Lily Extravanganza 2

Orienpet 'Anasthasia'

Wherein, we continue last week's display of various Oriental & Orienpet lilies and some new (to me) daylilies.  Again, I'll let the photos mostly speak for themselves.  We begin with gigantic Orienpet 'Anasthasia' at right.  So fragrant! Wowsa!

'Baferari'

Baferari  is a white/yellow Oriental blooming for me for the first time.  A website describes it thusly: "Highly fragrant Oriental lily known for its large, 8-inch, star-shaped blossoms. It features pristine white petals accented by a striking pale lemon-yellow starburst, chartreuse veins, and cinnamon-colored anthers."

'Trahlyta'

I'm personally rather partial to the lavender tones of 'Trahlyta'.

'Indian Giver'

Both the name and the white-rimmed appearance of 'Indian Giver' tickle my fancy. 

'Double Pardon Me'

Pardon me, if I superficially introduce you to daylily 'Double Pardon Me'.  The red glows more when the ambient temperature isn't quite as hot.

'Rising Moon'

'Rising Moon' is an apricot and profusely-blooming Orienpet lily in my front beds that I added last Fall.

'Wisteria'

Going to finish with a trio of delicately-colored daylilies:  'Wisteria' (recurved and sometimes-lavender), 'Julianna Lynn' (the most delicate and pale pink blush possible), and 'White Formal' (not-so-white), all from my front bed.  Enjoy!

'White Formal'

'Julianna Lynn'

 


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Lily Extravaganza 1

'Casablanca', 'Yellow Dream', &Orienpet 'Purple Prince'

 ProfessorRoush wanted to title this "Lily Porn 1", but the term "porn" is so over-used these days as a description for any collection of photographs that one can gaze at until they lose their soul. "Extravaganza", meaning a "lavish or spectacular show or event" is so more apropos, don't you agree?

The "event" here is that my mixed daylily and Orienpet lily border is blooming "spectacularly", beyond my wildest dreams, and I just have to show you!  So the next two blog entries, will be primarily visual and drool-worthy, at least if you can overlook the volunteer weeds and morning glory about to choke everything out.  I need to blog less and weed more!

These are all in what I term my "front left" bed, a cover for the brick wall of the side-facing garage.  There is no carefully-thought-out plan here, I simply keep planting lily bulbs here, for summer fragrance and color.  And, woo boy, did they deliver!

Some of my favorite daylilies are here; 'Beautiful Edgings' (above), which I believe is the most beautiful daylily of all, appearing to be surface-dusted with diamonds at times, and bright orange 'Alabama Jubilee' (left) to pop out from the crowd, and delicate 'Julianna Lynn' (next week!). 

Orienpet 'Robina'

The daylilies alternate and contrast with some of the most beautiful, statuesque lilies imaginable.  Oriental lily 'Yellow Dream' is one of my favorites and dependably returns and proliferates every year. I've added the white Oriental 'Casablanca' (last photo below) to this area, and a number of Orienpet lilies to this area, with the vivid pink 'Robina'  my new favorite.  

Here is 'Robina' centered in blooms of  'Alabama Jubilee'.  Are these colors clashing?  Inquiring minds want to know. I think they invigorate each other! 

Oriental Lily 'Casablanca'

I'll show you more of the individual plants and the overall in "Lily Extravaganza 2" coming next week!  In the meantime, take another look here at these photos and click on them to see the full photos; drooling is permitted. 

I See You!

See, this is why ProfessorRoush can't have a nice, simple garden filled with perfect plants and idyllic moments.   Aside from minor problems like runaway fire, punishing winds, late snows, early freezes, deep winter cold, and searing summer sun, it is things like these that try my soul.  Do you see it?   Click on the picture to enlarge it and look again!

At roughly 6:45 a.m. this morning, after the lovely Bella had been outside, explored the premises, and "watered" the yard, and after I had eaten my morning cereal, I looked out the back window to assess the morning and saw this lovely rabbit still-frozen among the daylilies.  It must have seen me step up to the window because it didn't move in the minute it took me to retrieve my phone and compose the shot, nor did it move until after I stepped away.  Well, presumably it moved after I stepped away.  Maybe it's still sitting there for all I know.

