Daylilies reign supreme in the garden during the sultry months of July and August. On this last day of August, the flowers of my summer garden are putting on their final show. Daylilies have moved out of the spotlight giving the hydrangeas and zinnias their chance to shine, but here’s a little sampling of their beautiful performance.
Somewhere in Fitchburg Wisconsin there is a barefoot gardener standing in her flowerbeds giving the 2025 daylily performance a standing ovation.
“Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” ~ Luke 12:27 (ESV)
Flowers blooming in our garden are one of my favorite things to photograph. To my eye, even the buds just waiting to open hold a special kind of beauty. The too numerous to count buds intrigue me with the anticipation of the beauty yet to come as they await their unfurling. If the buds whisper His name, the glorious unfurling of the blooms shouts and cries out, “See! See my design? Take a look at the intricacy of my petals! Take a deep breath and bask in my aroma! Praise be to God, the Master Designer and Creator!”
Throughout the summer I have been spending snippets of time reading a beautifully written devotional, The Well-Watered Woman–Rooted in Truth, Growing in Grace, Flourishing in Faith, by Gretchen Saffles. The pictures she paints with her words make me feel like Gretchen is walking me through a garden and pointing out spiritual truths to be gleaned, much as Jesus did as He walked with his disciples.
“Waiting for flowers to bloom brought anticipation to my heart after a season of loss. Each day I looked forward to checking for signs of change. Through that process of slow growth, God showed me that sorrow and darkness don’t last forever. Even in death, God can bring about life.”
Gretchen Saffles, The Well-Watered Woman
“The well-watered woman doesn’t put off living as she waits for “someday,” she knows her mission is now and she lives with Gospel purpose guiding her every step.”
~ Gretchen Saffles, The Well-Watered Woman
“As we behold the beauty of God in Scripture and in creation, our hearts are sparked to praise his name, both now and forever. Every sunrise, every sunset beckons us to set aside distractions to enjoy the best part—praising our faithful, righteous, steadfast, glorious God.”
“In our quest for a fruitful life, it’s important to remember that blooms aren’t continuous. They come and go, but that doesn’t mean the moments in between are unnecessary or less important. Blooms result from the faithful labor done in the planting, the rooting, the growing, and the waiting. You can’t enjoy a flower without the long process that brought it to that point.”
My yard is less than a half acre, but heavily planted with flowerbeds. It keeps me busy in July with digging, dead heading, and dividing. The time has come in my life as a gardener where I have to admit that I need help with the gardening tasks.
Thankfully, Henry (grandson #2), loves his grandma and enjoys helping me in my garden. He also enjoys earning a little pocket money.
Today’s task was digging out the orange ditch lilies which are usurping more than their fair share of flowerbed real estate. I really appreciate his joyful help.
Henry is the world’s best at carefully deadheading spent daylily blossoms.
He also had a little fun with soapsud mustaches as he washed my car.
It sure seems that the seasons fly by a little faster when the number of decades of your remaining lifespan can be counted on the fingers of one hand (with a spare finger or two). Honestly, it seems I was just enjoying the colorful daylilies in my garden and here we are again in the season of falling leaves, snow flurries, and all things pumpkin-spiced.
Almost time for pumpkin pie again!
With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, I’m mulling over this year’s menu and wondering when we can squeeze in a rare family photo. In my mind’s eye, there will be tasty food, a fire in the fireplace, fun games, and the snapping of a family photo.
My greatest anticipation and the thing I especially enjoy about Thanksgiving is the “gather” part.
Here’s a little nostalgic reminisce from a Thanksgiving page of my life. May your gathering – big or small – be blessed and sweet.
One hidden blessing of the never-ending task of pulling weeds is the beauty you see more clearly when you’re on your knees. The beauty of this daylily is just one of many colorful examples in my garden today.
I’m especially thankful this week for the beauty of my garden, bountifully brimming with daylilies. The riot of color brings my husband Wayne and I joy as we sit on our deck recovering from the Covid that finally caught up with us. I find that if I stay on the deck and squint a little, I don’t notice the weeds so much. Last night I ventured into one flowerbed armed with an empty 5-gallon bucket, emerging only minutes later when my bucket was full of weeds and my body said “enough!”
I have often been asked what colors I enjoy in my garden. Honestly, I would have to say ALL of them, but will admit that I seem to gravitate toward a lot of pink, purple and yellow. Over the past few years I have added lots of orange (or shades thereof) and splashes of vibrant red. Much of it is in garden splendor right now, so I thought I’d dedicate this post to photos of the sunny oranges in my end-of-July garden.
Well, friendly readers, that’s all for now. Thanks for joining me in admiring the color orange in its many luscious and sunshine-filled shades. I hope it brought a sunny smile to your face too. I tried, but just couldn’t whittle the orange-y beauty down to only six photos for Six on Saturday, the all things gardening meme hosted by The Propagator.
One walk past my yard this time of year and you would definitely know that
I love daylilies!
To this gardener, a daylily just says “summer is here!”
When the heat of August arrives and most daylilies have finished strutting their summer beauty in Midwest gardens, another flower is poised to shout the news heralding “Summer’s not over just yet!”
The sunflower!
Sunflowers are charming – they make me smile. So, why do I rarely plant them in my gardens? Squirrels will occasionally steal some seed absconded from the birdfeeders and bury them willy-nilly in the yard, so I do get the occasional volunteer.
A squirrel-planted sunflower by my front porch
I am thankful my hubby surprised me earlier this summer with several packages of sunflower seeds, paving the way for 2021 to be the Year of the Sunflower at my house. At the end of that post I wrote:
We have a HUGE bunny population this year, so I won’t be surprised if my smattering of sunflower seedlings become their next snack. However, I hope they will save me at least a few to provide late summer splendor and autumnal color. I’ll keep you posted.
Cindie Winquist, in the “Year of the Sunflower”
So, here I am again, keeping you posted.
I planted those gifted seeds a little later than I should have, but faithfully watered. Heavy spring rains threatened to drown them, and the heat and drought conditions that followed seemed to bring them to their demise. After nearly three weeks, they finally poked their little green heads above the earth! Then, seemingly overnight, those little seedlings made their way skyward. Even the forgetful gardener’s failure to keep them consistently watered didn’t seem to deter their growth.
One fateful night last week, as predicted, the resident bunnies decided they would make a smorgasbord out of the young sunflowers. Even though we had surrounded the raised beds with a plastic grid of garden fencing, they managed to find their way into the midnight buffet line in one of two raised beds of sunflowers.
They filled their bunny bellies and left one solitary sunflower and a few stalks standing.
The garden crashers came back the following night and polished off the remaining bits for dessert. You might notice in the photo below how the bunny leaned in on the fencing to finish it off.
They came back for dessert the next night
Thankfully, you can also see in the background of the photo above one raised bed of sunflowers they have not yet marauded.
Barefoot Lily Lady 