One of the things I have been very excited about upon returning to Baltimore is seeing how my garden is doing. A lot can change in a month, and boy howdy it did! The mulch suppressed most of the weeds, but the regular garden plants have grown by leaps and bounds.
Here are some highlights:
The ‘Sumatra’ lilies are in full bloom. These are supposed to be the darkest oriental lilies on the market. I think the sun is bleaching them out a little though.
My garden looks a little jungle-like because I sometimes focus on the smaller picture more than the larger. I was especially excited to see seedlings from last year’s annuals sprouting along the path. I didn’t even plant these! Isn’t that exciting?!?
The seeds Brent gave me for Christmas two years ago are finally blooming. I still don’t know what this flower is, but isn’t it great? It’s all gaudy and red. 🙂
I’m also very excited about my sunflower patch. These flowers are all planted by birds. They must’ve done it right because some of these are the tallest sunflowers I’ve ever grown. They’re past their prime now, but I’ll let the seed heads mature. The birds will enjoy them.
Is that taller than the corn is now in Nebraska?
Your backyard is starting to remind me of Dr. Gersmehl’s from RF back in the day. He let his return totally to the prairie it would have been had there not been human homes absolutely everywhere. The good news: he never had to mow anything ever! The bad news: it was not nearly so organized as yours, Brad, and sometimes looked like a forest preserve run amuck. Yours is very lovely – congratulations! God did great work while you were away, eh?
I love it. Take a pic from your back porch and post it next to the one you took right before you left when you just mulched.
Then tell your bossy sister to just shut up. 😀
Could the mystery flower be a tuber rose? Mine is very fragrant.
Not a tuber rose. This is a biennial of some sort. The first year, it’s a ground-hugging rosette of needle-like leaves. The second year, a freaky tall stem pops up and is covered with (scentless) red flowers. I think it dies after that. But it re-seeds readily.
My mom liked your garden pictures! She wants to research that plant, too. (She has all kinds of books and also has some pretty interesting plants that you’d like. I took some pictures to send to you. Have you ever seen a lipstick plant? Crazy.)