Beautiful Name

A Kansas Country Garden

May 2015

After several meager years this  Dave Austin rose, Heritage, is in top form this season. 

May Bursts Forth in a Crescendo of Life

Kansas Country Garden

May 2015

Poppies and iris are a May delight.

There is nothing dull or boring with the month of May. Instead it bursts forth in a crescendo of life. 

A Closer Look

Candytuft, iberis, up close and personal. This plant is about 6 inches high.

This tiny unnamed bulb is quite charming.

A Kansas Country Garden

April 2015

It might seem that not much is happening in the garden. Glancing from a window the garden is a blur of green with subtle splashes of color here and there. But let's take a closer look.

White tulips brighten the garden.

A Kansas Country Garden: Meanings and Memories

Poppies will forever remind me of Lydia, my mother's friend who gave me my first plants.

Some flowers come to us laden with emotion and meaning. There is more to a flower than just what you see. Very often memories of the giver of the original plant mingle with the blooms. The Victorians assigned meanings to all flowers making it possible to send a potent message with a bouquet. Of course some flowers had multiple meanings which could lead to some confusion. Beware of the yellow rose!

A Kansas Country Garden: Spring Glows!

Who can look at a daffodil and not smile? They are just so darn cheerful. And why not? Spring is here. It must be. I think the daffodils are smiling, too.

Hyacinths have a lovely, but sometimes overpowering scent. 

A Kansas Country Garden - Fourth Week of May

Big news in our yard! The eggs have hatched and we have keets (baby guineas).

Throughout the week, when I head for the garden, I bring my camera, too and snap a few photos for this blog. Its not until the weekend that I sit down at the computer to download the photographs and see what I really have. Sometimes I am astounded what my simple camera has captured. This week, not so much. Still, I place them here to show what is blooming in my garden as spring fast-forwards into summer.

Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa, lives up to its name and attracts quite a few butterflies.

If the army worms had had their way, there would be no lily blooms. Read here about what it took to save them.

Though not completely damage free, these white lilies are still lovely.

Pink Missouri Primrose, Oenothera speciosa, blooms beside a blue larkspur. The primrose are not as profuse this year as they have been in the past.

 Stella de Oro Daylily, Hemerocallis ‘Stella de Oro’, are the first and perhaps the last daylily to bloom. You often see this flower in commercial landscaping.

Yellow yarrow, Achillea, glows at dusk. It is a long lasting flower that dries well. 

I call these baby hollyhocks, but I believe the proper name is Malva Zebrina. They are a cheerful plant that tends to reseed.

The foamy beauty of German Statice, Limonium tataricum, adds grace to the garden. Wonderful filler in bouquets, it also dries well.

Red Hot Poker, Kniphofia Uvaria, is an interesting flower. Their bloom time is relatively short.

Feverfew, Tanacetum parthenium, is a medicinal herb, but I love it for its little happy flowers.

And from the vegetable garden . . .

We are enjoying new potatoes with their delicate flavor and skins. They are getting a quick rinse in the kitchen sink.

A Kansas Country Garden - Third Week of May

Many years ago I transplanted a few larkspur from my mother's garden. In her garden they were always blue and in the beginning they were always blue in my garden, too. A few years ago, they began to mutate and now some are a pinkish color or white in addition to the blue. At first, I pulled up the new colors, but soon gave up. I'll take them all, but I will still think of mom when I see the blue ones.

I love the cheerful "baby daisy" look of  Feverfew, Tanacetum parthenium.

Pink "Fairy" roses contrast with these purple/blue bell-like flowers.

You never know just where larkspur might decide to bloom.

Yellow yarrow has begun its bloom and in the distance you can see the pink Missouri Primrose, one of my favorite flowers, also just beginning its bloom time.

A Heritage David Austin rose is last of the first flush of rose blooms.

 Blue Love-in-a-mist, nigella damascena is a nice companion to the feverfew.

A beautiful "true blue" shade, love-in-a-mist, nigella damascena, also has an attractive seed pod and self sows.

Sweet scented honeysuckle blooms by the mailbox.

Verbena bonariensis is a tall, leggy, swaying flower. It often overwinters and self seeds, a great country garden addition.

In the Vegetable Garden

Nothing quite compares with new potatoes, fresh out of the garden and eaten on the same day that they were dug. We had our first this week.

A Kansas Country Garden - First Week of May

The peony bushes were not full, but the individual flowers are beautiful

When I showed a student some photographs of iris, she asked, "Are those the flowers that wear dresses?". Iris and peonies make a lovely combination.

Note to self: Do NOT drink caffeinated tea after 1 p.m. again. Ever. You know why. But, if I had followed my own good advice on Friday, well, I might have not been quite so alert for some nocturnal garden adventures.  
We've had an invasion of "miller moths".  Annoying? Yes.  But miller moths lay eggs that hatch into army worms and they are much more than annoying. They may be evil.

Temperatures in the 90's meant fleeting bloom for peonies.

