Given the choice I will always turn down the stage and hide on the sidelines, but not everyone thinks that way, and where I naturally hate speaking in front of people, they do not. It amazes me to see this and to see people on stage, out front, capturing people’s attention and engaging an audience with ease and doing things like creating YouTube channels and traveling all over the world exploring places and talking to people. I met two of these people a few weeks ago, Summer Rayne who you’ll meet and Sander behind the camera, and they put together a video which I think is pretty cool. I’m sharing it here in spite of the fact I really prefer to feature plants instead of myself but I guess it’s one of those moments when I have to pull up the pants and be a big boy. Not bad for someone who not so long ago thought having a hand as part of a picture on this blog was too revealing… now there’s a whole ‘me’ on this blog, talking as well, complete with ratty t-shirt, who-knows-what hair and an old man scowl but whatever… I’ve already overthought this too much. >here’s a link<
So there you go. I hope you enjoyed the video as much as I did, they did an amazing job directing and keeping me on track, and Summer Rayne’s interest and enthusiasm really keeps the video fun. Biscuit helps as well, he’s got quite the stage presence and I hope he remembers us when Hollywood comes calling. In all I’m surprised at how well it turned out, the garden looks much better and more interesting than I see it on the daily, and at one point I turned to my daughter (we had a viewing party) and told her I wished I could visit that place. It was magical. Surprise and magic, that’s my attempt to turn things back around to plants, because late August is the start of Surprise aka magic lilies season…. also known as hurricane lilies or naked ladies but perhaps those are two things we shall not bring in to today’s post.
Pink magic lilies (Lycoris squamigera) are probably the most common magic lily to show up in the north. They seem to do best when abandoned and neglected so here they are amongst the trash and stored debris of the compost pile.
Things can get a little tedious mid August, as the heat and rain/not-rain drag on, but magic lilies can break that up nicely. Out of nowhere stalks shoot up and burst into bloom all in a matter of days, and it really can be a surprise to see them out and blooming… unless they’re not. The not-part is where the disclaimer comes in. These plants can be jerks. They can sulk, fade away, take a year off, they’re not like Biscuit, all excited and anxious to please, they’re more like cats and don’t really care about what you want. Sun? Not that sun, I want shade until it’s too much shade. Feed me but not that food, but I know I’m hungry… Here are more flowers than you can imagine, no wait… I’m not feeling it this year…
Lycoris sanguinea, the orange surprise lily is apparently feeling it this year. It’s in a terrible spot but I don’t dare move it since there may be another four year gap in blooms as it works through whatever insult it feels.
The magic lilies don’t last all that long, but there are (hopefully) a few more later varieties yet to bloom. If you can drag yourself out through the humidity and bugs at least they give something new and exciting to see each morning before the heat drives you back inside. Magic lilies aren’t really true lilies, but there is a true lily I’d like to add in here as another reason to brave the outdoors. The Formosan lily (Lilium formosanum) blooms now as well, and this flower is Biscuit-approved. Not for eating of course since I think they might be toxic, but for something cool to admire in mid August this lily is… dare I say, easy? There is a dwarf form, but the ones growing here are the tall form and usually manage five feet but this year with all the rain seven plus feet is not unheard of. Fragrant, perfectly formed, like a giant easter lily (which some people don’t like, so if that’s the case skip this one) the Formosan lily can grow to blooming size in its first year from seed. I of course could never care for a plant that well, but even here they’re in flower the second year and they do seed around the garden if their seed can ripen before the first real freeze.
Pure white, fragrant flowers is what Lilium formosanum offers. Just watch out for those disgusting red lily beetles since they’re about the only thing which can bring this giant down.
