More than just Cross Stitchin': Daylilies (and some other favourites thrown in)

Friday, July 29, 2011

Daylilies (and some other favourites thrown in)

Gotta love daylilies... no matter what kind of weather- cool, rainy, dry hot, humid, sunny- they keep going strong and always "put on a show". That's why they are one of my all time favourite perennials.

I have to admit though- now that I have so many different types, I am finding it hard to keep track of all of their names. A few years back, I know I made a list and put it somewhere...

Here are some pictures I took about a week ago while I was out enjoying my gardens when we had a break from that awful humidity.

I will try to add the names where possible. Any other daylily lovers out there, feel free to help me out if you see any that you recognize.

Christmas Carol (wish my camera would show the true red colour of this one!)

Hot Chocolate (one of my favourites!)

Pardon Me

Siloam Tee Tiny (I think)


???

Crimson Pirate (got this one when the Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out- LOVE Johnny Depp!)

Pony

An unknown purple variety that was a gift from Bonnie in 2010 (another favourite!)

Bama Music

Sammy Russell

???

I once read a tip that when your daylilies are done blooming and the leaves are starting to look ratty, just cut the leaves right back to the ground and you will get a nice, new fresh bunch of leaves come up (unfortunately no new flowers though).

Here are some other flowers I'm really liking right now...

What a pretty colour combo- the yellow rose in front of the purple clematis.

Smaller variety of pink hydrangea

I've never had much luck in the past with the tall varieties of delphinium even though I love them. Just bought this shorter type that gets only 2 feet tall. We'll see how I make out with it...

Guardian Blue

How are your gardens doing this year?

Tracey

3 comments:

Catherine said...: Beautiful flowers! Our gardens our extremely dry (although weed filled) due to the lack of rain.; July 29, 2011 at 10:26 PM
Bonnie said...: Gorgeous!! I like the Hot Chocolate, the Pink ???, the Pony, the unknown by Bonnie and the Bama Music the best. This has inspired me to include more day lilies for colour and mostly convenience. The delphinium is beautiful - although that is one I have never had luck with :-(

Nice job Tracey.; July 30, 2011 at 12:08 PM
Kerry said...: Nice gardens, I have a cousin in Quebec that raises day lilies and sells them. She has some beauties; August 2, 2011 at 10:30 PM

Charlie Brown

Growing up, I had a pet monkey named Charlie Brown. Actually, he belonged to my sister and he came to live with us in 1966. You were actually allowed to have monkeys as pets then and if you can beleive it, he was ordered from an ad in the back of a magazine. Charlie Brown was a squirrel monkey (just like the ones in the Telus commericials).

Everyone in school loved when it was my turn for 'show and tell'. You will see in some of the photos (if the slide show downloads for me...) that he used to wear diapers. Eventually, he learned how to take them off. We had a rope strung across the kitchen from end to the other. We kept a piece of papertowel on the floor at the end of one rope and that's where he did his business. His rope provided many hours of entertainment. At bedtime, if mom and dad were not home when it was bedtime, he would sit on his roap and cry out until they returned.

If I was crying, Dad would put him up to my face to lick away my tears. He would dangle from my hair and lick from one eye to the next. It alwyays made me stop crying. He would play outside and every once in awhile he would swing from tree to tree and end up down the street at the neighbours.

Often you would find the monkey lying in the cast iron pan on the stove. The pilot light from the gas stove provided him a warm and comfy spot. He would also sit on top of the lamp shade for warmth, and if you ever heard a 'pop' - you knew he peed on the lightbulb. It happens...

Charlie Brown used to sit on the wall phone.... until it rang. That was always funny. He brought many years of amusement to us all and I miss him and his antics.

Bonnie

Warm hearts ... and warm toes!

Well since we are talking winter, let's talk about warm hearts ... and warm toes.

A few years ago at Christmas we had a gift exchange. Ironically, both Anita and myself had the exact same idea for a present. We always open our gift bags at the same time, and it was really hard for me to keep a straight face when I saw that Anita had had the same gift idea as me and while she explained that she thought slippers would be a good idea, that way we could carry them in our bag with us at all times. Anita had knit slipppers for everyone and made a little draw-string pouch, with our names embroidered on it, to keep the socks in.

Then they all opened my gift bag and we burst out laughing. I knew how much everyone loved snowmen, so I had stitched faces on white slippers and added a carrot button for the nose. Well we weren't finished with the laughter because I thought we should get a picture with our slippers on. So then we were all sitting on the floor trying to get different positions in order to get everyone in the picture at the same time. We tried sitting up against the wall and taking the picture of our toes all pointing up to the ceiling and then I said, nooooo - that will show the snowman's face upside down. Someone said... (and I won't say who...) "Good point, let's think of something else. What if we lay on our back with our feet in the air - you know... like if our feet were ON the ceiling"

Well then the faces would still be upside down wouldn't they. Spontanious Laughter.

We had to think of something else. It was decided that we would just stand toe to toe in a huddle and we would take the picture from above in order to get everyone in the picture. Sounded like a good plan right?

Well... not if you have a protruding belly and/or big boobs. After the inital light-headedness subsided from sucking in our bellies, we had to deal with the shadow from the boobs.

So we stood in our huddle, adjusting, wiggling and laughing with our arms around each other while we tried not to tip over. It was about that moment when Anita's daughter walked in on us, which of course added to the laughter when we saw the look on her face.

Finally the photo was taken and our toes are doubly warm.

Bonnie

It all started with a tea towel...

Quite some time ago when I was perusing the Dollarama, I came across the cutest autumn tea towel with a teddy bear dressed up like a scarecrow. It immediately reminded me of Jody and I thought 'I'm going to get that for her', and then I thought... why not get one for everybody? And so I did and it was a hit.

From that point on, it's no surprise to any of us if there just happens to be an occasional 'mini gift' exchange on Cross Stitch night. Once when Jody hosted in February, she gave us all a tiny picture frame with a 1" x 1" opening. I had no idea what to do with mine, but Tracey knew immediately. Because it was Valentines day, Tracey stitched a heart.

Mine sat for a good number of months before I could figure out what I could stitch in such a tiny area and not copy Tracey's idea. And then one day it hit me; Jody loves snowmen. I would do a snowman in the frame that Jody gave me. But.... do they make snowman patterns for less than 1" x 1"? I couldn't be bothered looking, so I winged it. And voila! A happy smiley snowman face. I think it took longer to write this posting than it did to stitch that happy face.

We'll have to get a picture of Tracey's heart posted after her renovations are complete as I expect it's packed away for now.

p.s. I wasn't allowed to Blog today unless I cleaned my house. It's half cleaned; consider this half a blog.
Bonnie

Friday, July 29, 2011

Daylilies (and some other favourites thrown in)

3 comments:

Christmas 2016