August 2008
If you look closely at some of the details in this picture you will notice the flower scapes on the Hostas right behind the barrier have been chopped off
at the top to a pretty much uniform height. That would be because one of the resident canines, Neka, is always looking for something green to get her lips on. In the house she's the 'counter-cruiser' in the kitchen and outdoors she'll go to some lengths to get to
what she perceives aas tasty morcels of something green. In this particular raised bed it is not just the Hosta 'Golden Tiara' scapes, but if you look near the top of the picture you can see the devastation she wrought involving a 'Sum and Substance',
there ain't much substance left, plenty of shoots, but the 'darling' chews the leaves within reach -she puts her front paws on the top of the barrier. This area is getting crowded anyway, so it'll be a good opportunity to dig out the S&S, divide it and
have it for next spring's sale.
While the month of August typically holds plenty of scent from flowering Oriental Lilies, I'll start the month off with a picture of a special Hosta flower, in this case a flower on Hosta 'Ray of Hope', a variety I acquired
in a trade last year. The tepals on this flower are rather narrower than the typical flower you see on a Hosta, and is somewhat reminiscent of the narrow tepals you see for example
on the so-called Spider Lily or Nerine. This particular cultivar supposedly
is not fertile, which is rather unfortunate. Having said that, the lack of fertility won't stop us from liking the form of this Hosta, including the flowers.
A said, August is when we see and smell plenty of lilies. These here are Casablanca and........ I must admit that the name of the other one escapes me at the moment.
Another lily making a decent showing for us this year is 'Creation', seen here with some Crocosmia in the background.
August 14th I received a shipment of Hostas in trade from a lady in Brandon, MB. Added to our assortment that day were: 'Paradigm, Patrician, Halcyon, Hope, Emerald Tiara, Hanky Panky and Sitting Pretty.
', which brings the total number of varieties to well over 60...
You may recall a previous mention of how much better we're doing this year with our 'water feature'. The water is much clearer than it was last year, it keeps at a fairly steady pH level just under
7, and the fish we purchased this year are doing great. They have learned when is feeding time and will come to the surface and circle the floating food corral until you toss in a few pellets and then the feeding frenzy starts. They go after the feed with such gusto that the have earned the nickname 'sharks'.
A new. smallish Lily for us this year is this one, it's called ''Salmon Star. Not growing much taller than about 20-24 inches makes them ideal candidates
for use in pot.
