Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Day Liles at the Jarvis House Keep Blooming

Got this beauty at the Long Island Day Lily Society sale two years ago. Click there to see this year's sale date.   It looks like ice cream with lovely ruffled lemon parfait edges.
Deep stunning colors.
Another from  LIDS.  Looks like lemon sorbet.
This is another old species day lily that grows really tall  and has a graceful bend to its stems.
Clumps of these lilies are in total shade and full sun.  They are wonderful.
A new pink for me from the  Society's plant sale.
So many variations.
This one has a pale edge.

A "spider" variety from the sale.  It is quite dramatic and large.
Peachy color, on a smaller flower.
'Been in the garden for years.
This day lily was purchased from a catalog many years ago, before truly different named varieties were commonly available.  I used to think that it was just a faded "no name" variety,  but it has started to look better to me lately.  It also grows very tall, and well.  
With so many sizes, colors and heights, many different day lilies make an interesting collection.  There are actually more in this garden that haven't even bloomed yet.  I find it a bit therapeutic to go out every morning and  "dead head"  the plants too.



Sunday, June 27, 2010

Today's Day Lilies at the Jarvis House Garden

Each day new varieties of Day Lilies bloom in the Jarvis House garden.
This is the Day Lily that has the brightest yellow, almost glows in the dark.
A very deep red with a green throat.
The early blooming Yellow species lily which is very tall.
The old fashioned Double.
A very full Orange.
A very tall and large deep red, but has a strange coloration.
A true red with a very bright yellow center.
A beautiful large ruffled yellow.
Soft Pink with a green center.
This is a very deep Red that I purchased years ago.
Its petals curve backwards, and this plant multiplies rapidly.  It also does really well in deep shade.
Very Pink.
Orange with an Orange eye.
Pale Orange.
Rosy Peach with a pale pink eye.
Apple Peach.
Short Peach with a Red eye.
Peach with a Green cast.
Two shades of Stella D'oros.
Tiny new Yellow.
Tiny Yellow with an Orange eye.
Road Side Lilies,
which are everywhere in the Jarvis Garden, and can't be beat for height and graceful stems.  The look especially well behind the Hosta boarders. More Day Lilies to come.   Make sure to visit the Day Lily Society of Long Island for information and events.   They can provide more scientific details which I try to avoid.  With so many plants at the Jarvis Garden, I leave the true names of varieties to the experts.  I just plant them.  Quite a few of these blooms came from their plant sale two years ago. The soil is suited to growing Day Lilies and they do well here.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Clivias

This is the Clivia houseplant that is blooming right now at the Jarvis Garden.  It one of few tender bulbs or plants that I take inside in the Fall, water all Winter, and put outside in the Spring.  This is #1 out of three
 The pot goes outside and located under the white walnut tree on the patio, in the shade.  Putting this plant in direct sunlight will burn the leaves in a day.  Here you can see the bud just starting to erupt from the center of the leaves.
  This is Clivia #3.
Clivia #2.
Clivia #1, the largest of the three plants.
Clivia #1 starting to put out color.
Clivia #1 opening up.
Clivia #1 today fully open.
 Today Clivia #2 is a bit behind, but that means that bloom time will last longer.
Clivia #2,  I gave to a friend last week.  I hope that she and her husband enjoy watching it blossom.
It may bloom only once a year, but this is a plant worth looking after during the Winter, so that you can see this in June.  Clivias have very fleshy roots, and they can become pot bound within a few years.  Two seasons ago, I teased these three apart from one pot, and gave them new soil and each a new plastic home.
The plastic pots retain water better which Clivias require.
Clivias send out bulb-lets, but those take several years before  blooming. The leaves may look like that of an Amaryllis, but the flower head is made up of multiple lily-like flowers in the deepest orange.  I do have another Clivia which is yellow in color, 
but it hasn't put out a bloom yet this year.  This is a photo that I took the first year that it was at the Jarvis House.  It did bloom last year, but it does it's own thing and isn't as predictable as the orange Clivias.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Japanese Iris in the Jarvis Garden

These are Japanese Iris, a white variety that  have been in the Jarvis Garden for years.  I have split the fans many times and re-planted them around the property.
The bud comes up on a very long stem, well after the typical spring German Bearded Iris are long gone.
The White Japanese Iris start to show first.  Here you can see that they are almost as tall as the common Road Side Day Lily.
 A lavender smaller iris blooms next, and looks like the common
Siberian Iris, in size and form, which bloomed out weeks ago.
The bud of a deep purple Japanese Iris is third to bloom, which
opens up like this,  and has a lovely yellow and white center.  It stands a bit shorter than the white.
 Finally the pale purple variety showed up.
All of these iris including
the Yellow Flag Iris, love wet feet.  The whites can tolerate a dry location,
but no competing ground covers or other intruding plants.  They will fade out and not bloom.  Over time some of the whites were choked out by other plants and almost disappeared.  I dug them out and re-planted them with more room and they came back with vigor.
The bloom period, of the Japanese iris is in between the Peonies and the Day Lilies.
They make a delightful display when the various colors are grouped together and inter planted between the Day Lilies.  The Jarvis Garden is very wet, where the Japanese Iris are planted, they thrive year after year, and multiply.
Japanese Iris are  great friendship garden swapping plants. This is a Cat Bird that was squawking his head off while I was taking pictures of the Iris.  He was a foot away from my head and boldly protecting his territory.  What a great bird!