This is probably the same lagomorph, or a member of a tribe of furry-pawed thumpers, that eat the first daylilies that come up each year, nipping anything green to the ground until the shear mass of spring foliage overwhelms their gluttony and stomach capacities.  And likely the same creature that nipped off the first sprouts of my beloved 'Yellow Dream' Orienpet lilies in front last week.  Nothing, it seems, is sacred from these monsters, except perhaps the sprouting peonies.  I don't know what it is about peonies, but the fauna in my garden, deer, rabbits and mice all, leave the peonies alone.  I would be grateful, but the invading horde probably is executing a demoralization campaign, allowing my hopes to raise and then be inevitably crushed by a late-May storm that flattens the peonies and my dreams in a single night.  Do other gardeners believe the native fauna and climate are both conspiring against them, or is it just paranoid little-old-me? 

I would arm myself with a suitably-scoped assault device or perhaps a Sherman tank and take these out, but speaking of weather collusion, there are bigger battles and disappointments on my horizon.  Currently, my lilacs and redbuds are blooming at full glory and beauty and the forecast two days away is for a low of 27ºF and snow.   

Sigh.


 

My (Orien)pets

Oriental 'Montana'

Calling my Orienpet lilies "my pets" is almost as bad as labeling them "my precious," isn't it?  I'm trying not to think of myself as the decrepit Sméagol/Gollum in Lord of the Rings as I say it, but I'm sure I have the rasping inflection and covetous smiling expressions down all the same.  They are just so beautiful and fragrant that they overload my senses.

After my experience with 'Yellow Dream' (picture below) a few years back, I had resolved to buy more Oriental Lilies and Orienpets and you can see the result here.  Oriental lily 'Montana', pictured above, is the most fabulous of the new Orientals I planted, just to the left of my front door, pouring out fragrance for 5 yards around.  Don't you just love her freckles?

Orienpet 'Yellow Dream'

Although some of the new lilies have struggled, others are flourishing and expanding, particularly the Orienpets.  Now if only I could get the Kansas winds to stop throwing them onto the ground, I'd be in semi-heaven for a few weeks.  I prop some of them up with stakes, but I neglect others and pay for it with a few more broken stems after every storm. 

Orienpet lilies, or OT lily hybrids, are hybrids of Oriental and Chinese Trumpet lilies, as opposed to the Oriental-Asiatic, or OA hybrids, like 'Kaveri' that I pictured recently.  Orienpets inherited the best of both their parents and are very disease-resistant and have better drought, and cold tolerance than either parent.  Most are very tall (some gardeners call them "tree lilies") and floriferous, and the only drawback of them that I've seen so far is that blooms of some of the hybrids, like 'Beverly Dreams', face downward, diminishing their impact.

Orienpet 'Beverly Dreams'

I complain about 'Beverly Dreams', but on the other side of that coin, those thick waxy petals survive the searing Kansas sun without shriveling, and indoors, that fabulous color lasts a week or more in a vase.   'Beverly Dreams', in particular, is tempting me to get my first black light since the 70's, since I suspect it would light up spectacularly in ultraviolet.

Orienpet 'Purple Prince'

'Yellow Dream' is, as always, a standout this year, but the rainy spring and early summer here have left her yellow hues more muted than previously.  I also made the mistake of intermixing her clumps with 'Purple Prince', and their colors clash a bit.  I'm not as crazy about the downward facing and slow-opening 'Purple Prince', and I may move these bulbs eventually to a less prominent spot. 

Orienpet 'Anastasia'

The most recent to open, and one of the prettiest, is 'Anastasia', the newest Orientpet in my garden; delicate-colored and beautiful, and reminscent of 'Montana', pictured above.  I must be irrationally partial to the pinks since those two are my "pick of the season" so far.  There are, however, more buds warming up in the bullpen.  And stay tuned, because I'm preparing a "best-of-show" entry of the new daylilies I'm seeing.  Wowsa!