Here's our Philadelphus, or mock orange, which is flush with blossoms at the moment. We had it trimmed when the tree guys were here in February, but you'd never know it. It's gigantic and it has basically consumed the hideous camellia. Which is fine with me.
I'm glad you all liked yesterday's mystery photos. If you'd like to see the full assortment of images I bought on Saturday, they're here, in an album on Flickr. You'll see I have a weakness for almost any photo featuring a dog!
I made fun of that woman yesterday for being proud of her dead sunflower -- and yes, I realize she was actually showing off the enormous seed head. (I still think they should have taken the picture when it had petals, but whatever.) I'm just as bad, being proud of my teasels -- which would probably continue to grow even if I tried to kill them. I'm just fascinated by these plants. They're almost five feet tall now, and the cups formed by their leaves hold a surprising amount of water -- a whole little ecosystem, as you can see.
The "flesh rose," at the side of the garden, gave us a flower this year! It's not a very healthy rose bush -- in fact at the moment I think it has three leaves -- but it did manage to squeak out a flesh-colored blossom. (And yes, I realize there are many shades of flesh, but that's still the best description I have for that color.) I cut it off so the poor plant can focus on keeping itself alive. We really should have pruned those roses to reinvigorate them.
Finally, we had a rather dramatic hail storm on Monday afternoon -- dramatic by our standards, anyway. I looked out in the garden just in time to see old, loose roses exploding from the force of the falling ice. Some of the other flowers got a bit beaten down but everything has more or less survived, from what I can tell.
I'm still working on getting back overdue stuff. I'm down to nine pages, including teachers, which is a pretty drastic reduction from last week but still far too many for the last day of school. (Yes, students are done today! Teachers and staff have two more days, though I'm out tomorrow for medical reasons.) Hopefully even more of it will be back today.
I saw all the pictures, I wonder what story they tell. A dog loving family for sure, but there is so much more.
ReplyDeleteGoodness that was quite a storm.
ReplyDeleteThose photos all ask questions, I think I would get frustrated not knowing the answers
I can’t remember the last time I witnessed a hail storm. They can hurt! We had mock oranges that thrived in front of our house in San Francisco. Nice memory. Maybe you should describe the rose color as “Steve’s flesh.”
ReplyDeleteI would say that the rose's colour is warm ivory - not flesh-coloured. After all there are many different flesh colours and it seems unintentionally imperialistic to make that comparison. (Written with tongue thrust firmly into cheek!)
ReplyDeleteI think the best picture (in my eyes) was in your flicker album. I really love that construction one!
ReplyDeleteI get uneasy whenever it hails. Here, it goes from small marble size like what you have to baseball size or even larger in an instant and can do so much destruction. About seven years ago, we were driving and got into one such storm and it totaled our car in about 30 seconds. Somehow, the windows never broke so at least the car sheltered us from the worst by sacrificing itself.
I think we had a mock orange in a pot. It was a pretty plant.
ReplyDeleteI can see why it is called a flesh rose, but I am not keen on nature looking like flesh.
It a nice clip of your balmy summer weather. Let me guess, cold, hail, rain fronts and brief sunny periods.
I love a good hailstorm but we haven't had one here in ages!
ReplyDeleteNow, by hailstorm, I don't mean those golf-ball sized bits if ice.
Ecru. You could call that rose ecru.
ReplyDeleteSuch interesting pictures you saved. That sassy woman on the beach is cracking me up.
Hail makes such a distinctive sound, doesn't it?
Good luck tomorrow.
I wonder if years from now a blogger will be sharing your photos with his readers trying to guess what was going on in your life. I guess they will know you love dogs and your garden! ;)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your medical appointment.
Lovely mock orange, does it have a scent? The rose color for me is light peach. Your large leaves with a water vessel are amazing. I collect large leaf plants and mine include: Elephant Ears, Montana Hosta and Rogersia. Each grows and spreads freely. I offer full plants to anyone wanting one just to keep the size of the beds manageable. Good luck tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThat rose has a yellowish cast...it would make me think of jaundiced flesh. I studied it awhile and came u with 'parchment'.
ReplyDeleteHail is always so unpredictable sizewise, but we got so many hailstorms last year that local garages began to post that they could process insurance claims and repair hail damage.
We got a hail storm on Monday, too! Mid-afternoon, along with a wonderful downpour of rain!
ReplyDeleteToday: sunny 🌞😎 and 95°! 🥵
Pretty rose! Thanks for the video. It's hanging around 111-112 here so that falling ice looked good to me.
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky with the hail. It looks like only pea sized so little damage.
ReplyDeleteit's not really flesh. it's peach with brown tones. I tried to google the name for that color with little success. a pale coral is the closest I think but your flower looks a little browner in the picture.
ReplyDeleteI love my mock orange/mock dogwood. I had it described as both.
So glad it's the last day of school. I hope you get an influx of books today but I wouldn't hold my breath! the mock orange is beautiful. And glad the hail wasn't bigger!
ReplyDeleteHail can do SO much damage, so I never like hearing it. Even pea or marble size can hurt a roof. One of my kids had baseball sized hail last fall that did a number on their vehicles!
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed when you show photos or videos of your garden (jungle!). So amazing to see that in the back of a flat in the heart of a major city.
ReplyDeleteThat rose is the exact color of my skin, so I guess that's as good a description as any. Or you could call it the white lady colored rose. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI love watching hail falling. As long as I am inside!
ReplyDeleteProgress on the overdues! I'm proud of my plants too although I have little to do with their success (or failure) besides watering them. Hail! We might get some this weekend. It's usually when I'm out for a walk :(
ReplyDeleteYael: Well, I chose the dog pictures specifically. Who knows if it's really all one family!
ReplyDeleteSue: There's beauty in not knowing! Openness!
Mitchell: Ha! No one would buy that rose.
YP: Some people would say that!
Ed: I remember you saying you get crazy hail there. I knew you'd like that construction shot! Any theories about what they're building?
Andrew: It's not REALLY called a flesh rose. That's just my name for it. :)
Bob: In Florida we used to get hail the size of mothballs, but that's about as big as I've ever seen.
Ms Moon: It IS rather ecru! I liked the beach woman's bathing suit.
Ellen D: Ha! I imagine my photos are being passed around the Internet even now. I intentionally don't look for them. (Or maybe I'm flattering myself.)
Susan: You should try teasels! But be aware they DO re-seed like crazy. Yes, the mock orange has a wonderful scent.
Debby: "Parchment" is a good name for that color! I wonder if hailstorms are increasing in frequency because of climate change?
Marcia: I always worry about my plants in hailstorms, but I guess they're equipped to survive that as long as it's not too severe.
Sharon: I can't even imagine!
Red: Yeah, pea-sized is about right. I didn't see any damage except to some of the rose blossoms.
Ellen: I think "mock orange" may apply to a variety of plants. Is yours a Philadelphus? I think of coral as a more orangey/pink color than that rose.
Jeanie: We did get quite a few, and fortunately all of them from students I was concerned about.
Kelly: I cannot even imagine baseball-sized hail. That would be terrifying.
Catalyst: It IS a jungle! A little bit TOO jungly, to be honest.
Bug: Ha! Or white guy!
River: Yeah, being inside is key!
Margaret: That's pretty much all we do as well. People say we're such great gardeners but the plants do most of the work!