Rain Lily

Not only did last Thursday's thunderstorm provide a much-needed reprieve from our drought; it prompted a first ever bloom: pink rain lily (zephyanthes grandiflora). It's beautiful! It's the only pink in the front yard.


I bought two four-inch pots of these last fall and planted them with the mondo grass since their foliage is almost identical. I wish I could have bought more lilies and then I'd be talking about "waves of rain lilies" like the Lazy Shady Gardener, but instead, I rationed myself to two in hopes that the bulbs would multiply. It looks like the opposite has happened. Oh well. By the time we have our next rain, maybe this one will have created a few offsets and I can talk about my "clump" of rain lilies.

Weekend Happenings

A caller to KTSA's Garden Show was having the same problem with her Giant Liriope that has plagued mine for about six months. One strap at a time, it's turning yellow and the plant is thinning. I am about 10 straps away from losing an entire plant.

Bob says liriope has no diseases or pests, but it can be planted too deeply and mulched too heavily. Armed with this piece of information, I pulled back the mulch and dirt on each plant until I exposed the root flare. Now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I couldn't resist this Plantain Lily that was reduced to only $1 at Lowe's. This spring, I made a shade pot arrangement with Creeping Jenny, ferns and a Plantain Lily. The lily looks ragged under the more intense summer sun so I moved the pot, and I'm hopeful the new addition can withstand the weather.

For the backyard border garden that I'm working on, I needed Moonbeam Coreopsis. From what I've read, Moonbeam is a shorter coreopsis with lighter yellow flowers – perfect. However, none of my local nurseries stocked Moonbeam so I ordered some online and was surprised when they arrived as knots of roots in plastic bags.

I don't usually mark plants with their ID tags, but I was worried that I wouldn't remember where I planted them. Today, I was relieved to see a few shoots poking through the dirt.

 

In the veggie garden, squash vine borers devastated our zucchini and yellow squash. You can see the areas where the larvae burrowed into the stems. There's not much I can do to fight the borers, plus it's the end of the season so pulled up the plants and buried them as deep as I could in a compost salad.

Parting Shot: Travis spotted this tiny praying mantis in our cucumber jungle.