2021-05-17 Linda's Flowers
I've shared various photos of Linda's flower gardens and the flowering trees, shrubs, and plants that were planted here when we bought this place. However, it's been years since I last posted
a new photo essay of them. Since they don't all bloom at the same time, I thought I'd create a
photo group of them plus some yard decor and recent improvements to show them in one place.
Beginning with what she's doing with them this season, here are almost all the flowers, plants, and
flowering trees (trees are from past seasons) except the crape myrtles which haven't bloomed yet.
What she's been working on lately is replacing the mulch and groundcloth for her newest day lilly bed. I got her original bunch of day lillies for her birthday 11 years ago (photo later). Since then, we've bought a few dozen more of many colors. At first, Linda only used ground cloth and pinestraw. That lasted one season until weeds and grass broke through. Last year she learned you can lay down cardboard in addtion to the groundcloth and mulch. The weeds and grass can't break through it so easily. Everything grows well here because of the warm climate and rain. Unfortunately, the weeds grow better than anything. Here's a record of her progress (see photos below). Linda does all the work. All I do is deliver the mulch, cardboard, etc. So far, I've got her 45 bags of mulch. That's 40lbs per bag (1,800 lbs). Linda tells my I do my share of the work because I have to move each bag twice.  |
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Here's a view from the other end. She laid out this flower bed in roughly the shape of a quarter circle about 50 feet across. She decided to use landscape timbers for edging because the scalloped concrete border costs twice as much.  |
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So far this season only one day lilly is beginning to bloom so I posted some photos from previous seasons below. These orange day lillies are the hardiest and always earliest to bloom.  |
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These yellow day lillies and the ones below are blooms from a previous season when we had pinestraw mulch.  |
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It's hard to tell what color these are. They are larger than the orange ones but darker than the yellow ones above.  |
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Each variety has a name but I have no idea which is which. I don't think Linda remembers either. We do have a list of the names. I'll post it before I get to the photos of the roses.  |
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These are such a delicate pink with yellow centers. The flowers are also smaller than most.  |
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This pale yellow one also has smaller flowers also and fewer of them.  |
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This photo below is her original day lillie bed. Except for the tall plants in the center which are gladiolas, the rest are day lillies. We bought these in 2009 from Oakes Daylillies in Corryton, TN. The first order was for Orange, Peach, Purple, and Yellow with dark red eye zone. Unfortunately, I failed to write down the names of each variety, only the colors. We planted them to the right of the back door then had to move them here when we built our deck in 2014.  |
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The big day lilly bed mentioned at the top of this page was planted when we received our second order from Oakes Daylillies in 2018. I wish I could match each name with each flower but at least we have the names of this second order. They are:
Between the old bed of day lillies and the deck Linda also planted a Confederate Jasmine which climbs on a little lattace panel I fixed for her. The thing grows like crazy so we'll eventually have to move it. Last year I cut it WAY back and it's already overgrown the lattace again. The perfume smell of these tiny little flowers is amazingly powerful. When it reaches full size, you can smell it all over the yard.  |
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In 2014, I gave Linda a bird girl statue for her birthday. It is nearly 46 inches tall. I tried lifting it by myself and could not. Linda's grandson and I tried to lift it and we could not. Finally, I put it on my hand truck and it flattened the tires. I added about 60 lbs. or air pressure and we were finally able to move it. Together we put it in position onto a 2 ft. square concrete pad I had poured a few days earlier. The statue was so heavy I thought we'd never get it there. According to the internet, the statue weighs about 375 lbs.  |
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That was in 2014. Today, the flags are gone (see photo below). Too many high windstorms. Hurricane Irma in 2017 also knocked down all our trees (For details, CLICK HERE for the storm damage and CLICK HERE for the aftermath photos). The roses we were planting in the above photo have been moved to the other side of the fence. Nothing's moving the bird girl, though. She will not move for anything! I've bumped her with the mower a time or two and she just wobbles a little.  |
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Perhaps you noticed the row of Pampas Grass in the 2014 bird girl photo above. We had that planted when we did a lot of excavating about 10 or 11 years ago. We had a couple of backhoes bring in soil and level the front yard as best possible. I asked one of them to uproot three huge clumps of pampas grass for me. At my request, he used his hoe to brake it up into smaller clumps. He then dug me a row of holes along the property line so we could replant them. The stuff just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Some of the clumps we planted were really tiny. All could be handled by hand. However, some of them are now 6 or 8 feet in diameter!  |
