Yesterday's Blooms (Actually Last Summer)

Jackson and Perkins Catalog

The Jackson and Perkins catalog arrived yesterday, as I mentioned in an earlier post I do not have many hybrid tea roses. But my husband was nice enough to build me a raised rose bed last summer after we visited Reiman Gardens and seeing the roses there made us both miss the teas. It was late June before the bed was done so only two bushes were planted last summer. Both bushes did well, the red one is Okalahoma, the pink one is Truely Yours. I have my fingers crossed that they make it through the winter.

Double Delight was always my favorite, I see it is still available from Jackson & Perkins so I will order that one for sure plus a few of the fragrant ones. Plus one floribunda caught my eye, Heaven on Earth, it has large peony shaped flowers and is fragrant.

Carolina Wren Revisited

The Carolina Wren is still at our feeder, I was happy to see it is making it through the cold temps we are having right now. Yesterday I saw a Morning Dove at our feeders, I know some folks in Iowa have them at their feeders all winter long, I think ours take a short vacation south because the leave in the late fall and show up back here late winter.

Walking the Dogs

We went out just as it was getting light this AM to walk the dogs, we are lucky as we have a nice small lake close to our house that has a blacktop path around it that the city keeps cleaned off. A good time was had by all.

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.

Signs of Summer

While looking for pictures to include in my blog I can accross this one, is this a sign of a Iowa Summer or what???????????

Callie Cat

While reading my posts I noticed I have a picture of 3 of my critters but not the 4th so this is Callie Cat, she is a very small calico kitty cat, and very photogenic also. She rode to work under a pick-up truck one day about a year and a half ago, so guess who took her home? She was a very small and scared kitty.