DAY LILIES. 2022 #1

This year as in years past, the daylilies at the Gardens at Waters East are blooming like crazy!  Over the years I have hybridized so many, now have more than 550 plus different daylilies.  I keep promising myself to stop this obsession but to no avail!. When they are in full bloom as they are in July and August, I see possibilities to create a new plant with a different bloom, so I hybridize even more. I am thankful that some of my friends have taken many back to their own homes.  The problem is – that gives me more open soil space to hybridize and plant even more new creations! 

 

Enjoy this blog posting of some of this year’s blooms.  I will do a second and a third posting since I have more than enough to do many posting of these “babies” of mine.

 

ENJOY

 

  

6 Pack - Party on the Beach -- erosion

 6 PACK – Party on the Beach

 

A rather large and extensive collection of photos has been taken on StoneWater Beach which is the private beach on Lake Michigan along the shore of this area known as Gardens at Waters East.  Over the last years, many wonderful scenes of the waters, clouds, sun, plants, and stones have been captured.  In the past when similar photos were posted on the Blog many people commented about the lake and how it adds to the beauty and experience here at the Gardens at Waters East. 

 

Instead of just filing all the unused photos away, this series will post six of them (thus a - - 6 Pack) (today we added a seventh) as a set in an ongoing series.  None of these pictures have ever been posted before today.  Even if you never walk the paths here or wander down to the lake shore, you are invited to experience and enjoy the beauty of Lake Michigan as do all those who have come here to the gardens for a visit. 

The series posted today is focusing on the recent erosion happening here at the lake.  Much of the land has fallen into Lake Michigan as you will see. The lake, the sky and the clouds are still beautiful, just a little less land is now the issue!

 

In more ways than one, it is - - - “cooler by the lake”.

 

When I walk the beach at the Gardens at Waters East,

I like to wear my favorite T-shirt.

Great time to gather driftwood.

Here you can see a person walking on the beach.

Gives you an idea of just how steep the bluff is now

after all the erosion into the lake. (50 - 70 foot cliff)

The bluff being eaten away by the water.

Roots of trees about to fall.

 

Want a "Quickie" ? Today

 Want a “Quickie” Today ?

 

Postings with this name are photos taken in the gardens the same day that they are posted.  These photos were taken just this afternoon at the Gardens at Waters East.  So many blooms today!

One of the day lilies I hybridized #8

Just posting a few for now.

 

 

Enjoy a “Quickie” today!

 

 

Trumpet vine this afternoon.

Potentilla bush

"olive" jar on the Middle Path

one of many paths in the gardens

Another daylily I hybridized special Letter.

a daylily I hybridized 

Monad - pink

Joe Pye with view of lake in the background.

BLOG SHOTS. #150

Each month Gardens at Waters East (GAWE) will post a few never before seen photos of “garden life” called - - BLOG SHOTS.  Here are the photos for this posting.

 

moments in the garden - - enjoy

Sunrise at the Gardens at Waters East.

and now

some of the plants and flowers in the gardens.

Daylily X9 - hybridized here at the gardens.

One of my pride and joy projects.

It maybe summer, but winter also has beauty.

Good to remember.

Native Anemone

Aster - in August

Bee on native Cup Plant

Daylily #8

hybridized here in the gardens.

Monarch Butterflies in August enjoy the Purple Coneflowers.

Notice the wings of the Bumble Bee.

 

 

 

 

 

Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Design plus the special “Golden Principle of Design” used throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010 and May 2, 2011.

 

 

NOTE:   All photos use in this posting were taken on the property of Gardens at Waters East.

NOTE:   Since this Blog is meant to be an accurate journal of the gardens;

no photos are “staged”, “arranged”, or ”photo-shopped” in anyway.

What is posted – is what it here.  It is what it is.

  

One Singular Sensation

Today the focus will be on just one of the many plants growing in the Gardens at Waters East – Flemish Poppy.  Every year this flower reseeds itself and every year it appears here and there.  Love the spontaneity of where the plants show up each Spring and love even more the pale purple and delicate petals that move with the gentlest of breezes. 

 

Enjoy this Summer Beauty

 

Large groups sprout up here and there.

Poppy and Friends!

As I said above, they show up everywhere

even at he front door steps.

WATERSHED # 33 - - Ice Age Trail

It is a great time of year to get outdoors and hike whenever and wherever one can.  Here are some photos of the plants found while hiking the Ice Age Trail near to The Gardens at Waters East, a special place in this Watershed. The trail roughly follows the location of the terminal moraine from the last Ice Age of 11,000 years ago. It travels for 1200 miles across the state of   Wisconsin.

Let us begin our hike.

 

Enjoy the hike!

 

Gentian

Jack in the Pulpit

Buttercup

Trillium

Ahnapee River

Lake Iris

Indian Paintbrush

Lady's Slipper

Lady's Slipper

Many plants along the trail.

Since the trail follows an old railroad,

one finds apple trees

where passengers tossed out their apple cores

after eating the apples.

continuing along the trail

Wild Ginger

Highbush Cranberry

One of many fern species along the trail.

So many more different plants - maybe another posting another time.

More on the meaning of Watershed.

The easy definition of a watershed is:  the area of land where all the water that is under it or drains off of it goes to a shared destination.  In the case of Gardens at Waters East, Lake Michigan is that destination.

 

All gardens exist within a watershed.  And, all gardeners know the vital importance of watershed areas.  If the watershed is healthy, all life there stays a little healthier.  What is done on the surface in our gardens and surrounding areas can impact what ends up being in that final watershed destination.  Gardeners know the importance of good stewardship for the patch of land where they live.  They know too that what they do on their land will affect the health and wellbeing of all who depend on the quality of the area’s watershed.

 

Gardens at Waters East is located in the state of Wisconsin where there exist more than 12,600 rivers and streams that travel a total of 44,000 miles.  More than 32,000 of those miles are perennial streams.  There are 2,700 trout streams covering 10,370 miles.  There are more than 15,000 lakes, 5.3 million acres of wetlands, 1.2 guadrillion gallons of groundwater.  All this forms two different watersheds which drain either into the Great Lakes (and for Gardens at Waters East specifically Lake Michigan), or the Mississippi River which itself eventually drains into the Gulf of Mexico.  Wisconsin is blessed with such an abundance of water as a natural resource.  The best of gardeners realize the responsibilities they have to care for the health and wellbeing of the watershed where they live.

 

These all flow directly into Lake Michigan which itself is one of the five Great Lakes which together contained 20% of all the fresh water on Earth.  Many past and future postings often showed and will continue to show Lake Michigan as a “backdrop” to garden pictures.  This is done to remind all visitors to the gardens not only of the beauty here, but also of the importance that Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes have for all life in this area.

 

The photos in this posting are of the national Ice Age Trail, a section of which is only ten miles from the gardens.  It runs through the watershed of the Gardens at Waters East.