The Last of the Daylilies...

Yesterday I did my first garden "clean-up" of the summer.  Two huge bags of overgrowth, weeds, daylily stalks.  This is the part I don't like so much.  But those 5-6 weeks of steady beauty, every day, is really worth it in the long run.  In the fall I'll dig and divide lilies and move stuff around and thin out the Shastas (which have gone CRAZY out there).  Maybe I'll build more pathways...  but that's later...  hopefully when it is not 95 degrees!

So here are the last daylily photos for the year...this is Zella Virginia, a pretty apricot double.

Garden Bunny!

Cinnamon Lace.

See what I mean about the Shasta daisies?  They definitely need some thinning out.

I think this is Hudson Valley...  I would go check the marker but it is dark outside at the moment! 

Mike enjoying the garden...

I know this lily has been on here several times...  but she is just so cool.  Raspberry Star.

Just playing around with my new camera and the telephoto lens.  That's one of my favorite things about my new camera.  That pale yellow is Ladyfingers.  Bright orange is Chicago Sunrise.

Jan Marie.

Real Wind.

Not a daylily!  But what fabulous color!  Lantana.

Veronica.

I spent about an hour trying to photograph our little house wrens one evening.  The Mom and Dad were flying in and out of little barn house about every 30 seconds and the babies were making a huge racket inside there.  This is the best picture I was able to get.  You won't be seeing this shot in National Geographic!  I have a great appreciation for all nature photographers!

Little Bun Bun is much easier to photograph than the house wrens.  He loves food and will sit pretty still while consuming it!

He loves these little baby carrots.  I guess that is no big surprise!

Foliage is not just for Fall

The garden is winding down.  The Shasta daisies are still pretty and there are a few late daylilies still doing their thing - or at least they are trying their best in this heat.  I have one last batch of daylily photos to get ready for the blog - but I'll get to those later.  Tonight is for foliage.  This year I have loved finding various foliage backgrounds for the daylily shots.  But foliage deserves its own shot too!  

Here is Caladium growing in a patio pot.

This plant is one I have mentioned before.  It is a variegated Lily of the Valley.  The dragonfly was incredibly patient with me as I tried to photograph her.  

Coleus.

This is a perennial geranium.  It blooms in early spring with a rather insignificant little flower - then it remains a lovely 6"-8" high carpet of beautiful foliage the rest of the summer.  I have it in several places along the border.

Lamb's Ear.

Ajuga.  I love to see where this pops up every year.

I don't know the name of this plant.  It is so cute in its little pot.  I think I'll try to bring this in for the winter.

Autumn Joy sedum.  Looks like some bugs have been munching on it...

Another little sedum.  It finds its own way in the garden.  After 20 years, I just let it do its thing filling in cracks and crevices in and along the rock wall.  Here it has found an overturned clay saucer to lovingly embrace.  I don't have the heart to disturb it! 

OK, so technically this is not just foliage, but I love the combination of foliage around this Butterfly Weed....

This is like looking at a miniature forest from above...

As much as I love foliage... it's nothing compared to Little Bun Bun's love of the stuff.  For such a tiny creature, he has de-foliaged quite a bit of our lawn in the back yard.  (I'm sure he has had some help from some of his larger friends.)  As you can see, I have convinced the little guy to take food from my hand.  He has been eating little tiny carrots from my hand for about a week now.  He also loves kale so today I offered kale and he took it!  You can get a sense of how little he is in this photo.

Good Night Bun Bun.  I'll get to the store early tomorrow to stock up on all your favorite things!

At Least We Don't Need to Water the Grass

We had a VERY wet Independence Day here.  But the bike races and the fireworks went on as scheduled!  Mike took this picture of the fireworks viewed from the very top of the new Oread Hotel.  And the flag is also atop the Oread.

Here is my big cookie flag!  It was great!

And of course too much rain spoils the daylilies for the day.  No new pictures yesterday, or today.  A slow drizzle has settled in.  But here are a few more shots from several days ago.  This is a great dark pink lily - I have lost track of her name but she is very showy.

 Spectacular Raspberry Star.  This is a spider form and stays very low in my garden.  The color is just incredible.

Frosted Pink Ice looks delicious.

Here's Nile Crane again with a side of Shasta daisies.

Etosha (again!).  Sorry - she's just so pretty.  Here with a side of bright petunias.

Cherry Ice Cream. 

One night about a week and a half ago, we had this amazing sky right before dusk.  It looked just like this - pink clouds.  The colors in the garden always look very beautiful at dusk, but that night they looked very unusual - a pink tinge as you might expect.

So I ran in and got the camera.  This was my first photo attempt under the pink clouds.  I know I should read the darn book, but...I really LOVE this shot!

I became interested in the possibilities of dusk photos.  This shot is from a few nights ago - around 9PM.  No pink clouds, but I got a little closer to a proper exposure!

This is the same general area of the garden in a more "daylight" condition.

This was also an interesting effect - not quite as late in the evening - but the sun is very low and shining over the top of the house onto those tall trees across the fairway.  These are Vintage Wine daylilies.

Every once in awhile, a daylily lands in the just the perfect place!  This is Red Ribbons.

Our Little Bun Bun has learned to eat carrots and blueberries and strawberries.  He is quite spoiled.  He has also eaten the grass clear down to bare dirt in this spot right by the patio.  There are still a few blades left in this photo - looks pretty bare now! 

Here's my "artsy" shot of him.

We have not seen the little guy since Saturday morning.  But maybe he's been hiding out somewhere trying to stay dry.  I know the feeling.

THIS JUST IN:  Have to edit the blog to tell you that Bun Bun was just spotted in the back yard.  Yeah!!!