Surprise Lilies for Starr Lillie

This is the sight all over east Tennessee right now.
One time I used one of my photographs of these lilies for my niece Starr Lillie,
without thinking about her middle name.

Now I think of her everytime I see them bloom.
Today is her daddy's birthday, but this post goes to Starr.

For those of you that don't understand why the name, I will explain.
In the spring the greenery shoots up with the daffodils, even appears to be a daffodil, but it never blooms. The greenery fades, along with the daffodils. Then late July or early August upshoots the flower stem, with buds aplenty.

Hope everybody is doing well, and has a blessed day.

The gift that keeps on giving

For a person that loves flowers (as I do) the best gift they can receive is flowers that are planted and continue to return every year.

The flower above was given to me by Mrs Harris. She was in her eighties when she gave it to me and she only lived one more year. This is non-hardy surprise lily. It is planted in a pot and I put it in the attic over the winter, with no water. In early spring bring it back outside and start watering it. The greenery never showed this year so when it bloomed I was really surprised. Thought I had killed both pots Mrs Harris gave me. Her daughter lives next door and I am sure I could have gotten a new start, but would have hated to have to tell Gwen I had killed it.

This is absolutely the most gorgeous gladiolus bloom I have ever seen. I am fortunate to have 6 or 7 of these this year due to a very good blogging buddy, Mildred. Last year we exchanged a couple of gifts and this is one of the ones Mildred sent to me. I have glads in my yard, but the ones I already had are not this pretty.

I love remembering my friends when I walk through my flower gardens and see blooms that remind me of them. Definitely the gifts that keep giving.

I went to Asheville today to the Gallery of the Mountains located inside the Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina. I am so very excited that they are now carrying my greeting cards. If you are ever there please ask to see my cards (anything helps--HA!) If you have never been there, it is a real treat just to visit this historical inn.

Pink Oriental Lilies

These oriental lily photos are obviously from earlier in the year. I do still have some daylilies blooming (very few) but no oriental lilies left. This first one is called Oriental X-otica, you can see the coloring of my daylilies in the background. The X-otica is planted in the edge of my largest daylily flowerbed.

You know me, I have to get closer and closer.

Although they all look like the same lily to me, the last one is Pink Pearl, the oriental I posted early July, here. The Pink Pearls are planted up close to the house, you can see the brick in the background.

Just taking a little time to blog. I am going to try to visit some too.

Conca d' Or hybrid lily

The label said OT Hybrid Lily Conca D' Or

I say "HUGE!!!"

I just liked the way the blooms looked laying on my diningroom table.

Back on July 1st, I posted several photographs of my daylily flowerbeds, here. In that post I mentioned a tall lily that I would post later, when it bloomed. This is it. These photos are a little overdue, since the lily has already finished blooming.

To get around my daylilies I had to cut the new shoots on the edges, they were not as tall, and I kept stepping on them. That is where I got the blooms laying on the table. I put them in water and gave them to a friend. She enjoyed them for close to a week. This is one of the sweetest smelling flowers in my yard.

Old Fashioned Surprise Lilies

Old Fashioned Surprise Lilies look like large leaf daffodils in early spring, but then they don't bloom. The greenery dies down and you kind of forget about them.

Then late summer they just shoot up these stems with such pretty blooms. No greenery at all. It is easy to forget about them, so if you are lucky enough to get any of these be sure and plant them in a flowerbed, or you might mow down the stem when it starts out of the ground.
They are just a little early this year. August is when I remember them blooming before.

I haven't been home much at all this past week. I did spend the night here on Thursday after getting off work at midnight. But then I was up early Friday to go keep Noah.

Then I went onto Rockwood from there (didn't have to work Friday evening),
to spend the night in Rockwood.

When Jimmy and pulled in the driveway today it seemed like
the surprise lilies were in every flowerbed.

This last one is the fullest, because it has been in the same place longer. These lilies don't like to be moved around much, and usually don't bloom the first year even though they do send up the greenery that year. Notice the 3 stems on this last one. The spotted leaves you see are Calla Lilies in the background. (Just in case there are inquiring minds.)

I got mine from John and Lindsey's first yard. I did share them at that time and have several friends that also get to enjoy these each year.

Asiatic Lilies from spring 2009

Just some Asiatic Lily photos from earlier this spring.

These are Lollipop Asiatic Lilies. These have multipled so much that I have lots of these. They are at the edge of my largest daylily flowerbed and they bloom totally out about the time the daylilies are setting their buds real good. So the color is so welcome at that time.
The bottom one is Agrippa Asiatic Lily,
and it starts blooming a few days after the Lollipops begin.

Lilies in my yard

Several years ago a friend and I went together and bought lilies from Breck's and we split the cost. The Pink Pearl Oriental Lily is one of the lilies BJ and I bought together. We bought Asiatic and Oriental lilies. Over the years I have learned the orientals bloom later than the asiatic lilies.

My orientals are beginning to bloom, you know me, I have to get up close.

Isn't it beautiful and amazing when you look closer?

My Calla Lilies bloomed a month or so ago. Now they have started their rebloom. Sometimes flowers do funny things on the rebloom. This Calla Lily decided to split. I gave some of these to Teresa last year, and her rebloom is doing the same thing.

Been busy, and not been blogging. Can't promise to blog more, but as time permits I will. Have a photography assignment job tomorrow morning, before going to my 'real' job. I have also been taking some knitting classes. I have knitted for over 40 years, but I am trying to branch out some with my knitting.

Crinum Lilies at Lake Seminole Park

These Crinum Lilies were at Lake Seminole Park in October 2008.

Darla had posted some the day before I photographed these, hope I got the name right. I had never seen any with color before these. White ones are all around the resorts at St Pete Beach, but these really caught my eye.

Waterlilies - different colors

Some of the variations of waterlilies we found when we visited

Perry's Water Gardens July 4, 2008.

I just loved the purple one, we had seen so many of the pinks and whites by the time we got to these were ready for a change. They had very few purple waterlilies.

We should be in Limon, Costa Rica today,

hopefully visiting the tropical jungle.

Pink Waterlilies - different types

Variations of pink waterliles we saw at Perry's Water Gardens

when we were there July 4th, 2008.

We should be in Cartagena, Columbia today.

Eleven years ago today I married my best friend, Jimmy.