Tag archive: daylilies

lily bqt3b

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Garden Glimpses: Joyous Julily!

Here at the old homestead, we’ve officially rechristened July as “Julily,” in honor of those fabulous daylilies that dominate the month.  In tones both hot and cool, daylilies explode with color all month long, fleeting markers of a fleeting season of bounty and fruitfulness.  Every day the pattern changes, highlighting now this variety, now that, as early, mid- and late-season bloomers come into flower, reach peak and fade away.  This fecundity is staggering, but it’s everywhere at this time of year.  Tomatoes, corn on the cob, green and yellow squashes, string and wax beans, all cram the local farmers’ markets, and in the garden the profusion is just as lush.

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late litha9

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Garden Glimpses: July Jewels

The daylily garden is really beginning to take off.  Some of the plantings are now in their third year on the property, and it shows.  I have one stubborn year two variety that just won’t bloom – Exotic Love.  Rather fitting, don’t you think, as elusive as love can be?  But all seven of the new first-years gave me something, which is unusual.  Small and sparsely budded, they bloomed out early, but as a group they have done better in their first season (by percentage) than the prior plantings.  They are in a prime location, ringing the seating area atop the sandmound, in full sun, so I’m sure within a couple more years they’ll be as voluminous as the rest.

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lammas corn wheel

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House Diary: Lammas

[Cover image:  The Corn Wheel I made in the early 1990s is still serviceable as the center attraction for the Lammas season, evoking corn, one of the glories of August, as well as anticipating autumn, with its use of Indian corn for the spokes representing the eightfold year.]

 

Lammas, August 1st, is the celebration of the First Harvest, that of grains.  It takes its name from an Anglo-Saxon term meaning “loaf-mass”, a day when early Christians brought their milled grain and fresh-baked breads to be blessed by the Church.  As with so much of Christian lore, the tradition has its roots in prior pagan practice, and Lammas has been honored by nature religions for the first fruits of the earth time out of mind.  The earlier pagan term is Lughnasadh (pronounced “loo-nah’-sah”), named for the annual games held in honor of the Celtic deity Lugh (“Loo”), god of light.  It was a day for gathering the clans, feasting on the abundant produce, friendly competition, horse trading and “handfasting”, a remarkably sensible mating ritual whereby a couple agrees to cohabit for a year before final vows are exchanged, just to be certain they’re compatible.

 

Here in the garden it’s been a blisteringly hot and dry summer, which spells trouble for yours truly and the errant well.  So far, adhering to a carefully spaced watering schedule utilizing zones, I have averted a second incident of the well running dry, and a few drenching summer thunderstorms have helped.  We’re having one of those days as I write, on Lammas Eve, so I’m taking advantage of my break in water drills to start composing this entry.

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