Friday Flowers: Hydrangea

Life has been a bit crazy lately and Mom only realized this morning she hadn't preposted our Friday Flowers pictures. So, we apologize for our late start, but hope you enjoy today's entry.

Dog Dad bought home the Hydrangea a couple years ago after researching its care and needs. The color is beautiful and Mom was very surprised and pleased by his thoughtfulness.

What we can tell you is they attract lots of bees and human attention. Everyone seems to notice them and comment on them when they see them. Nothing like a pretty flower to distract them from what should be the main attraction, us.

Friday Flowers: Lillies

Mom has been trying to capture the last of the lilies. She is hoping to come back to these visits when the winter snows cover the land and enjoy the view.

Like the Hosta, the Day Lilies are fun to play around as long as you don’t break one. You can jump them, you can hide under them, and yes, you can flush bunnies out of them.

You just never know what excitement awaits you under the Lily flowers in Mom's garden. Even a picture with an Oriental Lily can score you some cookies.

Friday Flowers: Echinacea

Mom found these purple bee attracters at a garden club sale and fell in love with them. So did the bees and are constantly dive bombing us. While the Mom loves these purple perennials we insisted she warn you they spread like weeds. At first, she dealt with this by spreading them out over the yard. Then she gave some away. Now she has to pull some out. They are beautiful, but they don't know when to stop growing.

Friday Flowers: Oriental Lilies

Mom is so pleased to see these blooming this year. The last few years they've been under nasty attack by beatles. She doesn't know if it was a change in the weather of just a beatle cycle, but for the first time in ages, the Oriental Lilies seem to be doing well.

I am not sure why Mom gets so excited when she sees one in bloom. Hoewver, if she wants to give me treats for posing by one, who am I to complain?

Friday Flowers: Mystery Yellow Flower

Mom has a tendency to pick flowers up at the local garden club sales. She knows she got these there, but doesn't know what they are called.

She loves the bright cheerful colors, but these flowers grow like weeds. We had to go out and help Dog Dad trim them back a little while ago. They can take the whole garden if you aren't careful.

Friday Flowers

Mom believes these are Dahlias. She has planted a hodgepodge of perennials in her jungle garden. However, she does remember buying pink Dahlias and planting them. She can't figure out what else she would have bought that these might have grown from over the last many years.

These bloomed in June, which surprised Mom because they are usually blooming in late July or August. The weather seems to have some of our flowers off cycle. She's not complaining too much because she was getting fresh Asparagus from the garden in late June when it usually is gone at the beginning of the month.

Happy Independence Day

Mom is preposting this for us since the holiday is always a busy one. We hope all of you have a fun, safe, and happy day.

As we were writing this, the weather is not looking good for July 4th. Mom is still holding out hope because she loves her day at the parade, but Dog Dad is already making other plans. If the weather cooperates than Mom, Dog Dad, and one of our favorite relatives will be sitting not too far from this historical house in the shade to watch the parade. While we will miss them, we are not doing any rain dances as that will ruin the rest of the day for us, too.

In honor of Friday Flowers, Mom decided to share pictures of what her Mom always called 4th of July lilies, which are actually Day Lilies. The bright orange lilies appear all over the place right around the 4th here. Many people line their property with them and because they spread, it makes a beautiful edge for a few weeks.

Friday Flowers: Lilies

Mom loves Lilies, both the Day and the Oriental. The Oriental Lilies are slowly coming into bloom. The Day Lilies are a bit slow this year. Mom is hoping the ones that were called 4th of July Lilies around here make it for the holiday.

At one point Mom in planning her perennial jungle garden Mom kept picking up just about every color of Lily she came across. She loves the way the bright cheerful colors decorate her garden during the summer.

Mom is rather surprised and excited to find the Lilies doing so well without assistance. It must be the weather because the last few years the Lilies have been under attack by bug critters and if she doesn't treat them in time, they don't even get to the blooms. This year she found them blooming before she even expected them to be ready to bloom. The bug critters must not enjoy the weather we've had this season.

Friday Flowers: Iris

Welcome back to Friday Flowers. If you have been a regular visitor, you may know about Mom's Iris obsession interest. She was very excited she had a chance to capture the darker yellow Iris before the rains came. Surprisingly they seem to have thrived after the storm, but previous waits have taught her to take the shot or wait another year.

One of the things Mom has really liked about writing the Friday Flowers spot each week is that it has inspired her to go out and capture pictures of her garden flowers. In the past flowers would come and go and Mom would never think to capture an image. Now each week she has a reminder to go find some pictures. Come winter when it’s cold and dark she'll have all her Friday Flowers images to revisit.

