Yesterday was the first official day of summer on the calendar. That means our long awaited lilies are blooming, and they certainly are! We have several varieties. We’ve had a tougher time with them this year due to the rabbits. They ate a majority of the Asiatic lilies that were planted in the ground. I transplanted some of the stalks into a barrel up off the ground so that this won’t happen again next year, but it was too late for them this season. Thankfully, they did not eat all of them and we already have a whiskey keg full of lilies that they can’t get to. Here are all of the Asiatics:

Rabbits don’t like tiger lilies and day lilies though so we have lots of those. I bought a few new varieties in 2011, like the cream colored one and the cream and burgundy one pictured, but the traditional orange and deep red ones were a house warming gift from a gardener friend back in 2007 right after we bought the house. She gave us a big clump of each and we’ve divided and transplanted them year after year.

The roses are also blooming now. We have seven rose bushes, three of which were just planted this year including the beautiful orange one you see here.

Our neighbors gave us a pot of sunflowers back in May.  The squirrels beheaded a few of them right away, but about three have managed to grow. One of them finally bloomed this week. We’ve tried several years in the past to grow these to no avail. Our neighbor starts them in late winter in pots in the house and now has quite a nice small crop growing tall in large pots. I may try that next year. Sure does make a pretty picture…

 

And last but not least, we can’t forget about the birds. I told you in an earlier post about the new front yard feeder we put in during our vacation. It doesn’t see a lot of activity. I think that’s because it’s so close to the house, literally a foot or so from our front window. Other than a few cardinals, that’s all we’ve seen until this week. A male house finch has visited it every day for the past few days or so. It must be the best kept secret in town when it comes to birdseed because he hangs out there quite a bit, even long enough for me to snap a few great photos of him.