needed to do more, but it didn't happen. Sigh.

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Yellow Flowers

 
Since real life has me pretty busy right now (if you are on Facebook, you know that son Joshua is in the hospital), I will continue to do easy posts of flowers from Stan Hywet for a couple more days.

Today you get yellow!

Here's a lovely hibiscus. They look like cartoon flowers, or maybe some sort of spy antennae.



The yellow day lilies were looking great. Don't know exactly which variety these are, but since I haven't met too many day lilies I don't like, it doesn't really matter.



This was a new plant to me. It's called Carolina lupine, but it's not really a lupine. The scientific name is Thermopsis caroliniana. About all they have in common is both being legumes, and the flower shape is similar.

My favorite yellow flower of the day, however, was this yellow begonia. I think I just love the pure color. There isn't the slightest hint of orange.



And now, I think I'm going to call it a day. I don't do medical advocate all that well, and it's tiring.

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