Summer Lilies

Another lily tour of my garden, this year with a better camera. All of these lily bulbs were purchased from The Lily Garden, a lily bulb grower and breeder I can whole-heartedly recommend.

First in bloom is "Sorbet", showing the effects of the heat and dryness on the older flower in the background. In the fall, I mean to divide some of my bulbs and move one of these to a cooler, shadier location, so they don't get sun-sizzled so quickly.

"White Lace" is already in a cooler spot, but had two petals stuck together. I unstuck them before taking the photo, but they didn't have time to spread out to their normal form.

I am still learning how to use the close-up mode on the Fuji camera, and didn't get quite what I wanted with "Viva".

"Viva" is often described as a red lily, but to my eye it is a very deep orange. Either way, hummingbirds will come to it. This curly, Turks-cap shape is one of my favorite in lilies.

"Tiger Babies" is a great lily. It is one of the few scented lilies I can stand to bring in the house. (Some of the scented lilies are so strong, I would rather leave them outside and enjoy the scent diluted by the breeze off the lake.)

Some of the really cheap Asiatic lilies double themselves every year, and will crowd themselves out if they aren't divided. Tiger Babies doubles more slowly, and mine do need dividing, but they don't divide so fast that they stop blooming.

Every year I see hummingbirds coming to my Tiger Babies. They don't seem to care that the lilies are not red, any more than they care if I offer the clear syrup in the feeder instead of the colored syrup.

This is one of the cute things "Tiger Babies" will do: stick its tongue out the day before it blooms, like a kitten tongue. If I want a nice fresh one to bring in the house, I look for the very tip of stigma just showing at the end of the bud.

Tomorrow promises to be hot, and with luck I'll get a knitting post up again while I stay indoors in the cool house.