Suprise Lily and Hydrangea Tree

The Surprise lilies are in full bloom, a beautiful sight and scent.

My hydrangea tree is almost fully open as well. This is the second year for the trees, I am happy to say they survived our Iowa winter very well, I was not certain they would. The trees were given to us, this spring we planted 2 new hydrangea bushes close to them, Endless Summer and Pinky Winky. We also dug and transplanted two other bushes that were in other areas of our yard, one is Limelight and the other I think is Annabelle but I am not sure on that one.

The heat and humidity are still in full here in Iowa, but then it is August. I have been digging and transplanting iris for the past two weekends, my grandsons are going to be here this weekend so not sure how much digging I will get done :). I ordered two new memory sticks for my computer, I am going to ask my oldest grandson if he wants to help Grandma install them in the puter, he is 8 and loves doing things like that. Who knows maybe they can help dig iris :).

Phlox

My Phlox are in an area of the yard that was difficult to water during the dry spell so they sure could look better than they do. We received over two inches of rain last night, so the total is over 5 inches since Monday evening. Things look much better. We even have the air turned off this evening, it is so nice to have fresh air in the house but thank heavens for the air when it is needed.

After the rain this is the time of year that the surprise lilies or naked ladies (Lycoris squamigera), should spring to life, but with that terrible cold spell we had in April after they were up out of the ground and frozen off. I wonder if they will bloom?

Surprise Lily, Resurrection Lily, Lycoris squamigera

This is one of my most treasured plants, I have about 30-40 of these, given to me by an old neighbor years ago. They are one of the first things to emerge and green up early in the spring then the leaves disappear, in mid august soon after a good rain, tall flower stalks appear. They are known as surprise lily, resurrection lily, magic lily and naked lady. My neighbor called them naked ladies. They are really Lycoris squamigera. They smell wonderful, anything that smells good is a fav of mine. I wonder if I used "naked lady" as a tag I would get some traffic to this blog????????????? I don't think I will try it :). I would like to move and divide some of the bulbs but do not really know the correct time of year to divide, I have read that they should be dug after their leaves die back and I have also read that they should be dug in the fall after blooming. So instead of taking a chance of losing them I just let them go.