A Midsummer Reverie

It's June 22nd and no droughts yet. The days are quiet with social distancing and less traffic. It's been a wonderful time to linger in the garden. These are a few select photos from June 5th through the 21st.

Let us start with the two entwined frogs floating together between the water lilies.

The exotic passion vine is waiting to host Variegated and Gulf Fritillary caterpillars.

A gentle rabbit nibbling white clover on summer solstice before twilight. We make a point to keep some unmown patches in the lawn for the rabbits and bees.

A bevy of June Daylilies

One of my favorites, Fairytale Pink with a newcomer to this garden bed, Coreopsis, "Big Bang Star Cluster". It starts the season as a creamy yellow and will turn to white with a maroon center as the weather cools.

A summer revelation. My mother hybridized this plant years ago. It's Fairytale Pink and a daylily from Dr. Bob Elliot. I was showing this to her and she reminded me that she had rubbed pollen onto the stamens. It seems so obvious when you compare the plants.

Dr. Elliot's daylily

Fairytale Pink

Sunlight with wings, the American Goldfinch

This male green throated frog is as bright as the goldfinch.

Speaking of birds.... This is the invasive ligustrum tree that feeds the Cedar Waxwings each year with its berries. It can be mesmerizing when the blossoms sway in the breeze on a summer evening.

Lots of summer blossoms with Bright Eyes phlox in the foreground. There's that clashy red bee balm too. It gets to stay because the hummingbirds love it. That's a pink hydrangea by Pan. It seems strange to see the arbor without the rose. The rains must have been too much for it. It gave a swan song performance this year.

The rose in May 2020.

Glowing in the shadows, a late blooming Domino Epimedium on June 12th. I had to take a photo because who would believe a blossom would be here in June? They are finished in April here.

Perhaps a magical creature will alight on the stump in the shade bed to admire the last epimedium blossom of 2020. The lightning bugs are certainly here.

Painted Lady feeding on the white butterfly bush that has been here for decades.

I can't help myself. Just one more daylily photo.

Have a magical summer!