We had a few very hazy, smokey days earlier this week, with more to come, we’re told – I’m NOT complaining about it! – my heart breaks seeing on TV images of wildfires blazing through northern Ontario, 700 – 1,000 kms from here, and people fleeing as their homes and livelihoods are destroyed. Not to mention the destruction of great swaths of Canada’s boreal forest. Winds pushed the smoke southeast and turned the sky an eerie orange-brown; a few of these photos were taken on Wednesday, the worst day here, and if I post a shot before and after editing you can see how it changed the light. This is a great big, very pink, annual poppy; on the left is before asking the computer to ‘fix’ it, and on the right is more like the actual colour:
Back to daylilies – the two red ones with yellow throats I hybridized myself by planting a yellow one next to a red one and harvesting seeds. Their flowers are very large and hot looking; the peachy one and the dark maroon are about half the size and more sophisticated looking, to my eye. I really like all daylilies!
I came across a pack of borage seeds when I was cleaning out one of my gardening drawers a few months ago. I didn’t really expect them to still be viable but I scattered them anyway and lo and behold I soon had a few dozen seedlings in a very small patch of garden. I thinned them out and one plant was very happy and is now huge…I’ve never collected borage seeds before – any tips?
My Annabelle Hydrangea is looking better than ever this year, likely thanks to our cool wet spring. I have another open garden next Saturday so will be watering it this week if it doesn’t rain – have to keep the leaves nice and perky, right?
A nice vignette has appeared out back. An aging arbour supports a deep violet Clematis ‘Etoile Violet’ that contrasts with orange Hemerocallis fulva. Behind it all towers the six to nine foot tall flower stalks of a compass plant – Silphium laciniatum.
Last Saturday I had a photo of a single drumstick allium – Allium sphaerocephalon – that was just starting to open. Here’s the whole clump in all its glory. Bees and many other flying pollinators love this one.
That’s it for me today. If you’d like to see more Sixes from all over the place head on over to Jim’s site. Have a great weekend everyone!
Lovely six, Chris. My favs are the clematis and allium, such a deep intense colour. Those wildfires are pretty scary and very difficult to control in that wilderness and from what I read, not likely to burn out until October, yikes! We had that eerie light, too. The jet stream is bringing the smoke right over us. Guess we must grin and bear it. 😁 Good luck with the opening!
Thanks Eliza – I love the intense purple/blue as well. The smoke coverage has been so variable this week, depending on the wind direction…orange haze in the morning, blue skies in the late afternoon…
Same here, I’m happy for any break we get!
I wasn’t aware of the fires in Canada until they mentioned them as the reason why tomorrow’s FIFA final might be postponed…
It is so sad and unfortunate to see those vast areas burned… Getting back to your “Six”—you have a beautiful collection of daylilies, and I think that grouping of drumstick alliums is a real success!
Thanks Fred. The fires, although mainly started by lightening strikes, are the totally predictable result of the continued use of fossil fuels by humans.
I’m in awe of your hybridization process! I always think of that as something that either happens in a lab or naturally, behind our backs while the plants do their own thing. The result surely is pretty. I love the orange and purple combinations, too. That Silphium species is native here, and the hydrangea reminds me of my childhood home, which had large white hydrangeas around the front of the house.
Oh — and that poppy. I’ve noticed how, in woods, the trees and such sometimes can turn the light greenish. It’s amazing to see orange light doing the same sort of thing with your poppy.
It was so strange to see photos from Wednesday morning – all with the orange hue….
So, with compass plant native…do you see them popping up above the grasses as you drive about? (That’s my stereotypical image of Texas…kilometre after kilometre of fields with the occasion herd of grazing cows munching around the occasional oil derrick)
The compass plants do often stand tall in fields, or especially along roadsides.
The combination of cattle and oil derricks rarely is seen. When a new well is being drilled, it’s usually in an area that wouldn’t make good pasture for cattle, or barriers to them are installed. Once the well is drilled, the derrick is removed and things called
pumpjacks are installed to bring the oil to the surface. Cattle and pumpjacks often share the same territory; the pumpjacks may be fenced or placed in gravel plots to discourage the cattle coming close, but I’ve seen cows using pumpjacks for shade in hot weather!
Interesting – thanks!
Nice pictures despite the fire related challenges. It is a sign of just how big those fires are with the amount of smoke we had last week, hundreds of miles away, so I can only imagine just how thick the smoke has to be at its origin, I love the purples and oranges – nice combo!
It’s horrible that humans have to flee fires, but I think of all the animals who get confused & can’t out-run or out-crawl or out-fly. What devastation. I have Allium envy! What fun that the Borage seeded & grew so well. Do you use that in the kitchen…I need to look up. Your Lilies are so pretty…who knows what else you’ll hybridize!
I feel a tad guilty about not using borage other than a pretty flower…keep reading use it for this or use it for that… Yes..the animals in wildflower zones…
The wildfires are heartbreaking. I went for a walk in a stately home and grounds at the edge of London and as I was there a fire broke out. Very scary, but thankfully they managed to contain it in the end.
I have not had much success sowing Borage this year. Most of my plants have not survived, though there are two or three remaining. Hopefully I can also collect some seeds and try again.
Was that the wheat field fire on Thursday? Very scary! We have fires in fields here also..a farmer told me the hot engines of farm machinery can spark a fire when the hay/corn/wheat is very dry. Rural fire departments are on their toes! I’m pleasantly surprised that the borage sprouts, grows and flowers so quickly!
No, it was a fire in one of the meadows at a stately home called Forty Hall. Likely because someone flicked a cigarette into the grass or something similar.
I love the purple and orange planting combos. My brother and his family live near Toronto. The scale and frequency of the wild fires is scary.
Yes – and both scale and frequency are so new to Ontario, it seems to me. The totally predictable result of decades burning fossil fuels around the world…
It is hard to imagine wildfires there. It seems like the worst of them should be here in the West. Your daylilies are rad.
I don’t disagree. With both.
I love your day lilies! Those colours look so good with the purple alliums as well as the clematis too. Silphiums are relatively new to me and I have two different ones. But yours is yet another sort I don’t know and one I will look out for. They do so well in dry ground. Hope your skies clear soon, but more than that I do hope they get rain there and they die down quickly.
Thanks Cathy! I have another Silphium – the cup plant – it’s not a fan of super dry conditions but gets almost as tall. Have you seen those? Which do you have?
Gosh, the wildfire smoke really did change the color for you. I feel sad about the people directly affected by the fires, too, and the burning forests. I hope the rain will help, but I don’t see much more in the extended forecast. Your Daylilies and Poppies are beautiful!
I do love daylilies! There are thunderstorms going through here today, bringing much needed rain, but also lightening of course. Lightening strikes are the source of may wild fires here and around the world, so…