Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’
The garden required heavy watering this week as temperatures settled above 90F until today when cloud cover (but not rain) brought some relief. Our 21 year old upstairs air conditioner chose this time to fail so the heat was experienced here full on. Having grown up without AC this brought back memories of hot humid nights, but no doubt this severity of heat then would have only been in August, not this early in (not even quite) summer.
The iris beds are overgrown and overrun with a pesky aster. The last 3 mornings I have chased away a rabbit in that area that is evading my new fence by entering under the gate, which has been hard to secure completely. Weeding is getting ahead of me but all in all the garden is hanging in there.
Crinum × powellii (Crinum lily)
Crinum × powellii (Crinum lily)
Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower)
Buddleja davidii ‘Adokeep’ (Adonis blue Butterfly Bush)
Lilium ‘Black Out’ (Asiatic lily)
Lilium ‘Black Out’ (Asiatic lily)
Lilium ‘Black Out’ (Asiatic lily)
Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ (Black-eyed Susan)
Started seeing a few more butterflies this week. This butterfly was huge. It didn’t stick around long after I began pointing my camera. By 4:20 pm when I noticed it, the asclepias was greatly wilted from the heat. This seems to be a new early sighting county record (by one day).
Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)
Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)
Strange new moth sighting–this flies in daytime.
Yellow-collared Scape Moth (Cisseps fulvicollis)
Are these lily beetle eggs? Anna of Green Tapestry just Monday asked if they were a problem here, but I’ve never known them. iNaturalist suggested the lily beetle ID.
Lilioceris lilii (ily leaf beetle)
Happy gardening this weekend.
pbmGarden 
It’s definitely colorful and hot in your area. Beautiful blooms, and I bet that AC got replaced. We’ve had rain almost every day this week. I can only imagine how many weeds I’ll have when I go out.
If only we could schedule our rain, Judy (or would that be too much responsibility?) Much cooler indoors this afternoon–AC repaired, but we will move forward on replacing the old system.
Heat, rabbits and lily beetles – yikes! I’m sorry you’re facing down a troublesome aster too – I’ve noticed that mine is attempting a comeback as well. Still, you have some stunning flowers and the butterfly and moth sightings are evidence that summer offers some blessings.
I love summer and yes, many blessings to be found. I don’t know how you stay on top of your large garden and water and keep everything looking so nice. It was all I could manage to water most days this week–was very rewarding though being outside checking on everything.
Lovely flowers and visitors! You are running about a month ahead of us. Those are July bloomers here.
Yeah, those lily beetles made me give up growing lilies. Their larva cover themselves with excrement which makes dealing with them by hand rather disgusting! But I grab the red adults by hand before they drop to the ground to evade capture. Diligence pays off.
Hope you can replace your AC… summers even here are getting hotter earlier. We never needed AC in the 90s, and 00s, only fans on a few hot days. We had to get one ten years ago and the days it is on have increased with each passing year. We’re now pricing a whole house system. The times they are a-changing.
Hmm, I’m disappointed about the lily beetles Eliza but thanks for the confirmation. I’ll try to outwit them! Ha! Didn’t realize flowers here would be a whole month ahead of you. July is tough here–everything wants to just turn brown. Good luck with pricing the AC. I haven’t gotten to that part yet but I know it will be shocking.
Thanks, the mortgage gets paid off and then you start replacing everything from furnaces to roof, the kitchen is in desperate need of a remodel, but is not high enough on the list. “It’s always something!” 😉
Your lily is gorgeous. I hope you do not get lily beetles as they are really horrible and strip your plants within hours. They seem to appear from nowhere too. I have given up with lilies for that very reason! Hope the heat subsides Susie. We don’t have air-conditioning here, but our house is very well-insulated and stays fairly cool until August.
It’s a shame you aren’t able to grow lilies. I hope never to see those bugs again but perhaps wishful thinking. AC is fixed for now! It’s nice that you don’t need air-conditioning where you live.
We’re also way behind you, of course, although my early Echinacea is starting to bloom. No lily beetle sightings (yet) thank goodness, although I had them in my Toronto garden, years ago. Nasty things…. I love the moth on the verbena! And the Crinum!
Thanks Chris. This one is my first Echinacea but they do seem nearly ready to explode. Hope there are no lily beetles for you this year.
Is that Crinum X powellii considered to be a ‘common’ sort, and does it generate viable seed as if it were a straight species? If so, are the seed true to type? It look just like the Crinum that has self sown at work. Although not invasive, several have appeared within a confined area, which merges into one of our landscapes. I am impressed by its resiliency.
I’m not sure about the crinum. Here’s a link to the source: https://www.longfield-gardens.com/plantname/Crinum-Powellii — I planted it in 2019. The plant is huge and I am not really taken with it. Just as it starts to flower it gets hot and the flowers just wilt. More open but never enough at a time to be attractive. It seems to be making pups and could use dividing, or I might just dig it out and use the space for something else.
I have not seen that many individual flowers at the same time. Otherwise, it looks very similar. I suppose that the identity is unimportant. I will grow it anyway, just because of where it came from.
Lovely lilies! I too have given up growing them to avoid having to deal with lily beetle 😦 . Yes, you look way ahead in terms of summer compared to here. Hope you get your AC sorted quickly!
Sorry to learn about lily beetles bothering your lilies. I would really miss them if the beetles become a problem. Interesting our flowers here are so far ahead of you and many others. They are racing ahead of the heat I guess. We have AC working again thank goodness.