Tiny Lily Update, Can You Tell Them Apart Without the Flowers?

I'm finally learning the difference between the different lily types in Chris' collection. They all sound similar so luckily I made a map a while ago that shows me what is where. Here is a status report on the emerging lilies:

Lily 'Tiny Invader'

Lily 'Tiny Pearl'

Lily 'After Eight'

Lily 'Tiny Shadow'

What's Growing Under My Lilium 'After Eight'?

What's with this weird growth under my Lilium 'After Eight'? Is it a new baby? Is it a mutant leaf? It doesn't seem to be getting any bigger it's just sort of sitting there. Is it my Red Luna hibiscus back from the dead (planted in the same spot)?

Lilium 'After Eight'

New Growth on 'After Eight' and 'Darkest of All'

My Lilium 'After Eight' has been blooming like crazy, but today I noticed something small at the base of one of the stalks. A weed perhaps? Perhaps. Or perhaps the growth of an entirely new stalk?

Lilium 'After Eight'

I noticed something similar on my Erigeron speciosus 'Darkest of All' - aside from the beautiful blooms on one sidewinder stem - something new at the base...

Erigeron speciosus 'Darkest of All' new growth at the base

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2015

Happy 15th of the month and Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day! It's so nice to have a monthly check-in that I've created a Bloom Day tab in the navigation bar. I don't plan to use this day each month as an inventory of every single plant in my yard, but I would like to highlight the ones that have got my attention.

This Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is also extra special because I have a Ruby Falls weeping redbud arriving by UPS this afternoon! I've had my eye on this tree for a long time and I can't wait to give it a home (and hopefully it likes clay soil more than my poor Japanese maple).

Lavandula angustifolia 'Wee One'

My dwarf lavender "Wee One" is blooming. I have two of them, both ordered from High Country Gardens. One is doing great and the other is just okay - it's still alive and putting up new shoots but had about half the stems die back. It'll be fine!

Next up, my Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' is doing amazing! I've been dead-heading the old flowers and it's putting up so many more! They just keep coming! It's amazing especially because they come out of this little lump of what looks like grass, it's like magic - how many blooms are hiding in there?

Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

Salvia sylvestris 'Little Night'

Itea virginica 'Sprich' Little Henry

Lilium 'After Eight'

Ok, so I like to note that all of the things I have in bloom above were bought and planted this Spring, so they are not growing from the ground up. Everything below, however, was planted last year and has grown from the ground - which gives a much better indicator of true bloom time here in Indiana.

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' - plants are now above the knee and have buds forming!

Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’

New Additions: After Eight Oriental Lily and Japanese Painted Fern

This happens all the time, I went out to get something very specific (bluegrass seed to re-seed over what my dad thinks is just the annual rye from a mixed bag) and I came home with 2 new plants: a Japanese Painted Fern [Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum'] for the OTHER shade garden (the bamboo side), and an oriental lily called After Eight [Lilium 'After Eight'] that I thought Chris would like since he loves his Lilium 'Tiny Pearl' that he picked out.

Lilium 'After Eight'

'After Eight' on the left and 'Tiny Pearl' on the right

Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum'

Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum' - young and not very 'painted' just yet

I saw a Japanese Painted Fern at work in the full shade bed behind a residence hall, and I've been eyeing it online for a while. It's actually on my wish list and now I get to cross it off.

I got the Lilium 'After Eight' because it's full height should be a little taller than Tiny Pearl, and it should fit into the area by the downspout where the hibiscus used to be. When I tore out the hibiscus I found it was chalk white all the way down to the root, dry and brittle, and sitting in a puddle of water - I had dug a hole in the clay and filled it with the hibiscus' very fluffy potting mix, so it had been filling up like a bucket. Before planting the lily I filled it with top soil and tried to raise the lily up a bit.