I think you’ve heard enough from me today so I’ll just add one more thing. A trumpet flower, but not a lily, Brugmansia suaveolens is hitting its summer stride. This angel trumpet is a tropical shrub so I have my favorite local nursery to thank for a decent-sized plant, but I hope to overwinter it and have an even better show next year. They’re another easy to grow thing but just ask for endless water and fertilizer in order to look happy, and usually I slack in this regard but since I paid for this plant I’m really making an effort. It’s possible someone has already given me a cutting for a pink version, and perhaps I can round up a white and yellow cutting before next year and perhaps this means I’m obsessing about angel trumpets again but who’s really keeping track. It’s basically a zucchini, if you can grow that you can grow these, just without the fear of missing a harvest and ending up with a caveman club in your veggie bed. I guess I should mention that although I’m replacing zucchini plants with brugmansia in the potager, don’t nibble it during the garden tour since it’s quite poisonous.
Brugmansia suaveolens with canna ‘Bengal Tiger’ planted too closely. As long as it feels like the tropics here we might as well enjoy the look as well, and the fragrance too since the brugmansia is very fragrant once night falls.
So that’s a somewhat rushed summary of the garden. There’s more going on here and I’d like to go on about it but I’ll guess that this rambling on and a pretty long video are plenty so perhaps next post. Obviously that could be a while, this appears to be the ‘keep up with nothing’ summer and not the ‘finally post regularly, visit all my blogging friends, keep the weeds back, finish the projects’ summer which I always imagine but it’s still pretty good, even with someone needing senior pictures this afternoon rather than help with her scooter and I don’t know how that came around so fast either.
Hope you enjoy the video and the upcoming week.
sorta like suburbia 
Where’s the video?
Hmmmm. I had the video inserted and it shows for me, but who knows! I added a link which hopefully works.
very, very nice tour of the garden, glad to finally see it, quite impressive. Of course, I hope there’s a reprise for snowdrop season too.
Glad you enjoyed it, you’re always welcome here and maybe someday I’ll make it down your way. I don’t know if my snowdrop plantings could handle a wide angle showing, they are so sparse they would disappear!
What a great video tour! Your garden is absolutely beautiful. I agree, Summer is a fantastic host/interviewer. Being on camera is horrifying to me, I think you did a wonderful job. And Biscuit is a natural 🙂
Thanks Tracy, it really is cool to see the garden through someone else’s eyes and Biscuit really enjoyed the day! He loves being the center of attention and really hams it up!
LOVED the video garden tour, so great to see you in your native habitat. 😉 They did a nice job on the vlog– ah, the young, they are so adept at these things! Biscuit is a cutie, and looks like a good garden buddy. Your garden is clearly an oasis in a desert, I had no idea you were so surrounded by un-civilization, ha. You hide it well. 😉 Seriously, your efforts are a boon to local pollinators. Keep up the good work! 👏🏼
Yes! A little bit of an island here as far as plants and flowers but I’m trying. Lately I’ve been enjoying my favorite late summer activity, spraying mugwort. Over the years I’ve gotten decent control on my side of the berm, but on the other side it just spreads and spreads. It’s absolutely the worst invasive right now, but there’s also so much bush honeysuckle and bittersweet it’s pretty overwhelming. I do what I can. It’s a disturbed landscape so hopefully other things start to fill the space and can be somewhat competitive and make it a better place.
I guess it goes without saying that there is no way I could have done something remotely close to this on my own!
Lovely to actually meet you and your garden after all these years. I really enjoyed the tour and seeing bits I recognised all joined up. Your garden is fabulous and jam-packed with interesting plants. Gardens here are beginning to look rather tired after an unsually hot summer but yours is still vibrant and full of colour. I love the Lycoris and I’m definitely going to try Lilium formosanum from seed. Thanks very much, it was great. Biscuit is adorable.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and nice to say that about the garden even if it was mostly daylilies! I am running out of space though, and your latest garden adventures are inspiring me to just go ahead and keep planting and I’m quite happy about that.
Hopefully the heat breaks sooner rather than later for you. It did turn hot and dry here as well since the filming, but from the right angle I can pretend it still looks ok. I still can’t wish for autumn though.