I discovered the army worms as I was watering at dusk. Some plants didn't look so good.  By the time I'd gone inside and googled them, it was dark. The news was not good. Army worms come out at night to do their damage. They were just beginning. Wait until morning to do something? Would there be anything left?

A perfect rose. It is a David Austin Rose, but I am not certain which variety.

This is also a David Austin rose. The bush is quite short.

Flashlight in hand, I returned to the garden. It was even worse than anticipated. The lilies! Worms, lots of them, were munching on the leaves and the buds that were just beginning to swell. NO! Not the lilies. You shall not eat the lilies! (think Gandalf's "You shall not pass.") And do you know what I did? (Stop reading now if you're squeamish.) I squished them. Yes, I did. Mild mannered, nature loving me. Wearing plastic coated gloves,  I grabbed them between the left hand thumb and forefinger and applied just a little pressure. No more lily eating for them.

We interrupt the photos of roses for this not-so-pretty photo of an army worm on the lilies. You can see that the worms caused quite a bit of damage to the foliage, but I am hopeful that I will still have some blooms.

This bush blooms only once, draping over the fence.

Hours latter, lying in bed, wide awake, but trying to sleep, I heard a chicken. Oh, surely not.  Then I heard it again. It didn't sound unhappy. However, a few months ago, dogs got through a fence into our barn and chicken pen and killed  almost all our chickens. Mike has been slowly rebuilding the flock. We often comment that if we had been able to hear what was happening in the chicken pen, perhaps disaster could have been averted. And now I was hearing a chicken. Probably that should be checked out. Beside me my husband slumbered. Thoughts of waking him were dismissed. I slipped on my garden clogs and went out to investigate. A full moon lit the way, but I had also grabbed a flashlight. 

Fragrant Sweet Briar Rose, Rosa eglanteria, wanders like the wild rose it is.

There wasn't much to see. All was quiet except for two chickens strolling around in their pen. Banished to the outside pen because of behavior or lack of egg laying, they couldn't go into the barn. Evidently the full moon had deceived them and they were just enjoying the weather. No danger as far as I could tell. 

Before returning to the house, I thought again of the lilies. Had I saved them? Not entirely. There were a few more army worms on them. I returned to the house for my plastic coated garden gloves and took care to them, too. 

This is a David Austin Heritage Rose.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an exciting night in a Kansas Country Garden. One I might miss next time if I stay away from that caffeinated iced tea!

This old-fashioned rose has a brief bloom.

A pink rose.

Rose bushes on the east side of the house do quite well.

Blue salvia has a long bloom time.

Allium Christophii, Star Onion, have multiplied over the years. After blooming, the seed head still adds interest to the garden.

Not invited, but who wouldn't welcome a flower called the Prairie Wine-cup or Buffalo Rose (callirhoe ivolucrata)? This wildflower can be purchased from mail-order catalogs now.

A butterfly visits a blooming shrub.

A Kansas Country Garden-Fourth Week in April

This is an old-fashioned, almost wild rose. The plant spreads quite rapidly. It only blooms once.

This David Austin rose reblooms.

Roses do well on the east side of the house, protected from afternoon sun.

The roses have begun their bloom! This is always a wonderful time of the year. Who doesn't love a rose? They are flowers of exquisite beauty with a memorable scent. The first flush of bloom is the most extravagant. Some rose bushes may continue to bloom throughout the summer, but the bushes will never be as lush as they are right now. So, stop. And smell the roses.

I received this plant from my mother-in-law. I have never seen it anywhere else. The blooms and and leaves seem "thistle-like", but it has no thorns or stickers. 

The first peony begins to bloom.

I love the true-blue colors of the bachelor buttons. They are reseeding annuals. I have fewer flowers this year than in the past

I believe this is a Globemaster Allium.

I believe this is also a allium, although it does not have the lollipop top. 

I love the alliums with their lollipop blooms, a round ball on a slender stem. 

The Allium chrisophii or Star Onion begins to bloom. This is a recommended plant from The Undaunted Garden by Lauren Springer, my favorite garden book.

The Honey Locust tree has an insignificant bloom that has a sweet scent and attracts honeybees and moths. Standing under the tree you hear the happy hum of bees.

I purchased this bush through a newspaper insert for around $1. It was advertised as a white lilac. It is not. It could be considered a garden "thug" I suppose because it has a tendency to spread and grow runners, but I like it very much. The flowers have a sweet scent that waifs through the backyard and it attracts butterflies. I don't know what kind of bush it is, however.

The Mock Orange Shrub is full of blossoms.

Still Blooming

My favorite iris. The photo doesn't quite have the color right.

Not all of these iris were blooming last week, but some of them were and I decided to keep them together.

After a few days of hot wind this week, there are just a few poppies blooming in exuberant orange.

 Vegetable Garden

We harvested our first rhubarb.

 Animals in the Garden

Under the mulberry tree, our guinea, Edna, is setting on her nest. We are not optimistic that she will succeed in hatching her eggs. But she is persistent. Read more about Edna's parenting problems here.