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We moved all Linda's original roses to just the other side of the fence opposite the Pampas Grass. This is now her new, larger rose bed. We also bought a few more roses to add to it. Here are some closeups below. Doncha love these yellow roses? Every year on their anniversary, my dad would get mom a dozen yellow roses.  |
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This looks to me like Tea Roses but I think to actually be a "tea" rose it has to smell like tea. These don't.  |
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Big, red, and beautiful!  |
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These peach colored roses are probably my favorite!  |
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I have no idea what this color is called. All I know is it's gorgeous.  |
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This year, some of her rose bushes are huge!  |
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Another pretty, delicate one that smells so sweet.  |
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3 years ago we planted a tiny little Shumard Oak tree. They said it grows fast but the first two years it hardly grew. We didn't have much rain then. This past year, however, has been really wet. Whoa, Nelly! This little oak tree shot up over two feet in a single season. It's now about 7 feet tall and growing like a weed.  |
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Back at the house, I added handrails to a couple of stairs leading up to our 20 ft. by 30 ft. deck. I'm getting older. Linda's mom lives with us. She is now 93 years old. The handrail makes it easier to hold onto something going up and down.  |
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Several years ago, just to the right of the deck Linda planted 3 small Sego Palms. They're also growing like weeds.  |
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Some of the plants growing here weren't planted by us, they just grow naturally. Some others were planted by the previous home owner and we benefited from the result. One of the volunteer plants was the lantana. Here, like the petunias that keep popping up here and there, the lantana seems to grow spontaneously. Apparently the birds eat the seeds and drop them everywhere -- usually at the base of a tree or a building. I mow these huge plants flat to ground level every year. Every year they come back growing like weeds!  |
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Here's what these same ones looked like 2 years ago. In the winter they have long, dead canes that have to be cut back or the new growth will grow from them rather than out of the ground like they should. The dead canes make the plants unattractive. That's why I flatten them when my riding mower each year.  |
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They seem to bush out well each new season. Some people call lantana "Butterfly Plants" (one of many plants called by that name) because butterflies love 'em.  |
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Every year the butterflies swarm all around them after the flowers are mature. However, some butterflies blend in so well you almost don't know they're there!  |
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Two flowering trees were planted by the previous owner between the house and the driveway. These also grow so well they have to be trimmed back every couple of years. They go by several names. Some people call them althea. Others say they're hibiscus. They're the same -- two names for the same tree. This pink variety is called the "Rose of Sharon."  |
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This purple variety is simply called "Purple Hibiscus" on most websites I checked but one website called it "Lavender Smoothie." Hahaha, I like that name!  |
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Here's a closeup of the "Rose of Sharon." You can see why it's called a 'rose.' The tree has lots of these pretty pink flowers blooming later in the summer. These photos are from previous seasons.  |
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Here's a closeup of the purple one. Looks much the same except for the color and the flower is smaller. However, it has far, far more flowers than the pink one and the two aren't in full bloom at the same time. Just as the pink one is dying back, the purple one is going great guns.  |
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So that's it! I looked through all my photos and was surprised that I can't find a single photo of our Crape Myrtles in bloom. What a bummer. They're really pretty. Some are pink, some red, one is white. These 3 colors were already here when we bought the place, however, there were only about half a dozen Crape Myrtle trees here then. Linda wanted more so we dig up root suckers and transplanted them. She also bought a really pretty one that is different from all the others. It's the only one we bought. I took Crape Myrtle photos two months after I created this web page. I created a separate web page for them when they bloomed. CLICK HERE to see the page for the Crape Myrtles, but first you might want to see the sunset photos below. The link is at the bottom of this page. Until our next visit, I guess we'll have a seat in the yard swing and enjoy those sunsets that God gave us.  |
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CLICK HERE for some photos of sunsets we've taken here and during our travels.
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