I think this one's new this year (and new for my garden, period). As far as coloration goes, it looks a lot like a couple that have already bloomed, but it's double instead of single. Double daylilies are never my absolute favorite. I think they look a little deformed, honestly, but from a distance, they're fine, and I could probably even learn to love them, if I looked at them long enough. (g) I do like the very pale peach...
Speaking of odd-looking daylilies, the ugly duckling daylily (from an earlier post) has been blooming a few times more since that first flower. I think these are the third and fourth flowers-- something like that.
And as a testament to the fact that you can learn to love just about anything, I'm growing a little fonder of these frankenflowers... They still look like there's something wrong with them, and I hope they'll improve in the next year or two, but if they stay like this, I could probably convince myself that it's a "design element" (as we say about mistakes in hand-knitting and crochet). (g) It's a tie-dye effect! Very rare and highly sought after by a select group of discerning daylily collectors. ;o) At least the plant seems healthy. Quite a few buds, and the flowers open nicely.
False indigo.
Much improved over last year, though still short. Maybe it will grow bigger year by year, though it seems like it's going to start from ground level every spring.
Flowerbeds...
Annual coreopsis.
'Daisy' gardenia.
Curcuma elata (hidden lily ginger).
The first leaves have begun poking up out of the ground, tightly curled up. I believe that chunkier stalk in the front left is actually a bloom. I'll try to get a photo when it opens up properly.
I've been mulching some of the new beds/expansions, including this one on the north fence. It still needs work, but this is a big improvement over what it was without mulch.
This weekend, we used the truck and a chain to pull out a few shrubs that have been showing signs of some sort of disease that started in one and then spread to the others. A little online research suggested that they probably wouldn't recover-- and maybe it was time for a change, anyway.
Here's a photo from January of this year, with the four shrubs (some sort of dwarf holly, maybe?) in place.
And here's the area now that they're gone:
The leaves of those Indian hawthorns are sparse-- no doubt as a result of their having been shaded for so long by the row of shrubs in front. I'm not sure if they'll ever fill out on their own. I'll try to research it. If nothing else they could be trimmed back, and maybe the new growth would be leafier...
In any case, eventually the new shrubs I'm planting in front will fill in and look nicer-- I hope. It just may take a few years for them to get a little size on them...
We're expecting nice weather for the next few days, and I plan to get the new plants in the ground, with photos to follow.
Speaking of the weather, we had a real gullywasher, yesterday evening. Of course that would be the time that I'd forget to cover the seedling trays with beach umbrellas... The rain has a tendency to puddle in the fabric of the patio cover, dripping repeatedly in the same areas. It's much more concentrated and destructive than regular rainfall, and if a pot is in the wrong spot, the soil can wash out. That's just what happened to some of my seed pots. Oh well... Most of them should be okay. Seeds are never a sure bet, under the best of circumstances.
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As I stepped out the door this morning, something fell on my head and gave me a fright. It turned out to only be a tree frog, but in the second or two between the "plop" and the discovery of what it was, I managed to make some weird shrieking sound. If any neighbors hear what sounds like an agitated and/or terrified monkey, it's probably me being chased by a wasp (or a leaf-footed bug) or under a rain of tree frogs. ;o)
