Some recent and current blooms in my garden

Hemerocallis, Daylily, June 21, 2008
Hemerocallis, Daylily

Just some quick photos of plants recently or currently blooming in my garden. The first few were taken two weeks aga.

Meta

I’ve changed my feedburner feed to remove the merged feed of photos from my Flickr site. I sometimes upload scores or hundreds of photos at a time. Also, often those photos are of events that are of more local community and less general gardening interest. For both these reasons, I think that including my photos interferes with the main use of the feed: subscribing to updates to this blog.

Those of you who want to keep tabs on my updated photos can still do so. My Flickr photostream has its own feed, available in either RSS or Atom format. You can subscribe to my photos directly from there.

Daylilies

I don’t “collect” daylilies, at least not the way I try to collect Hosta or native plants. We inherited a few with the gardens when we bought the house. For that reason, I consider them to be “passalong” plants: dependable, sturdy, hardy, tolerant of neglect, vigorous, and so on. I gave away several clumps this Spring. I’ll have more to give away over time.

Hemerocallis, Daylily, June 21, 2008
Hemerocallis, Daylily

Native Plants

Ascelpias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed, June 21, 2008
Ascelpias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed

Echinacea pallida, Pale Coneflower, June 21, 2008. This photo was used to illustrate “Coneflowers: America’s Prairie Treasures”, by Barbara Perry Lawton, in the Summer 2009 edition of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “Plants & Gardens News.”
Echinacea pallida, Pale Coneflower

The Shady Path

In this short section of the shady path on the north side of the house, I have my two big-leaved monsters: Rodgersia pinnata, on the right, and Kirengeshoma palmata, on the left. The Rodgersia has a lot of drought damage from our heat wave a few weeks ago, but it’s off-frame of this photo. I’m keeping a close watch on the Kirengeshoma, as it also crisps up at the slightest hint of drought. There are buds on it now, which mature very slowly into waxy yellow bells. It benefits here from its location next to my neighbor’s mixed border, which gets watered by soaker hose.

Part of the Shady Path

Both of these plants are several years old, possibly even a decade. I’ve lost track of when I purchased them. They’re slow-growing, but continue to increase in size every year, despite never being divided in all that time. They are well worth the wait.

I used to keep the Kirengeshoma in a large container, which I could never water enough. It’s much happier in the ground. Both of these plants would prefer constant moisture. I have long-term plans to build a rain garden in the shady part of the front yard. When the time comes, both of these plants will be very happy there.

Nestled between them in the foreground is a small, yellow-leaved, purple-flowering Hosta. I’ve lost the id for this. I think it might be ‘Little Aurora.’ Any Hosta aficionados out there who can weigh in on what this might be?

Hosta 'Little Aurora'?

Hosta 'Little Aurora'?

Heirloom Canna

Last to share with you today is the Heirloom Canna ‘Mme. Paul Caseneuve’ blooming in a large, glazed container in the front yard. This is the same specimen that I grew for the first time last year. I overwintered it in the same container in an unheated, but enclosed, section of the front porch. I’m surprised it came back.

Heirloom Canna 'Mme. Paul Caseneuve'

It doesn’t look as pink as I remember it from last year. The color is more apricot/salmony this year. At least it’s got the same bronze foliage.

Heirloom Canna 'Mme. Paul Caseneuve'

Related Content

Heirloom Canna “Mme. Paul Caseneuve”, August 17, 2007
The Shady Path (Flickr photo set)

Heirloom Canna “Mme. Paul Caseneuve”

Heirloom Canna “Mme. Paul Caseneuve”. Photo Credit: Blog Widow John

Earlier this week, while I’ve been in North Carolina, one of the heirloom bulbs in the front yard started to bloom. I was disappointed to miss its first flower. Blog Widow John was excited to see the bloom, and sent me this phonecam snapshot of it so I wouldn’t miss it. This is his first guest post on the blog. Thanks, baby!

It’s Canna “Mme. Paul Caseneuve”, which I received from Old House Gardens (OHG) this Spring. This is the first time I’ve grown this variety of Canna. Introduced in 1902, it’s growing about 3 feet high for me, not as tall as “Cleopatra” which I grew in the same container last year. OHG describes the flower as “heart-breakingly lovely” and it looks to fulfill that promise. The foliage has been attractive, dark bronze for me.

[Confidential to my readers: I’ll get some proper photos of it after I return home this weekend.]

Heirloom Plant Profile: Canna “Cleopatra”

While last week I was obsessed with Amorphophallus titanum at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, I’ve also been having my own plant watch here at home.

A month ago I blogged about ordering bulbs for next year. I noted that I had ordered Canna “Cleopatra” from Select Seeds this Spring, but I doubted whether that was what I had received. The leaves are supposed to be variegated green and bronze, but the leaves at that writing still showed only green.

July 16, 2006


Thinking I didn’t get what I wanted, I ordered replacement bulbs from Old House Gardens for next Spring. I just needed to be more patient. The sequence of photographs shows how quickly it transformed. I think the heat wave we had really got it going. I planted three bulbs in a large pot in the front yard. I’ve now got three flowering stalks. It’s attracting comments from all the neighbors.

August 4, 2006

August 6, 2006

August 10, 2006

August 11, 2006

August 12, 2006

“Cleopatra” was introduced in 1895. It’s also known as the “Harlequin Canna” for its variegated leaves and flowers. The variegation is unstable and unpredictable; you can see from the photos of my plant that the flowers appear different even on the same stalk of blooms. It seems to me it might be a chimera of two different varieties fused together. In other words, it’s a freak, and a Victorian freak at that. That’s why it will always have a place of honor in the heirloom garden at the front of our 105-year old Victorian house.

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