Katydid nymphs in a daylily bloom.
The perfect antidote for dealing with mean-spirited and illogical people is a dose of daylilies. Mine are beginning to bloom. True to form, First Knight was the first to bloom, followed soon after by Sea Urchin. Prairie Blue Eyes is now flowering, and so is Barbara Mitchell and Lavender Stardust.
I found a few visitors in the daylily bed last night and had to quickly look them up to see if they were going to cause any problems. They appeared to be green grasshopper-ish things with a plaid stripe down their backs. It turns out they are Katydid nymphs and they do not eat much. So, I’m going to let them do what ever it is they came here to do, undisturbed.
See the “plaid” stripe down its back?
July is the month when I have to be particularly vigilant for dutchman’s pipe runners. It seems that every time my back is turned another runner, um, runs and pops up in the middle of an echinacea or the day lilies or the lavender. The runners even travel under the brick pathways and pop up 20 feet from the parent plants. After being in the gardens for seven years, the parents are great grand parents. Sometimes I regret the decision to put pipevine in the Secret Garden, but I cannot deny that they have formed the green walls that I wanted.
The deep corregated leaves of Deep Blue Sea
The hostas, too, are beginning to bloom. I don’t usually get excited about hosta flowers. They look messy and I find myself more often than not loping the flowers off and enjoying the lovely foliage. But this year I might play a bit with cross breeding two varieties. Though, in order to do that in a systematic way, I’m probably going to have to be way more scientific than my nature allows. We’ll see.
Stitch in Time
But working in the garden is therapeutic. After a week with dealing with two of the most unpleasant people I’ve encountered in a very long time, I can soothe my discouragement by pulling up pipevine runners, cutting back the cranesbill geranium that has become overly rambunctious, and pulling weeds.
Sea Urchin
Making the garden tidy helps me restore order to my little universe, at least. Of course, I could achieve a similar sense of order if I cleaned my closet, but, really, that seems a bit extreme
Crystal Pinot
Sea Urchin
Barbara Mitchell
First Knight
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Garden337 
Beautiful daylilies! I have the garden variety orange daylilies that grow like wildflowers. (I am a terrible gardener, and I love these daylilies.)
Olivia, I don’t think of myself as a good gardener. I just like gardens, and so I spend a little bit of time every day or so tending things. Sometimes I get caught up in the moment and just keep puttering away. I did that today when I decide to cut some things back so that they would get their second wind and give out more flowers. But, really, the rule is to put tall things in the back and short things in the front, and to pull anything out that isn’t doing well or doesn’t belong. And the day lilies just sort of take care of themselves. They aren’t fussy. There’s no magic to gardening. Honest!!!!