August Doldrums

Here in the Flint Hills, my gardening efforts dwindle off in July and August as the sun and heat build and chase me inside. The garden doesn't die off during this period, it just carries on without the gardener for a period of time while the gardener swallows the bitter pill of survival instinct and chooses wisely to remain indoors. Somewhere out there, however, beyond the window panes, the garden blooms madly on without me. Daylilies are a popular plant here, and an excellent choice they are for Kansas. They start to bloom just as the gardener begins to wilt in early July and they remain at full force throughout July and into August in most years, carrying the garden through the long hot summer days. My gardening efforts for the past few weeks of 95+ degree temperatures have been confined to weekly mowing duties, quick darts out in the early morning hours to keep the crabgrass from becoming a groundcover in the garden beds, and an occasional watering expedition where I consume more water trying to keep myself hydrated than I ultimately sprinkle onto the young plants. I've watched from the windows as the daylilies have thrived and bloomed and sent their masses of yellow, orange and red hues across the yard. Some garden authors, such as the titillating Cassandra Danz, have noted that most daylilies described as peach, apricot, and cantaloupe still look mostly orange from a distance, but my garden has been saved from orange monotony because of my weakness for purple, white, and red daylilies. At the annual Flint Hills Daylily Society sale, I've made it a habit to avoid the "orange" tables and seek out the spiders, the reblooming pinks, large whites, and the true red self daylilies. Rather than an orange blend, I try to optimistically believe that my daylily beds are a tapestry of colors for a connoisseur’s palate.

Now, as August is closing in, the daylilies are starting to fade. Some will go on, but the continuing solo blossoms of 'Happy Returns' and 'Stella de Oros' just don't have the impact that the full choir of Hemerocallis in mass provides in July. The foliage will dry up, the scapes will become brittle, and the seed pods of some varieties will rupture and spill onto the ground. And I will miss their cheerfulness for another year.

To My Readers; The Beginning

I owe an explanation to readers who have found this blog and are wondering what on earth ever possessed me to begin it:

Once upon a time there was a poor, young (in spirit) veterinary surgeon who gardened and also had a hankering to write and so he wrote about the subject that fueled his passions and occupied his leisure time: Gardening. And lo, this gardening writer lived, gardened and wrote in the Flint Hills of Kansas and he was mightily tested and tried by the land, sun and sky, and he had many weather events and dead plants to write about such as the snow-covered lilacs on the picture to the right. So eventually there came a book, whimsically titled "Garden Musings: Essays on Gardening and Life from the Kansas Flint Hills." And the book was published by iUniverse.com and it was available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com and he believed that it was good. And the readers and friends of the writer laughed with him and laughed at him and for a time he found contentment in his trials. But the writing lacked pictures to go along with the text and the writer missed interacting with his readers and so, on the sixth day, he created THE BLOG so that he might illustrate his thoughts with his own photos and that he might gain feedback far and wide from the critics.

For those who enjoy this blog, the book that started it all can be sampled and ordered from http://www.kansasgardenmusings.com/, where you also may directly contact me for autographed copies if desired. I'm fast in the midst of a 2nd book, at present titled More Garden Musings, so watch for it to be published in early 2011.

Happy Gardening to all: ProfessorRoush 7/28/10