As you can see, we are always out supervising the shots. You never know when Mom or Dog Dad can get into trouble. These humans can create all kinds of challenges for themselves. They need us to watch out for them.

Recently Mom saw some peach and pale lavender colors. I can see that mind trying to figure out where to squeeze in more. I think she has to rehome some before she can get new ones.

While she loves the big majestic Iris blooms, Mama has a special place in her heart for these little ones. They were a gift from the garden of someone no longer alive. It is like having a part of them still with us.

Friday Flowers: The Many Shades of Hosta

Last week we told you why we love Hosta. In fact, most of the pictures were of our favorite Hostas the big green monsters that provide us with so much cover. However, Mom likes variety and color. So, of course she didn't stop with our favorites. She continues to acquire a variety of colors of Hosta to add to the garden even though we'd be happy with the big green leafy stuff. Some of this stuff doesn't even provide much in the way of shade. Just say'n.

Bringing us back to our favorite Hosta:

Mama keeps finding more colors and patterns she likes. However, Dog Dad has reminded her there is limited space and she has not picked up any new Hostas recently. So which ones do you like?

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Friday Flowers: Hosta

Of all Mom's flowers the Hostas are our favorites. They provide much needed shade in the heat of a summer day.

They provide us with places to stealthy stalk observe as we conduct our daily property survelience.

Can you see where Katy has tucked herself in waiting for those pesky predators to strike our veggie gardens? The Hostas provide us with many advantages.

Friday Flowers: Iris

One of Mom's favorite spring flowers is the Iris. She loves the purple ones the best. They've taken a beating lately with the rain and she wasn't sure she'd even get a shot of a yellow Iris before they were completely gone. She thought she had one ready to take last week, the rain hit and it was gone before she even had a chance to capture a picture of it.

Mom is hoping to get a weekend soon with good weeding weather that she and Dog Dad can get out and attack the weeds. When the weather has been good, they've had other commitments. When they've had the time, its been wet and rainy.

We like it when the parents come out to garden because we can usually distract them with a ball. Then we cool off under the Hostas while we supervise them working.

Friday Flowers

I know you all thought you were going to get the Lilac bush tree this week. Well, Mama got distracted by other flowers that were blooming. She was actually disappointed that the first yellow Iris was destroyed by rain before she could get a picture. However, she still got some other shots for you this week.

First up are the Bleeding Hearts. These were Mom's Dad's favorites. She had looked for a while to find them at the various Garden Club sales, but always managed to miss her chance. One year she arrived to find they had one sad nearly dead plant left. The stem was broken and they were only asking a dollar for the plant. Since it was a perennial and had a shot at coming back she decided to take a risk. This plant has rewarded her faith more times, than you can imagine.

The City pulled up the street at one point and ended up paving over part of Mom's front perennial garden without ever telling her they intended to do that even though it meets the legal setback for the street. She was sad because she had several flowers she had collected and lost because she didn't have time to transplant. The next summer the Bleeding Hearts emerged pushing along the edges of the tar and continued to spread and grow to the point Mom plans to share the wealth with some friends.

When she spotted yellow from the porch, Mom thought she had discovered the first yellow Iris of the year. Instead, it was a late Daffodil and it was a beauty. We haven't had one here in a few years. We thought it had been destroyed a few years ago when we had critters eat some of the bulbs we planted.

Friday Flowers

Mom has been a bit obsessed with capturing flowers lately. She sent Dog Dad out to get these shots before the cold and rain spoiled the flowers. Sure enough, they don't look like this right now.

This is one of our favorite bushes. Katy is small enough to squeeze under the bushes and go after the bunny that gets into the Veggie gardens that are hidden behind these bushes. The bunnies thought this was a safe highway to the grocery store veggie gardens, but Katie makes it just a bit more challenging when she blocks their access.

Our Lilac bush, which frankly looks more like a tree is in bloom now, too. This is one of Mom's favorites because the blooms smell so good. In the winter, she has Lilac candles. In the spring, she has the real deal to bring in the house. She will probably get some shots of that to post, too.

Friday Flowers: Rhododendrons

These bushes were here when Mom and Dad moved here, but they love the colors that come out each spring. They have some in the back and the front, but so far, the ones in the back are being shy so we had to go out front to get pictures for today.

We had to be careful getting these shots. The bees are crazy about these bushes. They buzzed us constantly while we were out observing them. Sometimes the birds hang out in the bushes, too. There was a mommy bird and babies in there earlier this spring.

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