Okay, probably not, but it's beginning to feel that way! As someone who starts counting down the months, weeks, days to the end of summer in, oh, about June or July, this is agonizing.
Around here, we know that September will probably remain uncomfortably hot and humid, but some of us like to fool ourselves into hoping that it might at least bring in the first hint of dry fall air. (No such luck, this trip around the sun!)
By October, we feel we honestly deserve some relief-- but there's not as much this year as usual! The meteorologists have once or twice shown long-range forecasts with tantalizing lows in the 60s and (dare I whisper it?) even the 50s, but all have come to naught. Now they've stopped sounding hopeful or encouraging. Thanks to a high pressure ridge that just won't budge, it will be the middle of October before autumn weather arrives, they say.
...I have to admit that it's depressing. I feel like we're being cheated of our brief window of perfect weather-- like it's being stolen from us, somehow, never to be regained. (And I'm not even completely joking, now! This is truly a downer for someone who is sick and tired of the endless summer.)
It doesn't help that I've let the garden "go" this summer, telling myself that when the weather cooled, I'd tackle it. Well, the longer this summer drags on, the worse things are getting, probably. I'm not even sure what my plan of attack is, anymore.
(*pathetic sigh of self-pity*)
Oh well.
While we wait for October to start behaving like October, I guess I can continue editing and posting my way through the backlog of photos. This time, it's more daylilies!
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I'll start with the new-to-the-garden named varieties.
'Jo Barbre'.
This one didn't bloom that much this year, from what I can remember, but it's still getting settled. It does have an interesting form, though-- (the second bloom looked a lot nicer than the first, in that respect)-- and the lemony yellow is certainly bright and cheery!
'Midnight Magic'.
There are photos of this one in previous posts, too. I think this was one of the better bloomers of the new plants. This is a very dark red day lily with a large, highly-contrasting lemon-yellow center. The petals have that velvety sheen that looks almost black in spots. 'Midnight Magic' is a striking choice for fans of dark daylilies.
'Pandora's Box'.
'Pandora's Box' is a charmer. The flowers are on the smaller side, but there are quite a few of them, and the purple eyezone stands out wonderfully on the creamy petals. This is a sweet little daylily that would play nicely with many other plants and colors.
'Red Volunteer'.
This one is a little of an experiment for me. I've tried to choose evergreens and semi-evergreens, worried that our zone might not have enough of a chill to keep the dormant daylilies happy, but 'Red Volunteer' had such glowing reviews, I decided to give it a try. So far, so good-- but again, it's just its first year in our garden.
This variety has a reputation for making proliferations, a quality I love in a daylily. (Free plants spontaneously sprouting from the stems of existing ones? Who wouldn't like that?!) I didn't see any this year, but I'll try to remember to watch for them next time around.
It's a beautiful red daylily-- truly eye-catching. I love the contrast of the starry golden throat against that very pleasing, clear red.
'Spanish Harlem'.
I saw 'Spanish Harlem' featured on another garden blog and loved it.
I don't think I got any really great photos (in this batch, at least), but they're better than nothing. The color is supposed to be more of a purple than a red-- but in Daylily Land "purple" isn't like the grape or bluish purple you'll find in a box of crayons (or in an iris). It's usually either pinkish or reddish.
Quibbles aside, it's a stunning daylily-- another of those really dark, velvety blooms. In our garden, the flowers were a rich wine-red, and like so many red daylilies, they have a yellow throat, which makes a great contrast against the dark petals.
The buds are also tinted with a hint of purple, as you can see in the first photo below.
'Jean Swann'.
A year or two ago, I would have told you that I wasn't really a "double daylily person". I mean, they were ok, but I wouldn't have chosen a double out of a catalog. Well, I guess people do change, because I'm smitten with the fluffy, fancy, frou-frou double blooms of 'Jean Swann'! It's like a crinoline skirt in daylily form!
These blooms are the floral equivalent of some frothy confection. The pale yellow/cream color adds to the sugar-sweet appearance. (They really do look good enough to eat. Actually, at least some parts of some daylily plants, including flowers, are edible... but I think I'll pass.)
I like this one a lot. (There's another, similar new-to-us double daylily coming up in a future blog post. It bloomed a little later in the season than 'Jean Swann'.)
'Apollodorus'.
Now, this is a purply daylily. I love that color, and I love that watermark (the lighter, lilac ring around the center), and I love those ruffles, and I just love this daylily. It's a rebloomer, too.
Did you notice the little grasshopper(?) on that flower? I zoomed in a little closer-- and look at those eyes! It looks like it's staring right at the camera! (g)
Ok, now on to the unidentified/unlabeled daylilies! (There are a lot of familiar faces in here, if you've skimmed through my other daylily photo posts.)
These double (triple?) orange daylilies are either 'Kwanso' or 'Flore Pleno'; I'm not sure how to tell them apart. I've read that 'Kwanso' has twelve petals and 'Flore Pleno' has eighteen. If that's accurate, these must be 'Flore Pleno', because they're definitely fully triple. However, others say that 'Kwanso' can flower double and triple. ...So there's really no telling, as far as I'm concerned. I find 'Kwanso' easier to remember, so that's what I usually call them.
Whatever they are, I got my starts from my mother and maybe also my grandmother. They are very vigorous growers and always bloom quite a bit earlier in the season than the plain orange daylilies ("ditch lilies", as some call them).
That's it for this batch of daylily photos! More to come!
