Well, I didn’t quite get all of my summer reviews in before our new addition of Josephine Grace (still working on the nick name), but there is some good material and photos in the series so I’m going to keep them coming.

After enjoying our time with Dr. Welch, enjoying the chicken, and enjoying the blackberry lilies, we finally made it home. Little did we know, back home a dove had been building a nest in our geranium container right by the front door! Day in and day out, we walked right by her. She eventually hatched two little ones that successfully flew the coop.

At the farm, still in late June, our Lord Baltimore hibiscus began its bloom, along with our rows of Crinum ‘Ellen Bosanquet.’ If you have enough crinums, you can actually begin to mark which summer month you are in by their blooms! ‘Ellen Bosanquet’ bloom in June to early July.

I was able to bulb hunt and explore more land around the Tyler area, but nothing in the way of bulbs, just deer and pretty pastures.

The rest of this blog could be termed “The Bog Blog.”  Our boggy plants really shined this late summer.  Some of our white rain lilies (Zephyranthes candida—for sale here) decided to bloom early, and they looked nice contrasted by the deep reds of the Lord Baltimore hibiscus. Both are great for very swampy areas, and can survive standing water or areas that fluctuate from standing water to no water, like the edges of ponds.

In fact, those are the same conditions that our native Hymenocallis liriosme (white spider lily) enjoy.  These are the ones that bloom in the swampy areas in the spring across the south—they were not in bloom at the same time as the white rain lilies (just want to be clear). However, these are now planted all the way around our pond, thanks to our friends (thank you Jennifer!) at Shangri La Botanical Gardens in Orange, TX on the coast.

White spider lilies in bloom
White spider lilies in bloom

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