I’m glad you’re happy with it. It seemed like every plant was at its absolute peak and someone had been weeding, so a perfect time to have someone film it. Interesting how the water lily did better after construction dirt wound up in your little pond. Also nice to have something to remember the daylily farm by.
The rain earlier in the year really helped make things look a little better, but as far as weeding goes, thank goodness I mulched last fall because I really didn’t have much time to get ready. I was gone for much of the week beforehand, but did have an afternoon to mow and trim and clean up before they came. Originally they had hoped to stop in the end of this week but with this dry spell I’m glad they saw the weedy yet green version rather than the brown and dry edition.
I’m nervous to touch the waterlilies even though they’re overcrowded and there’s barely a foot of water in there but it might be time to finally dredge it all out…
So pleased to meet you at last and see the Daylily Farm in all its glory! Seriously, your garden is amazing, you must spend all your spare hours nurturing it and it certainly is worth it. Thanks for the tour, I really enjoyed it.
Haha, I think it’s funny how us and others have “known” each other for years yet barely have an idea how each other looks! I really was a little nervous about exposing so much, but then these kids do it all the time so how bad could it be? -and it hasn’t been too bad. I was glad to be able to do it and thanks for the compliments. They mean a bunch from someone with an equal obsession!
I am completely blown away by your garden Frank! It was so nice to ‘meet’ you and have a real tour. So many amazing plants, and I love every single one. Beautiful day lilies, and that Clematis is one I had on a short list for my new pergola, so seeing it in all its glory on your archway has tipped the scale. 😃 Your garden all looks so lush and green too. Our summer has been very dry in comparison. You really should have open days for visitors. If only I lived nearer!……. Thanks for sharing the video!
I just said the same to Pauline how it’s funny having friends for years who really have only a vague idea how you look. At least you have a photo posted! I’ve been trying to hide behind a pseudonym all these years 🙂
Open days just aren’t much of a thing here, at least in this area. We’re lucky to get an annual garden tour so I really look forward to that! Actually a friend mentioned opening the garden for their club’s tour in a year and a half and I have to sell the idea to my wife. I get exited over the garden but she not nearly as much and the idea of dozens of strangers wandering through is not her idea of fun!
I hope you get your rain, it’s been dry here ever since the video was filmed and we’re somewhere between wilted plants but not quite to a completely dead lawn so I still consider us lucky!
Rain due tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Thanks for sharing the video. Your garden is wonderful! Surprise Lilies of all kinds are beautiful–in the garden and as cut flowers. Great post!
Thanks Beth! I never thought to try any of the surprise lilies in a vase, so I need to cut a stalk or two. The peppermint lilies should be open in a day or two so that would be a good one. It’s one of the few that have done well enough to clump up!
I think it was during my studying about flowers when I found your blogs – and has been reading it since. I always imagined you to be just a bit older when I was reading, and would imagine your voice over the blogs. It’s soo nice to hear and see the real you and your garden! I’ve always imagined how your garden would feel if I ever toured it in person. But there you go! I now have a video where I can watch your beautiful garden. Over the years as you praised your Snowdrops, I fell in love with them as well, and I wait for the winter to see the beautiful flowers.
Thank you so much for the video and your posts over the years! I wait for every single one. 🥰
Thank you so much Asif, it’s been almost a week since I first read your comment and I hope my delay in responding didn’t make you think I was ignoring it. I never get as much done as I’d like to when I sit down at the computer and am so easily distracted! I appreciated it though. Often I’m not sure who even reads the blog and it’s so nice to hear that it’s appreciated by someone other than myself. I wish I could be more consistent in posting since I like when it’s a better record of the year but lately my doomscrolling has been worse than ever so I have to snap out of that! Thanks again though. We have a cooler day here today and I’ve been starting to think about snowdrops as well, colchicums first though! All the best!