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| Yucca 'Color Guard' in flower. |
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After several years of not flowering, this spring my "Color Guard' Yucca finally put out two flowering spikes. My plant seemed to be reverting to the original blue-green foliage of the ordinary Yucca filamentosa, so I cut back those shoots for several years, but of course since it's the new side shoots that produce the blossoms, I pruned away any chance of flowers.
Last fall I decided I'd rather have the flowers than the pretty foliage, and let the side shoots grow out. Is it just my impression that these flowers droop a bit more than those of the ordinary Yucca filamentosa?
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Yucca with red-hot pokers and lavender.
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This part of the long island bed is very colorful at the moment. with red-hot pokers and a pink, or is it white lavender? I've forgotten. I have another red-hot poker variety with all-orange flowers on the west side of the house, but I think this one is prettier.
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Red-hot pokers (Knifophia uvaria)
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Red-hot pokers on the west side of the house.
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The butterfly weed is is full bloom at the moment--the 'Hello Yellow' variety is finally offering some blooms but doesn't seem to be as floriferous as the ordinary wild species. The deer keep eating the yellow flowers back, so perhaps it's not the plant's fault. Why one color would be preferred to the other in taste is a mystery to me.
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Herb's bed with lavender and butterfly weed beyond.
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| Herb's bed with lavender, grasses and Hesperaloe flowers at rear. |
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Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
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| Butterfly weed and lavender in Little Indians bed. |
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The deer ate most of my Asian lilies despite my efforts to keep them sprayed with repellent, but I did manage to save these few to enjoy briefly. The beasts came by and ate them last night; glad I took the photos just before.
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Pink and orange Asian lilies.
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Asian lilies
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My hydrangea 'Incrediball' is lovely right now, but I don't know if my other two hydrangeas (H. arborecens and H. paniculata) will bloom this year--I don't see any buds thus far. The oak-leaf hydrangea is making progress, let's hope the deer don't eat it back this year. The Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) also gets eaten back, but not as badly.
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Hydrangea 'Incrediball'
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Oak-leaf hydrangea 'Ruby Slippers' and Spiderwort
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Peeking through 'Incrediball' to the back yard.
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Lavender in the front garden
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With so many photos of flowers today, I wonder what, if anything new, I'll have to show for June's Bloom Day on the 15th?
