Between The Iris And The Daylilies

It's that time of summer, finally. The iris are giving their last gasps, and the daylilies are sending up stalks with still-tiny buds at their tips. Life keeps kicking along, and the columbine are still managing new blossoms, although heat, winds and hail are wreaking their damage on them. I showed the pale blue bearded iris here a while ago, which don't even have stems left, just flat blueish leaves. But the slower to bloom deep purple ones are still chugging along. 

 This was an early one, called All Night Long, and its blooming time overlapped the pale blue as you can see in a corner. It's curled, shriveled, and drippy - unless it's one I already removed for compost. More recent ones are a bit weather-pummeled.Other bearded varieties I mail-ordered last year have nice large leaves but haven't born flowers this year. Next year!!

None of the smaller varieties of iris bloomed this year, but we have healthy leaves for those too. They survive, tucked among daylilies.

While we wait for the daylilies to continue to grow and bloom,  the Asiatic lilies in the south garden are becoming showy, as the bleeding heart dies back until next spring.

 

First Asiatic lilies to bloom after planting were what they call tiger lilies. OK, they're orange. Big whoop, (The yellowish bits on the petals were hit by the sun, so the color is overexposed, not how the eye sees it.)  But I'm used to a very different tiger lily, recurved speckled orange petals and black balls (bulbils) lining the stem where leaves sit. Oh well. I grew up with those in northern Minnesota, proving how hardy they are. Mom grew them in her gardens. I have some still growing in the garden in my previous MN yard, now my son's yard.

A couple days ago we got an orange/purple combo called Forever Susan, though their "purple" is my brown. Still, it's striking. Since then several other varieties started opening.

 

 Can't be sure - no match to varietal pictures. The colors hold steady for at least a couple days anyway.

 

Exotic Sun 

I'm still deciding if this one is a red "tiger" called Red Velvet. A lot of these change colors as they age, and who knows with photos posted where Google can display them exactly where in their color changes a shot was taken? I still have several others I hope produce this year but which got slow starts, and a very few left from last fall that I hope to eventually prove weren't all eaten then. 

 

This pale pink might be Josephine.                 

                                

While these are in the garden now that they finished blooming, I bought them past full bloom at a reduced price from the store. The color fades from deep pink into soft lavender (lower left corner) as petals drop. These are shown on the porch where they could get sun and be easily watered via the tray they were sitting in, and surrounded by plastic hardware cloth to keep the bunnies at bay.  The tag identified them as Summer Sky.

I'm waiting for full white ones called My Wedding,  some Stargazers, some Fireworks, a couple Turkish near blacks called Nightrider, different pinks. I know many of those will never appear due to squirrels, as they were ordered online from Holland. But I do plan to keep photo records of what does show this year. There will be surprises next year if I can continue to keep the bunnies out because this spring they've already nibbled budding tips off of several newly sprouted ones before I noticed, Those won't bloom now, of course, but they're still surviving, surrounded by generous helpings or rhubarb stalks.

I'm told by the packaging that several of these varieties are fragrant. Perhaps after a few more seasons I'll be able to tell for myself. Of such things dreams are made.