Schoolhouse lilies bloomed Sept. 8

At least that's the first time I observed them. And that is despite an astonishingly rainy summer that actually caused the clay soil to heave the bulbs out of the ground, a la frozen soil! I thought they were toast but no, they are blooming.

Narcissus bloomed Jan-Feb; Larry blooming

The Grand Primo bloomed healthily from mid-January to mid-February -- I think that's its third year to do so now. It has developed into a thick stand of lush, sturdy green. A few feeble blooms on the Texas Star at the same time.

As of now, in early March, Larry the lemon tree is covered in blooms (a bit early, I think) and bees.

The roses have all leafed out with flushes of healthy, burgundy-colored new growth. With their Rose Hose that I am proud of installing, they get regular measured doses of water right to their roots!

And every bulb in the garden has its greenery up, making mid-March an excellent time to install watering systems or weedcloth or anything else that requires that you know exactly where all your plants are! The schoolhouse lilies, narcissus, spuria iris (they made it!) and daylilies are all fully green right now.

The trees are getting their first sprigs of spring green. And the crape myrtles, as is traditional, look so dead that we are afraid, as we are annually, that this is the year we killed them! But we have faith.

Broad-leafed weeds took over the yard in the last half of February. We didn't do doodly squat in the way of corn gluten prevention or anything, so we deserve what we get. However, we've requested estimates for installing a sprinkler system -- healthy grass will choke out weed growth naturally, or so we hope.

Oxblood lilies bloom!

They bloomed Sept. 22, the last official day of summer, so I guess these "schoolhouse" lilies are following the old school calendars before they kept moving back the start date.

So, they went dormant (as in appearing totally dead) in mid-June and have bloomed two years now in mid-late September. Since we were out of town last year when they bloomed, I can't tell if they're spreading, but we are just glad to see them! (Jason called me at work and said "Hey, your red trumpets are out!")

Oxblood dormant; daylilies still blooming

Both the oxblood lilies and the Grand Primo narcissus have completely croaked in the past two weeks; I sincerely hope that's dormancy!

Replanted front flowerpots with vincas, doing OK so far. Pansies had completely dried up.

Copper soap fungicide (or dumb luck) is doing wonders for the roses. No sign of black spot or powdery mildew.

Daylilies still blooming, only a couple at a time, but really fantastic colors.

Schoolhouse lilies bloomed; 106 degrees

It is 106 degrees outside right now and even the sparrows coming to the birdfeeder are panting. Literally; they land on the patio table with their beaks open and stand there, breasts heaving, for a few minutes. I filled up my fountain with fresh water hoping they could cool off there.

The oxblood lilies or schoolhouse lilies were just starting to show a green sprout or two Sept. 12 when we left for Italy; yesterday I walked outside to find they had already come up, bloomed and wilted in a fortnight! Here's hoping they throw up a couple more bloom stalks before going dormant. I'd like to see what the flowers look like!

Rain equals roses

It's been pouring rain for what seems like weeks, and the rosebushes are responding. I had given up on this mid-season, actually, on the logic that our long hot growing season is actually broken up by a dormant season in the middle. But all the July rain brought out blooms on Brigadoon, Mr Lincoln, Double Delight, Belinda's Dream, High Hopes, Don Juan and, here, Tropicana. For future reference I will say the flower really is this rich color, maybe a shade warmer, and even lovelier form.

Elsewhere the daylilies are quiet but still green, the oregano is blooming, the lemon tree has put up new suckers and the ruellia many new blossoms also in response to the rain, and there is no sign of life as yet in the area of the oxblood lilies. The greenery from the jonquils has long vanished, though there is something that looks like ophiopogon poking its heads up in that area.

I guess I expect the oxblood lilies to start putting up leaves soon, since it's called schoolhouse lily as well for its autumn start.

Not to be too confident about it, the entire row of rosebushes has made it through the first part of the really hot season and right now looks fairly healthy, except for ailing Tiffany. No bugs, strong new growth, etc. If they put down good root growth they may yet all make it.